How to manage pressure at work: 10 simple tips
Several tips and recommendations to prevent and combat work pressure.
It is natural that at times we feel pressured by our workload; eventually it happens to all of us either for reasons related to our profession or for external factors that make things difficult (having small children, poor sleep habits, etc.).
The key is to know how to manage the pressure at work and not let this situation become an unsolvable problem. In this article we will give an overview of some useful psychological tools so that you can cope with work pressure when it arises in your life, and thus prevent your performance and your quality of life from being affected by too high levels of stress.
How to manage pressure at work
In the following lines you can find some tips on how to manage pressure at work in an adaptive way, which will help you maintain a good performance at work without affecting your emotional stability..
1. The habit of planning
Planning is an important protective resource against the pressure that can sometimes represent our workload, taking into consideration that when we are able to adequately plan our time is yielded in a more effective way and it is less likely that we are invaded by stress due to lack of time..
2. Learn to delegate functions
As much as possible, delegating part of our workload helps to maintain better control and order. helps to maintain better control and order over our activities.. Otherwise, when we voluntarily try to cover all the functions is when the stress of not being able to do it even if we try to do so occurs.
3. Give value to moments of rest
Undervaluing moments of rest is a common mistake, promoted by the thought that moments of rest are unproductive. Nothing could be further from the truth, when we rest we are protecting our nervous system. we are protecting our nervous system from stress and the excessive pressure of work..
Ideally, rest should be meaningful, that is, we should try to free our mind from thoughts related to our job and take advantage of those free moments to enjoy the things that bring us peace.
Positive thoughts related to the things we will be able to do once our workday is over are a good choice to motivate us during our breaks. Not everything is workIf you are not productive, giving yourself time to have a cup of coffee and think about the good things in your life is also being productive.
4. Good eating habits
Having a good diet, balanced between proteins, lipids, carbohydrates, vitamins and minerals, is essential to keep us away from excessive work pressure.
When we eat the right foods we help our organism to function better and not to waste energy.. On a psychological level, this also makes us feel better.
5. Implement exercise routines
Physical exercise promotes a lot of benefits to our life, among which are the release of neurotransmitters (serotonin, dopamine, melatonin, etc.) that help to combat the levels of pressure and distress in all aspects.
6. Strengthens your self-esteem
When we are self-confident and confident in our abilities, we are less likely to be invaded by work pressure. Self-esteem is a protective factor against the adverse circumstances of our environment, and if it is not well established, we must strengthen it.If it is not well established, we must strengthen it.
There are some practical and very effective techniques to strengthen our self-esteem. Among them we have; to make a list with all our virtues, so that we can recognize them and focus better on them, etc.
7. Avoid rigid thinking
We need to use our imagination more to avoid stress and work pressure. We must be able to get out of conventional methods to solve complicated situations that may arise in our work environment.
People who rely on their imagination have the ability to evaluate different scenarios and are less likely to stagnate. are less likely to get bogged down in trying to trying to solve situations in a way that has not worked for them before.
8. Relaxation techniques
When we learn to relax in the right way, we avoid the pressure of the job to succumb to it. Some simple techniques such as breathing exercises and visualization can be very useful to diminish the harmful effects of the pressure at work.
9. Try to communicate properly
In many cases the main trigger of the pressure at work is the lack of communication, or to make a bad use of the same one. For example, not daring to say that an assistant is needed to carry part of the workload that has been assigned to us.
We must avoid hostile communication at all costsInstead, we should try to use more adaptive resources to deliver our message.
Assertive communication is mainly based on carrying our message taking care of both the content and the form of the message, that is, using appropriate language and a tone of voice according to the social norms of respect.
10. Introspection
Introspection is the ability to review ourselves objectively, without letting our emotions bias our judgment. In other words, it is to identify in ourselves what are the causes of our behaviors.
In this way we will make the personal motives that motivate our behavior come to a conscious level and we will be able to work on improving our reality from a more personal conception of it.
Bibliographical references:
- Ruotsalainen, J.H.; Verbeek, J.H.; Mariné, A.; Serra, C. (2015). "Preventing occupational stress in healthcare workers". The Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews (4): CD002892.
- Van Dierendonck, D.; Schaufeli, W. B.; Buunk, B. P. (1998). "The evaluation of an individual burnout intervention program: The role of inequity and social support". Journal of Applied Psychology. 83 (3): 392 - 407.
(Updated at Apr 12 / 2024)