You might think that career stress is a part of life. This is true to an extent because you will always run into things that have the potential to cause stress. However, you have the power to change a lot of the stress you incur. You definitely have the power to release it. It all rests in the daily decisions that you make.
Not all stress is bad, but you don’t want it to turn into bad stress, and you don’t want it to pile up. Bad stress leads to chronic ailments, depression, a lack of productivity and a lifetime full of sadness. You’ve had enough stress in your life. It’s time to use effective solutions to decrease it.
Simple Ways To Deal With Career Stress
1. Exercise
Many people avoid exercise because it makes them sweaty, they are scared to go to a gym or they’re not sure how to do it, but it has numerous benefits. Apart from all of its benefits, stress reduction is just one of the many benefits you experience from exercise. The good thing about exercise is that you can do it any which way you feel like it.
You could take a daily dip in the pool. Or, you could run about, screaming, with your hands in the air, which will make you laugh. You could run in the countryside, enjoying the sights and imagine yourself as a soaring bird. At work, you could do squats, run in place or anything else you desire. There are no rules to exercise. You just need to decide to do it and have fun with it.
2. Priorities
Prioritizing will save you a ton of career. Each job is different, and each boss is different. If you have a boss that expects “all hands on deck,” you need to stop what you’re doing to help out when the time comes. This means you have to be early on all of your other work. If you prioritize what is most important, you’ll be able to stay on top of all your tasks the majority of the time. If you need to work overtime, do it. Without getting stressed about the overtime, look at it as extra money in your pocket. Decide to do something nice for yourself with the extra chunk of change.
3. Organization
You need your desk or workspace to be organized for you to function properly. Depending on what you do, you might need trays, bins, a calendar, pencils, pens, highlighters and whatever else. If you send out a lot of mail, you will need a tray or bin for this. If you get a lot of incoming files or mail from others, you need a spot for them to put these items. Reorganize your workspace at the end of the day so that you can start fresh the following day. Get a system going so that you can focus on the task-at-hand and keep everything organized.
4. Schedules
Your work will continue to look like a never-ending pile of a mess until you decide to sort it out. Don’t fear sorting it out either. Everything seems hard when you first start doing it. Think of what needs to be done first. It can help to have a large calendar to write out everything you need to do and when it needs to be done by.
You can color code your calendar to show tasks that have hard deadlines, soft deadlines and proactive tasks you can do to make work easier in a variety of colors. For instance, you might use a red pen for hard deadlines and a green pen for fun or proactive tasks. Schedule your day ahead of time to avoid wasting time on email and other tasks that are not needed at the moment.
5. Regular Breaks
When people are stressed out, they tend to skip breaks, which doesn’t really do any good. Stress gets in the way of productivity and breaks help to decrease stress. Skipping a break because of stress causes a cycle of stress that will eventually lead to burnout. Do what you need to do in the moment, but take regular breaks to keep the stress at bay.
It doesn’t matter what you do on your break, but you need a mental break. You could take a walk, get a cup of water, read some jokes or anything else that helps you to take a brief mental vacation. You will get more done in the day by taking breaks, and you will be happier.
6. Sleep
Sleep is important for your mind, body and soul. You are more likely to be stressed out if you skimp on your sleep. Just like not taking regular breaks leads to additional stress and a lack of productivity, a lack of sleep produces the same effects. Take a vacation from the stress by getting enough sleep. Don’t focus on the hours you sleep either. Focus on getting complete sleep cycles.
You need four or five sleep cycles a night. Each sleep cycle lasts for approximately 90 minutes. If you only get three of four sleep cycles at night, consider having a nap during the day. When you are more tired, you naturally complete a sleep cycle more quickly. Don’t get into the habit of thinking you can make up an entire night of sleep with a few naps. You’ll be running on empty before long. With adequate rest, you’ll be more equipped to deal with what you need to during the day.
7. Goals
Goals provide numerous benefits. First, they help you to achieve or overcome an obstacle, which can be a source of career stress. They also help to boost your confidence. Having confidence in life also helps to decrease your stress because confidence lends to your ability of effectively completing tasks. Working on goals and achieving them help you to feel happier too.
It’s wise to create career goals, but you should set out to create daily work goals too. Each time you accomplish something, you will feel more empowered and less stressed. You will start to look at future tasks with excitement because they’re opportunities to accomplish more.
8. Face Your Stress
Humans are weird at times. You might be afraid to face your career stress, but facing stress or the cause of it is the way to work through it. It’s interesting that humans would fear something that would help them. Consider what is causing you stress, and take a deep breath before you approach it. Write out what you need to do to deal with your problem.
One step at a time, set out to deal with your stress in a calm manner. If you run into something you cannot change, either change yourself or get rid of the stressor entirely.
9. Consider the Bigger Picture
People can get so wrapped up in day to day life that they hardly take a moment to look at the bigger picture. For instance, a snarky coworker may be hard to deal with day in and day out and put a lot of pressure on you. The truth about the situation is that people are rude or mean when they are unhealthy. This can occur for a variety of reasons.
They might have had a bad childhood, are dealing with abuse or have something else going on. Looking at the truth, you know that it’s not your fault and that you are not deserving of the bad treatment. You don’t have to put up with their rudeness at all. Whatever you face, look at the bigger picture, and think of effective ways of dealing with it. At times, there are things you stress about that don’t even involve you.
10. Have Some Fun in Life
Fun provides laughter, relaxation, and happiness. These are the perfect ingredients to effectively deal with career stress. The fun doesn’t get rid of future stress, but having fun will help you to get rid of built-up stress so that you can better deal with additional stress at a later point. You can have fun on your breaks, and you should definitely have fun when you get home.
11. Change Your Perception
At times, you might see difficulty as insurmountable. Regardless of your personal philosophy or belief system, you most likely have the ability to face what is coming your way. You have to be willing to give yourself a chance. Instead of looking at a major report as something that could take you down in your career, look at it as an opportunity to use your knowledge, talents, and skills. It could help you advance in your career.
12. Get Rid of Damaging Beliefs
Saying, “My life will be over if I don’t get this done,” puts undo career stress upon yourself. If you have any thoughts like this, you need to stop thinking these things immediately. You are telling your brain and your entire being that something terrible will happen to you in the event you don’t get something done.
The reality is that your life will not end, the world will not cease to exist, and many other bad things aren’t going to happen. As long as you tell your brain that it will, you will be under a mountain of unnecessary career stress.
Final Thoughts on Career Stress
Remember that not all stress is bad. Stress is there to let you know that something needs attention. Although you should face your stress, some situations mean you have toxicity in your life. In this case, you need to get rid of whatever is toxic. That might be an unhealthy relationship or behavior that is causing you harm and preventing you from reaching your potential. You will feel infinitely better when you ditch the career stress and the causes of stress in your life.
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