In a world increasingly focused on productivity, managing and reducing stress are of the utmost importance. Stress can affect your weight, cause chronic headaches, and even shorten your life expectancy. It is possible to be productive and happy by changing your daily habits and the way you relate to stress. You can improve your time management, take time to do yoga and meditate, or recruit support if you own your own business. If you feel overwhelmed by fielding calls and messages from customers all day, you can look into hiring live chat support for business. If you find it difficult to prioritize, you can set up a time to plan ahead, saving you countless work hours focusing on the wrong tasks. Here are some more ways to reduce your stress and live a more balanced life.
1. Bring Healthy Habits to the Office
There are various free meditations available on YouTube and other streaming services, as well as apps like Calm that are dedicated to meditation. Taking even 5 minutes during your day to re-center can help reset your adrenal system and improve your focus moving forward. You can also bring aromatherapy into your office with essential oil diffusers or therapeutic candles to create a calm environment. If you don’t have much privacy, consider investing in noise-canceling headphones and playing white noise or soothing music to block out sound and get yourself into a state of flow.
2. Plan Your Meals
When stressed, it is easy to grab food last minute, leaving you feeling unhealthy and quickly increasing unnecessary spending. If you set aside some time on Sunday to meal prep, you can reduce decision fatigue during the week, eat healthier, and save money. Meals can be as straightforward or as elaborate as you want, from beef and rice to a cashew chicken quinoa bake.
3. Get More Sleep
Often, a heavy workload can leave you unable to shut your mind off at night or leave you feeling guilty about too much time at rest. By turning off your electronics at night, dimming the lights, and creating a nighttime routine, you can let your brain know it is time to rest and relax. Taking a bath, reading, journaling, drinking herbal tea, meditating, and doing restorative yoga are all activities that you could consider incorporating into your evening to ease into bedtime.
4. Manage Your Mind
Anxiety can easily be caused by perfectionism and negative self-talk. There are workbooks, apps, websites, and traditional therapists that specialize in fear and pessimism that can help you develop more positive mental patterns. Journaling, positive affirmations, and creating an optimistic support system can also help you move toward more constructive thinking.
5. Take Stock of Stressors
For a couple of weeks, record your workdays and the events that cause you the most stress. This will help you identify what is causing you the most trouble. By changing your responses to these events or perhaps ridding yourself of them completely, you can begin to mitigate their negative effects. If you find that communication is an area that causes you extra stress, for instance, you could take time to improve your confidence and associations around communication. Or, you could delegate some communication to a colleague, employee, or hired service so you can use your time for other tasks.
6. Build Boundaries
If you find it difficult to say no, building boundaries could be where you need to direct your focus. By taking stock of how much time you want to spend working each day, you can then convey to others clearly when you are available and when you are not. This will give you more peace of mind and allow you to relax fully when you are not on the clock. You can also set boundaries around communication, tasks you will handle, and anything else that feels important to you.
Set aside some time this week to pause and reflect on what areas in your work bring you the most stress. Then, take stock of the tips above that resonate with you the most. By being intentional about how you handle stress, you can enhance your relationship with your job. Stress can be overwhelming in the moment, but everything is manageable when you make an effort to improve.