Eight Rules to Manage Work Stress and Create a Better Balance
In this series of posts, professionals reveal their best antidotes to work stress. Read the posts here, and then write your own (use #OutsideWork in the piece).
As humans, we all become stressed to varying degrees when facing our daily challenges. Yet we rarely take the time-out to figure out why we get stressed or even what we could be doing differently to better manage our stress. The secret to effectively combating stress lies in the approaches you take to better prepare yourself for when things get tough.
The following rules offer guidance on how you can effectively create the balances in your life to better manage work stress and provide a fresh energy and perspective.
Rule #1: Take Time to Relax
When was the last time that you sat back and completely relaxed? As professionals, we are all eager to reach the next steps in our careers. Completely focused on creating that new opportunity for either ourselves, our business or our colleagues. Yet as humans, we have limits to our effectiveness. We can only operate at 100% for a certain amount of time before our bodies, and minds, tire. Taking time out to relax, even for an hour day, gives our bodies a chance to recharge, reflect and move-forward. Often creating new solutions to our challenges in the process.
Rule #2: Create Solid Good Habits… And Stick to Them!
Do you have a series of good habits which you can say provide a solid foundation to your day? Experiments have proven that the lower the number of decisions we make earlier in the day, the less ‘decision fatigue’ we experience later in the day. Yet we tend to still perform our daily duties ‘off-the-cuff’ without any thought. Aspects such as what to eat for breakfast, what to wear, which tasks to complete first. These all challenge our brain when it is not really necessary. Building a set of solid habits helps to reduce decision fatigue. It helps to create a structure to our day whilst providing a focus on tasks which really do our full attention.
Rule #3: Make Time for Exercise
Can you honestly say that you provide your body with enough exercise to provide stimulation and growth? Health experts are suggesting we need to walk at least 10,000 steps per day (~8km). Yet in most generally desk-based professions, many will struggle with achieving this target. But walking, has benefits far beyond the ‘exercise’ alone. It provides opportunities to reflect, to think, to even relax. Performing exercises such as running or yoga offers our bodies, rather than solely our minds, the chance to stretch and relax. For those who regularly exercise, the benefits can be realised far beyond their physical state. Exercise essentially acts as an antidote to work stress. The exercise does not need to be strenuous. It could be stretching, walking, swimming. The important part is to enjoy it!
Rule #4: Spend Time with Friends & Family
Do you believe that you spend enough time with your friends and family? Our friends and family are our life. Forget about your career for a moment, your family and friends will be there for life. Whereas, you can change your career. Naturally we spend most of our time focusing on our career as it is our careers which provides the foundations to create a better life. But ask yourself, would it matter to your family if you had a less stressful career with possibly less benefits. The chances are, they would welcome more ‘family-time’ for less luxuries. But as humans, we always want to give the best for our loved ones. So next-time your encounter work-place stress, ask yourself if going home at the end of day and spending some time with your loved ones will provide some much needed space. Chances are, you will come back the next day with a fresh and focused mind.
Rule #5: Practice Mindfulness
Do you regularly recognise the aspects of your life which you are truly grateful for? We take far too much for granted in our lives. We are not grateful enough for the things which the vast majority of the World’s population do not have access to. Clean water, food, shelter. Yet practising mindfulness helps to ground ourselves in the luxuries which we have. Through mindfulness, we can expect to better realise when we experience work stress and whether it is something that we really should be experiencing stress about. Or whether there are much more pressing issues at hand either in our lives, or throughout the World.
Rule #6: Do Regular Unplanned Activities
When was the last time you just did something or went somewhere without even thinking about it? We have a tendency to want to gain the best experiences and often think that planning is the way to do it. Yet, we may spend hours planning a trip which if performed ‘on the fly’ we gain more satisfaction and less of the associated planning stress (to add to our work stress). Consider as well doing something you would not normally do. Move out of your comfort zone. It is often refreshing when you do something different, meet new people and possibly create a new passion. Something which in the long-term may prove to be a regular reducer of work-stress.
Rule #7: Pursue a Passion
Are you pursuing something which you speak to people about with a sheer amount of passion? Finding our passions tends to be more difficult than we perceive. Afterall, our primary roles may be in an area of interest yet is it something that we essentially do for free? That is a true passion. Indulging in these passions is a great way to de-stress, open your mind and create a relaxing environment.
Rule #8: Continually Educate Yourself
What can you say that you learned within the last week? Continually educating ourselves is vital to our progression as humans. Whilst the ‘innovate or die’ ethos is primed at business, the same can be said about yourself. If you do not learn new skills, in todays fast paced World you will get left behind. Yet educating yourself does not need to be a stressful. Simply picking up a book and reading can act as a getaway from the rigours of everyday work-life. As can studying on a course you are passionate about or learning a new skill.
Bringing It All Together
How do you currently de-stress from your work-environment? Please share your thoughts below to provide others, including myself, with your antidotes to work stress. Read more about other similar topics below
About The Author
Stephen Baines is a Senior Management Consultant and MBA currently working for Hewlett-Packard Enterprise and pursuing a number of external entrepreneurial ventures. The views within this post are explicitly those of Stephen and have no representation of any organisation Stephen represents. If you wish to contact Stephen, please contact him via LinkedIn or his Twitter handle (@baines1986).
Read more about Stephen at Stephen’s personal website
You may repost elements of this article on the proviso that you include the following (including the links): “This article originally appeared on the LinkedIn profile of Stephen Baines. Follow @baines1986 or visitwww.stephenjbaines.com for more articles like this”.
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