How to manage stress at work: 10 practical tips

Recommendations to prevent stress at work from weighing down our performance and well-being.

Everyone can experience stress at work, no matter how much they love their job. Stress, in itself, is not a bad thing: it is our natural mechanism to keep us awake, motivated and goal-directed.

However, this stress, if sustained over the long term, affects us physically and mentally, making us less efficient at our jobs and also more prone to health problems.

Here we will learn how to we are going to learn how to manage work stress, as well as to understand how it originates and what problems it can cause us..

How to manage work stress?

As much as we like our job, there is no doubt that it can be a source of stress. Stress, like any other emotion, is adaptive. It is a physiological, psychological and behavioral response that helps us adapt to internal and external pressures.

In other words, stress is our body's way of coping with the situation, to keep us active and awake, so that we do not let our guard down so that we do not let our guard down and concentrate all our resources on accomplishing the task we have been given.

Stress, like joy, sadness or anger, is part of our emotional repertoire and is therefore necessary. The problem comes when it remains constant for a long time. This stress, already transformed into anxiety, can generate all kinds of health problems, such as Heart problems, back pain, headaches, stomach discomfort, depression, sleep disturbances, immune system problems, as well as making us more prone to accidents at work.

The causes of this work stress can be several but, of course, all of them depend on how comfortable the worker feels in his job or how he interacts with the rest of the organization.

It can be related to an excessive workload, such as working too many hours, having too few breaks, having a poorly defined role at workAnd, of course, having problems with other workers, such as co-workers and especially the boss, are common sources of stress.

Whatever the cause of work stress and however it manifests itself, there is no doubt that it can be very harmful to our employment. According to several researches, suffering from anxiety at work can significantly reduce work productivity, reaching up to 30% reduction. It is for this reason that it is especially advisable to reduce this emotion in the workplace, whether you are aware that you are suffering from it or if you see other colleagues or subordinates displaying it.Whether you are aware that you are suffering from it or if you see other colleagues or subordinates expressing it.

10 ways to cope with discomfort

The first thing to understand about trying to manage work stress is that there is no magic formula that will solve it all at once. This is like everything else in life: you must be consistent.

Routinely applying the following strategies is the best way to reduce work stress.. Thus, not only we will feel better and we will not be so burned out with work, but we will also be much more efficient, something that never hurts.

1. Plan your work

Disorganization and stress go hand in hand. When we do not plan, all the tasks we have been sent accumulate or we end up delivering them after the deadline. The best way to manage or, directly, avoid stress is to plan.

Planning your work may seem like a no-brainer, but... how many of us have a "planning" of when we should do each task? Managing our time, knowing how, when and what we spend it on is the best way to avoid having to do at the last minute everything we were supposed to have done during the last few weeks.

You don't need to be too sophisticated when it comes to scheduling activities. It is enough to take an agenda or a calendar and put, realistically but in due time, all the tasks to be done. Also You can also choose to use mobile applications, such as Google Calendar, and set reminders from time to time..

2. Set goals

Every worker is efficient to the extent that he/she sets realistic objectives and goals, and achieves them. It is much preferable to set small, achievable goals in the short and medium term, rather than big goals that have to be met in six months' time.

At first glance, this may seem counterproductive, since it gives the impression that having daily obligations is more stressful than setting a goal to be achieved in a relatively distant time. However, the stress of small daily tasks is more stressful than setting a goal to be achieved in a relatively distant time, the stress of small daily tasks is much more manageable than the stress that will eventually come with the big resolution..

In addition, making daily goals little by little has great advantages for our self-esteem, since when we have to face a new one we will have already had the precedent of all the many more we have already done.

In addition, facing new goals frequently is a very good strategy to maintain our motivation and job satisfaction, since we humans like novelty.

3. Be assertive

Sometimes, what causes us stress in the workplace is not the work itself, but the place and the people we have to be with. the place and the people we have to be around.. It may be that in the office the air conditioning is at a freezing or sub-Saharan temperature, there is a lot of noise, colleagues tell jokes and laugh out loud....

All these factors, which are not directly related to work and may seem very trivial, can affect our well-being if they bother us a lot. Less well-being translates into less productivity, something that neither we nor the company is interested in.

This is why it is so important to be assertive and communicate with the person in charge about thisto see if he or she can find a solution. It is very important to say, in good manners, that these discomforts, no matter how small they may seem, are having a negative impact on our work performance.

4. Learning to say no

Many times, either because of social pressure or because we are "goody-goodies", we accept tasks that do not correspond to us, such as helping a colleague to finish a report or helping a colleague to finish a report.We often accept tasks that do not belong to us, such as helping a colleague finish a report or working overtime to finish something that should be done by someone else.

To the extent that this task is not really ours to do and that we can avoid doing it without endangering our job, it is highly recommended to learn to say no.

It is clear that in the workplace, colleagues are not just that.. In any company where there is a good dynamic and work culture, employees can be friends and enjoy their free time together. However, that is no reason to allow others to take advantage of us and burden us with their tasks.

5. Disconnect

Sitting in a chair and staring at a screen for hours at a time is not comfortable. Neither is stocking grocery store shelves or carrying sacks on a construction site. Whatever the type of work we do, it is clear that repetitive and monotonous work exhausts us mentally and physically..

A good way to break the monotony is to look for moments when we can disconnect, even if only briefly. We can stretch our legs, go for a herbal tea, talk to a colleague about a non-work-related topic... these are ways to clear our minds of stress.

6. Relaxation

One of the best ways to combat stress is relaxation. When we are at work, it is very important to find a time when we can take a break and relax. a moment in which we can take time for ourselves and our mind, clear it and free it from the burden of the workday. in order to be able to continue it in the best possible way.

There are many relaxation techniques that do not require many materials, such as yoga, guided meditation and techniques such as Jacobson's progressive relaxation or Mindfulness. All these relaxation strategies are ideal because they help us to have a greater capacity for self-control and management of emotions.

It is also very important to control breathing, breathing in slowly and deeply, several times. This will slow down the heartbeat, reduce anxiety levels and calm our mind.

7. Exercise

Stress can make us feel very tense, something that we need to release and what better way to release it than by exercising? Exercise is, along with relaxation, the anti-stress strategy par excellence.

Doing sport on a regular basis causes the release of endorphins, hormones which are of great importance for our physical and mental health, since they induce a great sense of well-being.endorphins, hormones which are of great importance for our physical and mental health, since they induce a great sense of well-being. In addition, exercise makes it easier for us to fall asleep at night, making us face the next day with energy.

8. Get a good night's sleep

The best way to face our working day is to get a good night's sleep. We cannot expect to give 100% of ourselves if we have had very poor sleep..

Sleeping less than 6 hours, going to sleep later than 12 o'clock and having a very light sleep is fatal to our work performance and significantly reduces our performance.

Because of this, when we are on the job and we see that we cannot do what is asked of us quickly and well, we will feel very frustrated, and that is when job stress comes.

One of the best ways to prevent poor quality sleep is to restrict the use of electronic devices, especially cell phones, computers and television. It has been shown that using screens during the two hours before we go to bed affects our ability to fall asleep quickly.

9. Reduce stressful substances

Caffeine, alcohol and tobacco are stress-inducing substances. Although caffeine is the healthiest of the three, it is, at the same time, the one that can produce the most anxiety.

We should reduce the consumption of coffee or tea both at work and at home, since the more cups we drink, the more nervous we will be. Also it is also very important to avoid its consumption after 18h since it interferes a lot in our capacity to go to sleep.

As for tobacco and alcohol, these substances, in case of consuming them, it is not appropriate to do so at the workplace. Not only because of their obvious health problems, such as causing lung and larynx cancer, but, like coffee, they are potent stress inducers, especially when they cannot be consumed.

10. You are what you eat

The saying "you are what you eat" applies to absolutely everything, and stress is no exception.. In addition to what we have already discussed with caffeine, tobacco and alcohol, there are foods that induce anxiety. That is why eating a healthy diet helps to combat and avoid stress.

It is recommended to avoid heavy meals, especially at dinner time. It is also important to eat five times a day since this way the body will not have so much pressure when it comes to metabolize what is consumed, having more energy and performing better. And it is also very important to eat 5 pieces of fruit and vegetables every day.

Bibliographic references:

• Quick, J. C., Quick, J. D., Nelson, D. L., & Hurrell, J. J., Jr. (1997). Preventive stress management in organizations. American Psychological Association. https://doi.org/10.1037/10238-000
• Kirkcaldy, B., Cooper, C. L., & Ruffalo, P. (1995). Work Stress and Health in a Sample of U.S. Police. Psychological Reports, 76(2), 700–702. https://doi.org/10.2466/pr0.1995.76.2.700