If you’re getting stressed out because of stress at work, you aren’t alone. Across the globe, there are millions of working professionals who find themselves stressed often. While stress is an integral component of the work, excessive stress comes with several negative consequences.
Too much stress not only lowers your productivity but also triggers health issues insomnia, headaches, chest pain, frequent colds, anxiety, and depression, to name a few.
While you cannot eliminate all the stressors from your work life, you can certainly try to lower them. In this article, we’ll discuss seven simple yet effective methods that’ll help you manage stress at work.
1. Don’t Get Obsessed With Perfection
Do you know that the hardest workers and top performers tend to be the ones who experience maximum stress? It’s absolutely okay if you try to give your best shot at your professional role, but getting obsessed with perfection will most likely do more harm than good.
When you try to be perfect at all aspects of your work, you start experiencing a considerable amount of stress regularly. To deal with this, you need to have some self-awareness. It’s vital to comprehend that there are some things you cannot achieve perfection with and that there are people who can do those things better than you.
Instead of thinking about the things that you cannot do perfectly, you should focus on things that you’re really good at. It’ll automatically help reduce your work stress.
2. Prioritize Taking Short Breaks during the Workday
A lot of working professionals think that recovery from stress can only happen during holidays or after work. However, according to research, when you take micro-breaks, it can greatly help you in recovering from different job demands and daily work stress.
Some examples of short breaks can be enjoyable social interactions, short moments of meditation, or activities that need some level of cognitive attention. These activities can shape your mood, enhance your concentration and motivation, and help you stay energetic during the workday.
You should stop thinking that it’ll be easier to recover during the weekend or the holiday that’s still a few weeks ahead. Instead, chalk out a recovery plan, comprising short breaks, that you can stick to on a daily basis.
3. Identify Your Stressors
Every working professional has some kinds of stressors. When you know what your stressors at work are, you’ll be able to anticipate them. And anticipating them will make stress management relatively easier for you.
For instance, if having tight deadlines is one of your stressors, you may try to ask for longer or flexible deadlines. If that isn’t possible in your position, you may try to automate some of your routine tasks so that you can get more time to meet your deadlines.
If none of these is possible at your workplace, you should make a list of stressors. And next to each stressor, try to write about possible methods to manage it in advance.
4. Set Boundaries at Work
Setting boundaries at work has proved to be a highly effective method to reduce work-related stress. By doing this, you can establish your specific working hours, the timeframe during which you’ll be available to respond to chats or emails, the types of tasks you’ll do and won’t do, and the amount of work you can comfortably take on.
You should also have a gentle response to the crossings of these boundaries. For instance, something like, “it won’t work for me” will let the other one understand that they’ve crossed a line. This’ll also buy you some time in case you need more time to figure out a solution.
If it isn’t possible to set boundaries at work, ensure that you have them in your private life so that you don’t need to face additional pressure during your work days.
5. Stay Away From Office Politics
Do you know that a significant portion of work-related stress generates by office politics? Whether it’s navigating office politics for getting promoted or discussing work-related controversies and getting into fights about them, office politics is among the key factors that increase the stress levels of a massive number of working professionals.
When you start becoming combative regularly, you’ll most likely become more stressed and may even start experiencing health issues. It’s crucial to understand that it isn’t your responsibility to change another person’s mind on a particular topic.
Therefore, focus on doing your work well and your chances of getting a bonus, pay raise or promotion will automatically be high.
6. Develop a Healthy Routine
Everyone has to embrace changes in life. But it’s also true that you have the power to control a large part of your life. By developing a healthy routine and sticking to it, you can maintain your mental wellness effectively. It’ll help you deal with the stressful impacts of potential changes efficiently.
For instance, you can develop a routine encompassing better eating and sleep habits. Or, you may want to follow a weekly exercise schedule to maintain your overall fitness.
When you know that you cannot avoid work-related pressure, introducing some routines will help your body and brain respond to stressors more effectively, which will ultimately help lower your stress levels.
7. Consider Changing Your Department
Having bad coworkers or bosses is another key factor that increases the stress levels of many employees. If you too belong to this group, try to change your department. This is extremely important if you start to develop chronic stress.
You should remember that not all jobs suck and work-related stress varies from one role to another. Therefore, if you get stuck in a toxic environment, it’s best to try to change it. You can always ask for a role change or team change.
If that isn’t possible, you should consider leaving the company because maintaining your well-being should be your top priority.
Wrapping Up
It isn’t mandatory to experience stress at work. You can always reduce your work-related stress levels by applying the methods we discussed above. Just make sure that you give your best shot to achieve your goal of managing your stress.
