6 Easy Ways How To Reduce & Manage Stress at Work
There’s a silent killer in your workplace.
It lurks in the shadows, depleting your energy, sacking your concentration, and shaking your confidence.
Your co-workers talk about it in hushed tones (if at all), and your boss is in denial of its very existence…
Its name?
Stress.
It’s no joke. Countless studies show that excess stress can cause real physical symptoms like headaches, upset stomach, increased blood pressure, chest pain, and trouble sleeping.
The key to learning how to manage stress at work so to keep it at a healthy level and make sure it doesn’t become overwhelming. Easier said than done, right? We’re here to help. Here are 6 tried and true methods for learning how to relieve stress at work – so you can get back to kicking butt.
1. Make Time For Workplace Wellness
Your workplace should support your sustained wellbeing throughout the day. Say it again so you don’t forget. Hard work needs balance to be sustainable. Now, not everyone is lucky enough to have a dedicated home office, but there are plenty of small things you can do to make your work from home experience more enjoyable and healthier. Some excellent items to facilitate this are:
Greenery in your scenery.
In addition to improving the air quality, adding indoor plants to your desktop can have a soothing effect and make your space feel calmer.
Natural light.
Creating a bright and natural workspace can immensely support your mood and productivity. In addition, natural light reduces the need for artificial lighting during the day, which can help to save on energy costs!
A good laugh.
Laughter is good for the soul and a great way to help reduce stress at work. Try setting up a Laughter Gym at your company to provide a place to let loose!
Weekly virtual wellness challenges.
You may be pretty used to spending all day working on a computer, but staring at a screen for hours is exhausting. A quick fix is to start a weekly wellness competition that will inspire and encourage employees to help handle stress at work. An easy way to get started is by creating a weekly wellness Slack channel or working with a software platform like Nectar to gamify the challenge:
2. Prioritize and Organize
Feeling overwhelmed is a major stressor. A great way to make a major reduction in your stress is to learn how to handle stress at your work by prioritizing and organizing. Here’s how to do it:
Focus on 2-3 things Max.
There’s an old saying – if everything is a priority, nothing is a priority. Focus on the “biggest levers” – that is, the 2 or 3 things each week that will have the biggest impact on your goals.
Set Deadlines.
As a general rule, if a task doesn’t have a deadline, it will get pushed aside for one that does. Set realistic deadlines for everything, and everything will get done.
Use Your Calendar.
Plan your weeks in your calendar so that you maximize the limited time you have each week. At SnackNation we recommend team members plan out their weeks on Friday or even Sunday evenings. Make sure to schedule breaks in there as well – as in actually put them in your calendar!
3. Form Positive Relationships
Here are some other tips for fostering positive personal relationships at work:
Start your own “buddy” or mentorship program.
At SnackNation, every new hire gets a veteran “buddy” to show them the ropes, introduce them to people, and provide guidance and support.
By design, this “buddy” isn’t a manager. It’s someone in whom you can confide any concern, personal or professional. Our SN buddies are trained to lend an ear and provide judgment-free advice.
They system works best when buddies are from different departments, so there’s less chance of office politics becoming a factor.
Put down your smartphone!
Instead of burying your head in your Instagram feed at lunch, leave your phone at your desk during breaks and engage with co-workers.
Encourage vulnerability.
Vulnerability exercises are something we do at our SnackNation offsites. After breaking out into smaller groups of four or five, everyone in the group is encouraged to share something personal – often a meaningful experience from their upbringing.
The relationships formed during these vulnerability exercises are the basis for some of the deepest and longest-lasting relationships at the company.
4. Start Exercising (or Exercise More)
With its mood-boosting and endorphin-releasing properties, regular aerobic exercise is a natural stress reducer.
Launch a wellness challenge.
Gamify company fitness by launching a wellness challenge. Shoot for a team-wide goal, but also reward top performers to foster some friendly competition. At SnackNation, we passed out fitness trackers and added up our steps in a bid to virtually “walk” the distance from LA to San Francisco during our wellness month. Each week, we also named a winner for the most active team member.
Take walking meetings.
In a recent interview with the Awesome Office Show, BittyFoods CEO Megan Miller explained that she gets in daily exercise by taking calls while strolling through San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park. LA-based skincare brand Murad also installed a walking track in their office space to encourage team members to get up from their desks during the day.
5. Eat Healthy and Nutritious Foods
Ever heard the phrase “eat your feelings”?
It’s a real phenomenon. Many people turn to unhealthy “comfort foods” as stress management at work.
Safe to safe that dealing with work stress in this manner is not good. Why does this happen? When we’re stressed, our brain releases the hormone cortisol, which makes us crave salty, sweet, and fat-laden foods for the temporary pleasure they bring. But ironically, “stress eating” only exacerbates the problem.
6. Get Enough Sleep
We can’t say this enough – get some sleep!
Stress has long been linked to chronic insomnia. But while conventional wisdom treats the inability to sleep as a symptom of stress, researchers at Gold Bee found that poor sleep may actually be a contributing factor.
That’s because a lack of sleep inhibits your ability to cope with even normal amounts of stress, and negatively affects your mood and outlook. The point is, you can’t hope to reduce stress when you’re on edge and irritable from lack of sleep. Here are some tips to get your sleep schedule back on track:
Shoot for eight hours a night.
There used to be a stigma, especially among business leaders, that “sleep is for the weak.” The most productive people know that you can’t operate at peak performance without the regenerative effects of proper sleep. So don’t skimp!
Turn off screens 1 hour before you want to go to bed.
Whether it’s TV, laptops, or our smartphones, screens keep our brains engaged and make it difficult for us to fall asleep. Winding down your day with a healthy activity and avoiding screen time can help you better cope in a demanding job.
Take cat naps.
We’re talking 15-20 minutes, max. While we definitely believe that naps are regenerative, don’t over do it. Again, the goal is to get in a rhythm of getting proper sleep more often than not, so you’re clear headed and ready to take on the day.
Of course, not all stress is created equal. A certain amount of healthy stress in the workplace is actually a good thing. Experts make a distinction between eustress (good) and distress (bad), and point out that eustress is actually necessary for individuals to make breakthroughs and companies to grow.
References:
https://snacknation.com/blog/how-to-reduce-stress-at-work/