How Can I Manage My Stress at Work?

Stress is all around us and we all experience it, however "chilled" we may think we are.
Have you ever planned a wedding? Had a baby? Moved house?  Even happy events such as these can be stressful - all of them can set the body's stress levels at 110% and yet, miraculously, most of us still manage to enjoy these experiences. Stress is a natural reaction which you will never be entirely free of and really you shouldn't want to be, either. A certain amount can motivate us into action better than many other stimuli ... and it might even improve our creativity, too.

So, Can We Ignore Stress?

Stress is natural and a certain amount of it is inevitable, regardless of what we do in our everyday lives. Does that mean it's something we can safely ignore?

The answer to that is a clear and definite no!
The sort of excessive stress that often arises in the workplace, the sort that needs to be managed, is a dangerous thing.  It makes you short-tempered, irritable and anxious - you'll have difficulty concentrating and ordinary tasks will swell in size until they seem like monstrous obstacles you can never clear.

This is the sort of stress that follows you home, haunts your hours of rest and stops you from sleeping properly.  You may have too much to do and not enough time or resources. There could be rumors of redundancy or of the whole business going bust.  How will you pay the bills?  What is there that you can do?  It's at this point that you need to take action and learn how to manage your stress effectively.

How to Manage Your Stress

1. Let go

Managing your stress requires a certain amount of letting go - taking a step back from the computer and allowing yourself to breathe. There are lots of ways to manage stress. You have to take a broad view, recognize what things you can change, what steps you can take, and also learn to accept that some things are simply beyond your control.

2. Exercise

Something that's definitely under your control is your own physical fitness.  It's a fact verified by many surveys that fit people cope better with stress than the rest of us.  Regular exercise and getting fit - or at least fitter - will help you cope when things get a bit much at work.



Don't worry, this doesn't mean you have to get up an hour early and drive to the gym for a violent workout which leaves you in no fit state to work.  It just means that you should be more active.  Take the stairs rather than the elevator, or go for a brisk walk in the park before work or during your break.  You can do something pleasurable like go for a swim at the weekends (if you like swimming...)  It all helps!

3. Eat properly

Do you skimp meals because you're "too busy" or because you feel it's good for you?  Well, you'd be well advised to change your habits.   Regular food is necessary for human beings to keep their bodies, and their minds, in balance.

4. Step away from the office

The chance to get away from the office, if only for a short while, and talk about something else instead of work is a proven ingredient in stress management programs. In the same vein, make sure that you take regular breaks during the day.  Even if all you do is take a short trip to the coffee machine and admire the view out the window for five minutes, it will refresh your mind and give you that vital extra boost.

5. Balance your schedule

You don't need to be a Yoga or Feng Shui expert to achieve a balanced schedule. This is another one of those areas where you need to take the broad view.  Learn to balance your daily schedule. Try to avoid too many consecutive stressful meetings. If you're going to have to argue your case in front of your colleagues in the morning, try to leave an afternoon of peaceful admin or correspondence.  Give your nerves time to recover.  Naturally, it won't always be possible to do this, but whatever you can do will pay off.  And you'll cope with an action-packed day a whole lot better if your other days have some balance. In a similar vein, try to avoid over-commitment and don't spread yourself too thin between commitments.

6. Prioritize and delegate

Do you enjoy writing lists and highlighting the most important things to do? Then you're born to prioritize!  Part of creating a balanced schedule is learning how to prioritize. When work becomes stressful you need to distinguish between what must be done and what might be done.  Put the ‘must-dos' at the top of your list and leave the ‘might-dos' until later.




On the same tack, delegate whenever possible. If you're a conscientious person then you might find this more difficult, but it's a vital part, not only of stress management but also of management in general. No one has much good to say about people who micro-manage, especially not those on the receiving end of it. This means that if you learn to trust your juniors, you may well significantly reduce their stress levels as well as yours!

The Key to a Stress-Free Life

The real secret of stress management, though, is self-awareness. Be aware of how you behave when you're stressed.  And once you learn the symptoms and know how you are likely to react to them, it becomes much easier to prevent or act on them.

Finally, a small takeaway is to remember that nothing relieves stress better or more quickly than laughter.  And keeping your sense of humor is a great - and enjoyable - way to manage stress in the workplace, if not the world in general!