Stress at work: 8 tips for you to learn how to reduce it

Most people, somehow, are familiar with stress in the workplace. According to studies, about 60% of employees in the United States feel stressed at work on three or more working days a week.

In order to help you reduce or even solve this problem, we have brought 8 tips for you to have a better experience within your work environment.

1. The route

The road to work can increase anxiety, cause unhappiness and temporarily increase your blood pressure. Therefore, it is likely that you have not even arrived at work yet and may already be suffering from stress.

Whether due to traffic, undisciplined drivers or accidents on the highway, life in traffic is often not the best place to relax. So always try to pay maximum attention to your movements and the movements of others around you. This will ensure that you are not suddenly surprised and stressed by an incident.

If you are the type of person who can perform two or more functions at the same time, also take the time to listen to a good song, podcast or an audiobook. This will be fun and will bring you lightness until you reach your destination. But remember: constant attention is the main way to prevent unnecessary stress on this route.

2. Create a balanced agenda

Analyze your schedule, responsibilities and daily tasks. Don’t overcommit your schedule. Avoid scheduling too many consecutive tasks or trying to fit too many appointments in the same day.

Always try to find a balance between work, personal life, social activities, activities alone, your daily responsibilities and also your rest time. Set a limit and don’t let your personal life problems get to work. And above all, avoid taking work home – leave your professional problems at the company.

3. Eliminate self-destructive behaviors

We often end up making work stress worse with negative thoughts and behaviors. When we manage to reverse these self-destructive habits, it becomes easier to deal with external stressors.

Understand some behaviors we can have and how to improve them, in order to have a healthier routine.

Negative thinking: Perhaps the most common of all. Try to focus on seeing the positive side of all situations and interactions, always trying to see how it can help you. It is amazing how much the way of seeing the world changes when it comes to recognizing the people and things in your life that you are lucky to have.

Don’t seek to control the uncontrollable: Often things are beyond our control in the workplace – from other people’s behavior to financial crises. However, instead of spending your strength on these issues, focus on the things you can really control – how your effort, how you choose to react to problems and how you treat people.

Resist perfectionism: When you set unrealistic goals for yourself and try to do much more than necessary, you are self-programming for failure. Therefore, commit yourself only to giving your best, without focusing on performing the actions perfectly.

Improve your habits: If you are always late, make an effort to get up early. If your table is always messy, try to organize it more often. Make a list of tasks and cross them out as they are completed. Consequently, you will feel less stressed at work.

4. Stay focused

As we mentioned in the topic about travel, staying focused / attentive to your task is the main way to prevent unnecessary stress. So, if you know what activities you need to complete by the end of the day, stay focused on them.

Often, precisely because of stress, we resort to escaping our obligations to relieve the mind. We do this on autopilot: in a minute we feel tired, and then we magically appear looking for fun videos on Youtube, memes on Facebook or looking at posts on Instagram.

But this automatic behavior through distractions prevents us from being present at the necessary time and from understanding our feelings (as the cause of stress and ways to resolve it). A study at the University of Texas concluded that avoiding emotions, in fact, only makes them stronger.

So, opening Facebook when you feel high levels of stress may seem therapeutic at the moment, but in the long run, you’re just multiplying your stress at work.

To help with distractions, try a Chrome extension called Momentum . This extension turns a new tab into a personal panel to help inspire calm and focus. There’s a new photo and inspirational quote every day. You are also faced with the question “What is your main focus today?”, In order to make you think about your goals every time you open the browser in search of distraction.

ake breaks when necessary

However, even though we know about the importance of staying focused, we are not always able to do this in a healthy way. And it is at these times that taking a few breaks becomes necessary.

The exercise of attention can help you know how to reduce stress at work during the height of the frustrating moment, but the practice should be used to strengthen moments of calm as well. Take, for example, a lunch break every day. This is the perfect opportunity for you to leave your desk, stay in contact with the outdoors and recover your energy. Also allow some time for short breaks throughout the day – even if you spend a few minutes in silence in a more reserved corner.

In times of extreme stress you can also choose to do a breathing exercise, breathing in and out slowly. This improves oxygenation of the brain, providing mental relaxation.

6. Connect with your co-workers

Conducting activities together with coworkers brings pleasant experiences and encourages a healthy relationship between the team. The union of team members also enables an increase in learning, creativity and performance in general.

You can also seek to maintain a friendly relationship outside the workplace. Book group lunches, get together with your colleagues. You will find that this will greatly improve the working environment.

7. Take care of yourself

This is a practice that should always be followed, not only during your business hours. Self-care is extremely important in anyone’s life and directly interferes with their daily performance, including at work.

Here are some points that should be highlighted in order for you to exercise your best potential as an employee.

Get enough sleep

We know that having a daily sleep of 8 hours is not always possible. Our lives are very busy and we often don’t even have all that time available in the day to rest.

However, lack of sleep can leave you vulnerable and even more stressed. When you are rested, it becomes easier to control your creativity, daytime productivity, problem-solving ability and concentration.

Therefore, improve the quality of your sleep by making healthy changes in your routine. Try to go to bed and get up at the same time each day; try to turn off the screens of TVs, tablets, smartphones and computers at least 1 hour before going to sleep (the light emitted by these devices suppresses your body’s melatonin production and can seriously disturb your sleep); avoid stimulating and / or stressful activities before bed (such as catching up on work) etc.

Emotional intelligence

It is the ability to manage your emotions in a positive and constructive way, in order to improve self-control and self-confidence. Emotional intelligence is also a matter of communicating better with others, overcoming differences and relieving everyday tension and stress.

Within the work environment, we can list 3 main components:

– Self-awareness: Ability to recognize your emotions and their impact when used to guide your decisions.

– Self-management: Being able to control your emotions and behaviors and adapt to circumstances whenever necessary.

– Social awareness: It is when you understand the emotions of others, through empathy. It also refers to your ability to inspire, influence and connect with others on a daily basis.

Good nutrition

It is important that you make healthy food choices that keep your body functioning at its best. Low blood sugar can make you feel anxious and irritable, while overeating can make you drowsy.

Try to maintain a healthy diet and without long breaks between meals. A lack of balance in the body and poor health can worsen your stress and trigger a host of other physical and emotional problems.

8. Reflect on your daily progress

And last but not least: take time daily to reflect on your performance. Ask yourself what was learned that day – whether it was a professional matter or even how you handled your personal thoughts and emotions better.

This, in addition to strengthening your learning capacity, will give you more confidence to deal with difficult times and stress at work.

 

by Abdullah Sam
I’m a teacher, researcher and writer. I write about study subjects to improve the learning of college and university students. I write top Quality study notes Mostly, Tech, Games, Education, And Solutions/Tips and Tricks. I am a person who helps students to acquire knowledge, competence or virtue.

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