Is the Stress Getting to You? 5 Ways to Cut Down on Work Time Worries

August 6, 2008

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Stress in the workplace has almost become a partner to the very notion of a full time job. Anyone who works is all too aware of this correlation, and unfortunately it is a nuance that often time gets the best of the individual over a period of time. Here are five proven methods to cut down on stress, as well as instructions on how to successfully carry these “stress busters” out:

Work Pressures: Change your schedule. When most people get in to work, they check their e-mail and voice mail. Save it for later. Spend your first hour, when you’re the sharpest, on creative and strategic thinking. While you’re at it, break down your day into specific tasks, rather than trying to juggle everything. Studies now show that a 50-minute task takes four times as long if you juggle too many tasks at once. “Are you a starter of all and finisher of none?” asks Julie Morgenstern, author of Making Work Work. If you can, pick one day a week to leave 30 minutes earlier than usual.
Personal Pressures: Change the habit, not the world. Destressing isn’t about eliminating all of your stresses; it’s about getting control of them, one at a time. To do that, you should make micro-adjustments in your life, not big ones that eventually add more stress, says Stan Goldberg, Ph.D., author of Ready To Learn. “What’s important is whatever [changes you make to your routine] need to be small enough so that there is a minimal amount of difference between what you’ve been doing and what you now do,” Dr. Goldberg says.
Self Care: Eat the anti-stress diet. When you’re in stress mode, your insides produce more chemical reactions than Marie Curie’s lab and you experience surges of the hormone cortisol and sugar levels that spike and plummet, which can leave you feeling under pressure and sluggish. Counteract those reactions with the right foods, says Elizabeth Somer, R.D., author of The Food & Mood Cookbook. For breakfast, avoid sugary cereals or breakfast bars and eat whole-grain cereal and a piece of fruit. Then pop a vitamin with at least 500 milligrams (mg) of calcium and 250 mg of magnesium.
Losing Personal Power: Always avoid “always”. One of the biggest booby traps in your life is over generalizing, first dates never work out, she always gets promotions before me, he always arrives at least 5 minutes late. Unconsciously, using “always” and “never” steers you away from feeling that you have any control over changing the things that stress or worry you, says Daniel Amen, M.D., author of Change Your Brain, Change Your Life.
Emotional Symptoms: Schedule your emotions. If we let it, stress can eat away at us like a squirrel with a nut. That constantly worried mentality impedes decision-making, says Susan Nolen-Hoeksema, Ph.D., author of Women Who Think Too Much: How to Break Free of Overthinking and Reclaim Your Life. She suggests you write down what you’re worried about, then set aside some quiet time (say 30 minutes) to figure out solutions. That way, worrying won’t disrupt your work, and you’ll be able to think through the answers.

There you have it - five proven ways you can successfully shed some of that burdensome stress from your life. If you have any other suggestions, or have tested methods other then those listed above please feel free to let us know what worked and what didn’t.