How to manage work stress: 10 practical tips

Several tips to learn how to manage work stress and prevent it from damaging our quality of life.

Everyone feels work stress at some point in their professional life, no matter how much they like their job. Schedules, coworkers, deadlines, fear of dismissal and many more are reasons for worry and stress at work.

A little stress is motivating and necessary to achieve goals, but when this stress is constant it can lead to health problems, relationship problems and poor work performance.

It is for this reason that learning how to manage work stress can be of great help, both in the workplace and at work.We will see, below, ways to manage this problem in the workplace as well as in our personal life.

How to manage work stress properly, step by step

Stress is something that is present in our lives and it is normal, especially in the workplace. When we work we need to be wide awake and know what we are doing to avoid accidents, meet the objectives assigned to us and deliver reports and other documents within the agreed deadlines. However, in certain situations this stress is not at all adaptive, harming our health, affecting our performance and damaging our relationships..

The causes of work stress are very diverse, but among them we can find an excessive workload, having few breaks, not knowing what are the functions of our job, having poor working conditions, poor relations with the boss and colleagues, uncertainty about the future, feeling of lack of control, lack of job support or poor communication in the company, among many others.

Due to all this, there are many forms of discomfort that we can suffer from work-related stress. Among the most important are heart problems, back pain, mood problems, immune system problems, anger attacks, and poor relationships with our close circle. and poor relationships with our close circle, which will cause even more stress. In addition, it is common to feel an enormous sense of apathy and frustration.

It is a kind of discomfort that should not be taken lightly. To avoid all this, we will now look at how to manage work stress, focusing on the quality of the job, our relationship with it, strategies to reduce our anxiety and ways to channel it.

1. Take a break

It is essential to have a little time to disconnect at the workplace.. Taking a break can be the best way to reduce stress and return to the task with a clearer and clearer mind.

We can try to rest by taking a short walk, having a healthy snack such as an infusion or reading a book that we have taken to the workplace.

In case we cannot leave the task for more than ten minutes or our job does not allow us to leave the office, one option is to close our eyes for five minutes and breathe deeply.

2. Describe the job

Although it may seem strange, on many occasions job stress is caused by not knowing exactly what tasks are to be performed.

Describing the job, identifying tasks that should not be assigned to us or knowing more clearly what we have to do are ways to deal with the uncertainty and ambiguity that often appear in jobs.

Once these ambiguities are overcome, it is possible to be clear about what must be done, who to turn to when something goes wrong and what our responsibilities are.

3. Establish reasonable goals

It is very important to set reasonable and realistic goals that do not consume too much or take up all our available time. Do not accept more work than can be done with good time management..

If the boss gives us a task that we are not sure we can perform on time, we should talk to him to raise the possibility of breaking it down into smaller and easily achievable goals, and thus do a better quality job without burning out.

4. Manage the use of technology

It often happens that we get home, look at our cell phone, see a notification from our boss and get nervous: we have taken our work home, even though the day is over.

We must set limits to the work notifications by establishing a schedule in which we can be found available and having our cell phone, pager or work mail disconnected.We should set a time limit on work alerts by establishing a schedule when we can be reached and having our cell phone, pager or work e-mail disconnected after a certain time, such as dinner time or in the evening.

5. Organize on the basis of priorities

A good way to avoid work stress is to organize your workplace properly, by establishing which pending tasks must be done the first few days of the week.. One idea is to take a piece of paper and write down in order of highest to lowest priority those tasks that must be done, either during the day or during the week.

This will help us to organize ourselves better, it will motivate us to get down to work and it will take away the uncertainty of not knowing how to start or how to continue.

6. Enjoy during the week

On many occasions, work stress is not due to the fact that our work is stressful in itself or that something bad has happened to us at work.

It often happens that we get stressed and frustrated because we have focused too much on our work, to such an extent that by the time we realize it, it is already done. when we realize that it is already dark and we do not have time to enjoy our hobbies.We can do things like playing sports, watching movies, meeting up with friends or enjoying time with our family.

To the extent that our work allows us, especially if we have a flexible schedule, a very good way to avoid this frustration is to reserve a time during the week to do what we like.

Enjoying activities during the week that are pleasurable to us will make us not feel bad for having let work eat up our free time because we will have really enjoyed it..

7. Avoid multitasking

We are bombarded with the message that we are capable of doing all kinds of things at once. Well, that's not true, especially when we are working. If we want what we have been assigned to do well, we must avoid multitasking at all costs..

It is much better to do only one thing, concentrating on what we are doing and making sure that everything is going well, than not trying to do two or more at the same time and not realizing that we are making mistakes.

If we have more than one job to do, the best thing to do, as we have already mentioned, is to organize ourselves according to which tasks are a priority. Allocating time and energy to more than one task at a time will only lead to poor performance and deteriorate our health.

8. Support from family and friends

If we suffer from work stress it is very important that our circle of friends and family know about it.. Not only so that they give us their unconditional support, but also so that they understand that it is not good for us to be put under pressure when we have had enough at work.

The support of family and friends and their understanding of how hard we are going through are a protective factor against psychopathology. They can help us manage stress, and they can suggest ways that have worked for them to reduce stress in their jobs.

9. Knowing when to quit

Sometimes work causes us so much stress that it is not at all healthy to continue in it.. If this is the case, you should find out when is the best time to quit your job and see what job options are available to you.

It may be the case that there are no more jobs to aspire to, which, if we find ourselves unemployed, could cause us more stress. We should study all the options and decide what we think is the best for us.

10. Seeing a psychologist

To develop healthy habits is fundamental to be able to face the stress and to be able to avoid it. In addition to good self-care habits such as good sleep hygiene, a good diet, exercise and not abusing tobacco, coffee and alcohol, it is important to see a psychologist.

This psychological health professional will study our case, will see how much stress we are suffering and will choose one therapeutic option or another, suitable for each case.suitable for each case.

He/she will also be able to help us decide if it is appropriate to continue working where we are working or if it would be advisable to look for another job, if the one we have is exhausting us physically and mentally.

Bibliographical references:

• Mutual, M. C. (2008). Stop al Estrés: Cómo gestionar el Estrés Laboral. Barcelona: MC Mutual.
• Osorio, J. E., & Niño, L. C. (2017). Job stress: a review study. Diversitas, 13(1), 81-90.
• Silla, J. M. P. (2001). Job stress: an individual and collective perspective. Prevention, work and health: Journal of the National Institute of Safety and Hygiene at Work,(13), 18, 38.