3 Best Strategies For Managing Work With Stress

3 Best Strategies For Managing Work With Stress

by nukhba khan

It’s become extremely common to suffer from stress at the workplace. According to Wrike’s United States stress statistics from 2019, 94% of workers report experiencing stress at their workplace. That is huge, plus those were pre-covid days!

It’s become the workplace norm to hear, “I am so stressed,” “I am drowning under pressure,” “work anxiety is taking a toll on my life, and I don’t know what to do.”

Why are we so stressed?

According to research conducted by STATISTA, the leading causes of stress in the workplace are:

Workload (39%), yup, the expectations have become insane.
People issues (31%) people are never easy.
Juggling work & personal life (19%), it feels impossible to have some form of balance in your life.
Lack of job security (6%), the fear of losing the job if you don’t push yourself hard enough is always lingering on your mind?

So what are we supposed to do? Should we just accept this new norm of being highly stressed and anxious at work as the new way of life? ABSOLUTELY NOT!

The problem is, and I faced too, that we have accepted being stressed as part and parcel of our work lives. Some subconsciously consider their stress correlated with how successful they are in their jobs. That is to say, if they are not stressed, they are doing something wrong!

And so the first step in beating work stress is to change the mentality that stress is normal and you just have to learn to live with it.

It’s easy to underestimate how much work stress affects your life.

Being constantly stressed at work, day in and day out, is not okay. You have to take the responsibility to take control and do something about it.

When work stress becomes a permanent fixture in your work life because the pressures are relentless, it can start impacting your mental and physical health. And then long-term exposure to unmanaged workplace stress is when even more significant problems begin to surface, like feelings of burnout and depression. This is the point where you feel completely out of gas and feel your obstacles are insurmountable.

So if you feel you are feeling exhausted and burned out because of the stress at work, I have some practical strategies to help you tackle your anxiety.

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HOW TO DEAL WITH WORK STRESS

1: Assign A Time Frame For Your Stress & Worries

Think about it, how productive are you when you are stressed? Your creativity and problem-solving abilities tank when you are stressed because your thoughts are focused on your stress and worries.

So what can you do?

It’s simple: postpone your stress. Yes, you heard me right, and it is absolutely possible to do. Instead of trying to get rid of your stress, give yourself the permission to have the stress but postpone worrying and thinking about it to a later time when you are less occupied in your day.

So what you are technically doing is scheduling in a stress time slot in your day. The best time that has worked for me in the past is between 4:30 & 5:00 pm.

Next, you must keep this stress postponement strategy process top of mind. So when it’s not yet time and stressful or anxious thought creeps in, just make a note of it and then continue with your workday, knowing that you will come back to it later.

And, when it’s your scheduled time, you can let loose and stress about all the things on your list. But remember, you have a strict time frame rule for worrying, which you must stick to.

During this time, think about what exactly is making you feel stressed. The best way to understand what’s bothering you is to allow it to surface by journaling about it. And once you pinpoint what is actually troubling you, you can start thinking about whether there is anything you can actually do about it.

In most cases, stress stems from fear of things that have not happened yet and might not even occur, i.e., they are actually out of your control. If it is something beyond your control, the best you can do is decide how to deal with the unknown. Ask yourself, is there any point in worrying about it now? Can you spend your energy doing something more productive? This will help you turn the stress and anxiety into a source of strength by TAKING CONTROL OF THE SITUATION.

But suppose your stress is because of a current situation where it’s realistic to be worried. In that case, TAKING CONSTRUCTIVE ACTION that will help reduce your stress is the best way to deal with it. Being proactive will reduce anxiety because you are taking action against it.

Assigning a time frame for your stress and worries is one of the most effective ways to stop dwelling on your stress and continue having productive workdays. And by not suppressing the tension but rather making time to come up with the best plan of action, you learn to take better control of your worries and anxiety.

2: Battle The Anxious Thoughts That Cause You to Stress.

Yes, it’s a battle, and you have to train your brain to conquer your stressful and worrying thoughts.

Our mind sees the world as a more threatening place than it actually is. Isn’t it true that it is so much easier to come up with negative thoughts, and you have to force yourself to create a positive spin on whatever is happening at work?

So first and foremost, you have to START TRUSTING YOURSELF, trusting your abilities to handle work and life’s problems. Because if you believe in yourself that you can manage whatever comes your way, those stressful thoughts would not even pop up as frequently as they do now.

The key to giving up the habit of constantly stressing at work is to wake up every morning, stand in front of the mirror, and tell yourself that you’ve got this. You are ready to face challenges that come your way because you are strong and empowered.

Second, start treating the things that worry you as hypotheses and not facts. If you treat it as a hypothesis and crazy ideas, you take away its power, and it becomes easier to fight them.

Building the habit to challenge your stressors is an excellent way to develop a more balanced perspective towards the things that cause anxiety.

For example, if you worry that you will get laid off because your work is not good enough, tell yourself this is not a fact but a hypothesis you have created. This will trigger your mind not to treat it as an imminent threat. And it’s much easier to combat hypothesis versus facts.

3: Get Comfortable With Being Uncomfortable

We all want to feel like we are in control at work and of our lives. But worrying about the future and the uncertainties in life will not give you the control you are looking for. Worrying and stressing do not change outcomes. Taking action determines the outcome and helps you be in more power.

The trick here is simple: First, you have to accept that problems and obstacles at work are inevitable. They are going to present themselves whether you like them or not. And second, you have to learn to stand firm in front of these challenges and fight them. You must train yourself to fight these inevitable road bumps by crossing over with minimal impact.

It’s all about how you perceive challenges at work and in life. It’s easy to go down the worrisome spiral when things don’t go as planned. But you need to avoid doing that and see the challenge as a learning opportunity to develop yourself and your skillset. Learn to embrace what life is teaching you. When you embrace the challenging moments and do not drown yourself under stressful thoughts, the solutions and resiliency to overcome your problem become more apparent and possible.

Final Thoughts on Work Stress and Anxiety

Work-related stress can get the best of all of us, even if you love what you do. While you are not in control of what challenges come your way at work and in life, you control how you respond to these challenges.

All the strategies we discussed entailed you breaking the habit of dwelling in your stressful thoughts and taking the responsibility to keep the job stress to its minimum.

Create a time frame for your stress,
Battle your anxious thoughts by labeling them as a mere hypotheses and not facts
Learn to embrace uncertainty and challenges at work and in life.

You have to learn how to take back control over your work and life stressors. And practicing these three strategies in your everyday work challenges will help you do exactly that.

Good Luck!

P.S. If you feel burned out from work, check out my free guide: 5 Best Ways to Avoid Burnout at Work.

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Tips on how to recover from exhaustion and overwhelm, so you get back the motivation for work and finally remove the dread.
Exercises to build a personalized plan to take better care of yourself, avoid burnout, and feel more relaxed.
Techniques on how to unplug & unwind so you can consistently have improved energy levels and more positive moods in your day-to-day.

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