Maintaining your good mental health can be a relevant topic for everyone. Deadlines, expectations, coworker relationships and the struggle to maintain a healthy work-life balance can all result in the accumulation of anxiety and stress that can have significant consequences for your mental and physical health.
Unfortunately, you’re bound to experience stress regardless of your chosen career, but that doesn’t mean you have to endure weighty hardships without a few coping strategies up your sleeve. Read on to discover several tips to help you manage work stress both on and off the job.
Establish a Productive Morning Routine
The way you start your day can set the tone for how you feel throughout the duration of the rest of it. Health organizations such as USANA Canada recommend that you begin your day with a collection of healthy habits that will help you lay a firm and resilient foundation for your body and mind, which can make it a lot easier to manage whatever the remainder of the day throws your way.
When you get up in the morning with the goal to nourish yourself with a healthy breakfast and positive practices, you’re more likely to set yourself up for daily success. Wake up a little bit earlier to add in a few extra self-care tasks such as exercise, journaling, goal-setting, stretching or even just a few quiet moments to yourself to set intentions for the day. Try to think positive thoughts about what you have ahead of you throughout the day.
Avoid Unnecessary Conflict
No workplace is devoid of the occasional bout of interpersonal tension or even outright hostility between coworkers, which can make it difficult to steer clear of work conflict entirely. Because there are so many different personalities and communication styles out there, you can’t expect to be liked by everyone you work with–nor can you expect to like all of your coworkers. Stay away from gossip and office politics and try to keep a positive and open-minded perspective when you work with others.
Take Care of Your Resources
One of the greatest sources of stress, not just in the workplace but in everyday life, is a lack of personal organization or a sense of chaos in your environment, ideas, information or communications. Do what you can to organize your workflow in a way that works well for you and the way you like to work. The more streamlined your work processes, the easier it will be to navigate your space, find what you need with ease, maintain a consistent schedule and avoid needless holdups that prevent you from getting your work done on time and with ease.
Set Up an Enjoyable Space
It can be difficult to find peace in a space that you don’t find comfortable, either physically or mentally. Though you may not be directly aware of the emotional impact your environment has on your wellbeing, even slightly uncomfortable aspects of your work environment can start to affect your performance and ability to enjoy and make it through the workday.
Take a look around at your workspace and try to discover ways you can make it a more comfortable place for you to be. You may find it helpful to switch your chair for a more comfortable one, rotate your desk so you can be exposed to more natural light throughout the day or find ways to block out distracting office noise so you can focus on what you have to do in peace and quiet.
Learn to Say No
Thanks to an often unhealthy societal relationship with martyrdom, those who overextend themselves may be heralded as gold-standard employees or even heroes in some instances. However, multitasking and overworking have actually been shown to lead to a decrease in efficient output and job satisfaction.
Your brain is simply not designed to handle more than one task at a time and perform them with the same speed and accuracy as you would if you handled them separately and at different times. As well, taking on too much at work can quickly lead to burnout, which won’t allow you to complete work efficiently–if at all. Analyze your personal work capacity and make an effort to stay within those boundaries for your own sanity’s sake.
Maintain Healthy Habits
A large number of workers across the country have a host of unhealthy habits they’ve developed while on the job, from hours of physical inactivity to a high frequency of unhealthy convenience meals eaten throughout the workday. Unhealthy habits can make it hard for your system to function properly, which can impede your ability to manage stress and anxiety.
Instead of succumbing to less-than-stellar habits at work, try to seize every opportunity to make healthy choices. Pack your own lunch, take a walk on your lunch break, get up to stretch and move your legs once in a while and try to shift your mindset to be more positive.
