Stress levels at work are higher than ever. According to a study of 2,000 professionals by Korn Ferry, almost two-thirds report that their stress levels now are higher than they were five years ago. Worse still, 76% say this stress has hurt their personal relationships, and 66% report they have literally lost sleep over workplace stress.
One thing is for sure: If you don't work to proactively take control of your own stress levels, you can't expect anyone to do it for you! Here's a list of 10 ways that you can get started. Pick and choose one or two things that make the most sense for you and make them a part of your daily routine to help you build better habits that support your mental well-being.
1) Block your calendar
What happens when you have open time on your calendar? Inevitably, someone is going to book a meeting at that time. That's why people are spending between 35% and 50% of their time at work in meetings. And if they're not in the meetings, they're preparing for the meetings! That leaves little time left to focus on.
Try this instead: Identify one to two hours per day that you can block on your calendar for productivity time. Consider this scheduling a meeting with yourself! This is time for you to shut your office door (or perhaps put on a set of headphones if you're at a cubicle) and focus on making measurable progress on your goals.
Your boundaries are only as healthy as you make them. Make this time sacred. Do not allow people to schedule you for meetings during this time! Just explain that you have it blocked to enable you to focus on a few specific tasks that you need to accomplish and that you'll be happy to meet with them another time.
Remember, the time you spend focusing on your own tasks is no less meaningful or valuable to your organization than time you spend in meetings. And when you're able to accomplish more in your time at work and move tasks off your plate, you won't spend so much time worrying that you're not doing enough when you're at the office.
2) Turn off your email
When you have this blocked time from tip #1, you have to use it wisely. Don't let multi-tasking get in the way! Human beings are not creatures that are built to multi-task. When you’re jumping around from task to task, your brain has to stop, shift its focus, and start again. That doesn’t allow for the flow to really focus on something and produce your best work.
And in the modern office landscape, there is no greater distraction than email. It’s open on your desktop all day long, with notifications popping up and sounds chiming every time you get a new message. Instantly, your focus is drawn away from whatever you’re working on to the new message that’s landed in your inbox. You stop what you’re doing to read it, answer it if necessary, and then have to move back to your other task. This constant back and forth does nothing to help your productivity, and ends up creating more stress because you can't get as much work accomplished as you'd like to!
Instead, try this: For the first 45 minutes of every hour, turn off your email. Not minimize it - turn it off entirely, so you’re not getting notifications of new messages. Throw yourself into whatever you’re working on with a new focus and allow yourself to solely concentrate on it without distraction. Then, after 45 minutes, open your email up and see what has come in. Respond as necessary and then shut it off again.
We’ve got to move from this place where every email is an emergency and needs to be responded to immediately – that just distracts from working on the things that will move you towards your goals. In the case of an actual emergency, someone will come to find you or call you on the phone. And in all other cases, 45 minutes is not a long time to wait for a response. Give it a try, and you’ll find that people really don’t need immediate responses…we’ve just tricked ourselves into thinking they do.
3) Accept your boss as a flawed, imperfect person
Newsflash: Your boss isn't perfect and they don't know everything. And it's unreasonable to expect them to.
The boss tends to be the largest source of stress at work. What they say, what they do, what they're not saying or doing, how they write emails, how they manage, how much of a workload they push on people, etc. It is undoubtedly true that the majority of managers out there could make improvements in one or many of these areas. That's the responsibility they should accept when they take on a manager role.
However, it doesn't help your stress level to hold your boss to an impossible standard of excellence that simply is unrealistic in the modern workplace! It just sets you up for disappointment or to be in a constant state of angst when they don't measure up. Most bosses are just as stressed out as you are! And they are probably coming in every day just trying to the best they can.
So, cut your boss and just a little slack and try to direct your attention to things you appreciate rather than focus on things you don't like. This is not about letting them off the hook. It's about mitigating their impact on your day-to-day stress levels.
4) Pick your battles
Speaking of his experience with politics at universities, Henry Kissinger once remarked: "The reason that university politics are so vicious is because the stakes are so small." Sadly, that's not just true of life in higher education! It can be so easy to get dragged into those vicious battles at work. You know the ones - they often leave people so perturbed that they forget what they were even fighting about in the first place!
Sometimes, all it takes to reduce stress at work is to keep your mouth shut and avoid being dragged into the fights that don't matter. If difficult people at work are causing you stress, make a conscious effort to choose when to engage with them. Make sure it’s worth it. Frankly, most battles at work are just not worth fighting – when you “win” you don’t really win much at all. So if you’re going to go into battle, make sure that it’s worth it if you come out victorious on the other side. If it’s not, the very best thing you can do is to just walk away.
5) Stop gossiping
Office gossip brings no value to the workplace. It hurts relationships, creates a climate of resentment and fear, and feeds the stress levels of all involved. And yet, when you hear those whispers in the kitchen, it can be almost impossible not to participate and find out the latest bit of dirt. Be honest with yourself: Does it ever do you any good? Does it help you meet your goals? Produce more? Do better quality work? Have a more fulfilling experience? The answer to all these questions is probably no.
Remember, you always have a choice: Office gossip is one of those things you can always choose to opt out of, and it's as easy as walking away. Just say no!
6) Get your workout in
Can you go to the gym and lift weights for 30-60 minutes and tell me you don't feel strong and powerful? Of course not. And work is one of those places where you want to feel your most strong and most powerful! You can get yourself there before you head into the office by scheduling a morning workout.
Working out has so many benefits when it comes to stress reduction, but perhaps one of the most powerful is this: You've given yourself the gift of doing something just for yourself. Showing yourself that love and that love and appreciation will put you in the right frame of mind to take on those tough projects or those challenging colleagues. The type of workout you do - going for a walk, hitting a punching bag, doing yoga, surviving a class at OrangeTheory - is not as important as the simple act of making the consistent commitment to do something, even when you don't feel like it.
7) Drink your water
This is one of the most straightforward solutions of the bunch – you have got to make sure you’re drinking your water every day! When you’re dehydrated, your brain is not functioning at optimal levels, and your cortisol level (a stress hormone) will go up. Taking care of yourself by eating right and drinking water is one of the first things that goes out the window when you’re under stress. Make a conscious effort to get this part right, and you’ll set yourself up to deal with difficult situations from a much better place.
8) Get out of the office
Breaks are something you should be liberal with at work - they give you the opportunity to recover from the psychological costs of working hard so that you can come back with new vigor. Start by giving yourself a real lunch break. Get up from your desk and force yourself to get out of the office for a change of pace. And don't just go from your desk to the break room. Get out of the building! Eat lunch on the grass outside, go to a nearby park, pick up lunch at a local eatery…even just get out and go for a drive! Giving yourself that break mid-day will allow you to de-stress and set you up to be even more productive when you come back to the office.
9) Hand out compliments
The gifts we give to other people we also give to ourselves. When was the last time you handed a genuine compliment to a co-worker? Not the one you felt like you had to offer because the boss was watching, but rather the one that was unexpected. Perhaps it was a sticky note left on someone's computer monitor letting them know you appreciate them, or a genuine "great job, I learned a lot" after they presented in a meeting. Not only will you make someone's day, but you'll experience benefits such as better relationships, reciprocation, enhanced health and (yes!) reduced stress.
And if you want a real challenge, try dishing out love to the colleagues you can't stand! They are probably the ones that need those compliments the most, and you could create a better working relationship with them in the process.
10) Be grateful
If you’re reading this article, chances are you’ve got it pretty good. You have a computer and an internet connection. You’re probably employed in a job and have money coming in, even if it’s not your dream job. You probably have a place to live and more food available to you than you could ever eat. And that’s just the basics before you get into all the other really good stuff you have going on in your life.
Whenever you’re feeling angry or stressed out or frustrated, just come back to all the good things you have going on and be grateful for them. Most people have a lot more good than bad to worry about every single day. Make sure you’re not letting the negative overshadow all the positive things. At the end of every day, try making a list of the things that went really well that day, or things you're proud of. Reflect on it as you drive home and give yourself a bit of a pat on the back for a job well done.