Everyone experiences a certain level of stress at work, which you can’t always prevent. You have projects to take care of, a team to manage, and a lot of work. Unexpected things can happen, and curveballs come from every corner on some days.
While you aren’t able to prevent the sources of your work stress, there are some ways to relieve your stress and still manage work and your other responsibilities without it affecting you too much.
Improve Your Work Relationships
A lot of the stress you experience at work can be relieved by working harder on your work relationships and friendships. When everyone gets along, people tend to support each other, help each other, and work together much more efficiently. Even if your work stress isn’t directly related to the people you work with, this can still benefit you.
Here are some tips for working on your work relationships:
- Reach out to someone you have never talked to — Is there someone you work with who you haven’t had a conversation with or who is new at your company? Why not talk to them? Reach out to them and introduce yourself, ask them some questions about themselves, and strike up a casual conversation.
- Ask someone to lunch — The workplace is a great way to foster new friendships, which you can do during your breaks. Ask someone you work with if they want to join you for lunch, whether a close work friend or just an acquaintance you want to get to know a little better.
- Offer to lend a helping hand — It is a great idea to try to help others with complex projects or anything you are personally skilled at. When you notice a co-worker has a lot of work to get done or needs a little assistance, offer your help in a non-judgmental but helpful way.
Find Out What Your Stressors Are
If you genuinely want to get rid of your work-related stress, you need to figure out the most significant stressors. This might be the vending machine if you are stressed about losing weight, having too much work piled on that you think you can’t manage on your own or having issues with someone you work with.
There are so many possibilities that it is impossible to assume work-related stress is the same for everyone. Take a week to write down in a journal or notebook every time you feel stressed, what you were thinking about at the time, and what the situation was.
- Were you on your lunch break?
- Did you talk to someone at work?
- Was it in the morning or afternoon?
- Were there issues with a client or customer?
These details are essential to figuring out what is causing you the most stress at work.
Give Yourself Time to Recharge
No matter what you do for a living, whether you work in an office, outside, or even at home, you need time to recharge. Think about your most significant stressors and get away from them at least a little bit every day.
If you work from home, your stress might be that you feel like you should be working whenever you are at home. To recharge, you need to close your laptop, turn off your phone, and get into the mindset of taking a break or being done for the day. You need to understand the difference between working and taking time for yourself.
Have a Flexible Schedule
If you try to micro-manage yourself and plan every minute of every day, you will get overwhelmed and burned out with work very quickly. The stress that comes from having your entire day scheduled and planned out can be rough on you, even if you think you are doing a good thing.
Having a schedule and a plan is great for productivity, but it can create problems if you are too strict with your schedule. Remember to have a flexible schedule and alternatives for any moments when you need to get something else done or take a little more time for yourself.
