We all know work-related stress is a near constant in modern life. Success at work drives our lives and shapes our fate, so a certain amount of white-knuckling is to be expected. But we also know the effect of a million little stressors all ganging up on us and turning an average workday into an epic struggle through a swamp of anxieties. So in the spirit of lessening stress, here are ten things you can do every day to combat that feeling when it all becomes too much.
1. Wake up on the right side of the bed– Your sleep is a fragile balance, and it’s easy to adopt bad habits and keep them. But sleep is an irreplaceable recharge for your mind and your body, so it’s a non-negotiable contract you have to make with yourself. Adjust light levels in your room, don’t watch TV or stare at your computer screen too late, get a noise-cancelling machine – whatever you need to turn your bedroom into a sacred space of nightly renewal. Going to work refreshed and recharged is more than half the battle.
2. Leave for work earlier in the morning– Don’t start your workday on the wrong foot by racing in to arrive two minutes before your scheduled start-time. Life is busy and a close call is sometimes unavoidable, but facing a stressed and impacted commute is an easy way to plant that wrong foot right into a pothole. You need to start each day in synchronicity with the world, not at war with it.
3. Rock out in your car on the way to and from work– Okay, it doesn’t have to be rock, but you know what we mean: music has ever-mysterious powers over mankind, and it’s always amazing how the right tune can ratchet up your mood and make the whole world feel like its dancing in time around your car as you drive your commute. It’s a great way to right yourself if you feel a bad attitude sneaking up.
Study: Stress in the Workplace
4. Make a daily “to do” list– Even if its an intimidatingly long list, checking tasks off one by one is a works-every-time way to keep anxiety at bay. When you leave the tasks at hand idling in your mind as an amorphous blob, that adds an extra level to the stress you already face from a potentially packed work day. And just feel that satisfaction when you cross a penciled-in item off with a nice black marker!
5. Be comfortable with saying “no”– There’s only so much you can do in a day. You may want to come off as a workplace superhero by accepting every request of your time with a casual nod, but everyone knows your plate is only so big, and too many extra tasks will cause all your work to suffer incrementally. Your co-workers will appreciate good work more than they will you paying lip service to a project you don’t have time for.
6. Make your work space comfortable– Not everyone has an office, but to the degree you’re allowed make your work space a place you like to be, like your home away from home. That doesn’t just mean the right framed photos and action figures, but also a chair that make a long sit easy.
7. Go for a walk– A quick walk around the block is a guaranteed quick-fix stress beater and a hard reset for your POV. Sneak it into your lunch break if you can. And while you’re at it…
8. Breathe– Sometimes we forget how good it feels to just take a few deep breaths. Seems like it shouldn’t be that easy to cure work stress, but sometimes that’s all it takes.
9. Talk to a co-worker– And when all else fails, take some time to talk a co-worker about whatever is stressing you out at work. They’re human, too, and there’s a good chance they wouldn’t mind unloading a few stressors of their own. Amazing how good it can feel to just hear how someone else is struggling but surviving… just like you.
