Find Some Time For Yourself To Pursue Hobbies Or Interests That Are Not Work
Studies have shown that people who pursue hobbies and interests outside of work are more productive and satisfied with their careers. If you’re feeling overworked or feel workplace stress, try dedicating a few hours per week to this task. You’ll be happy you did!
Hobbies are your free-time activities. They are what you want to do, even if your brain is engaged in other things. Hobbies help you release stress. You can choose to do your favorite activity after a long and stressful day at work.
Having hobbies can also help you build an excellent impression with your employees. It is a perfect way to let them know that you have other interests and more to your personality than just the work you do. Having a way to relieve stress can help you feel more satisfied and happier and help increase your productivity.
Task Management Tips For Reducing Job Stress
Prioritize tasks. Tackle high-priority tasks first. If you have something particularly unpleasant to do, get it over with early. The rest of your day will be more pleasant as a result.
Break projects into small steps. If a large project seems overwhelming, focus on one manageable step at a time, rather than taking on everything at once.
Delegate responsibility. You dont have to do it all yourself. Let go of the desire to control every little step. Youll be letting go of unnecessary stress in the process.
Be willing to compromise. Sometimes, if you and a co-worker or boss can both adjust your expectations a little, youll be able to find a happy middle ground that reduces the stress levels for everyone.
Stay Off Of Social Media As Much As Possible During Work
Constant connection and the interruption of technology can increase your stress levels.
Social media, for example, can make you aware of stressful events happening to other people or in other places. They might not have any bearing on your life, but you allow yourself to feel stressed about them anyway. Itâs called the cost of caring.
As an interruption, social media and text messages can also add to stress. University of California Irvine found that employees who received a lot of emails were more stressed. They stayed in a âhigh alertâ mode all the time. Being constantly connected and going back and forth in response on social media or via text messages does the same thing. Additionally, it distracts you and slows you down and you end up feeling stress as you rush to catch up with the work you didnât do because you were busy on your phone.
Stay off social media and mobile devices as much as possible when on the job. The last thing you need is drama via social media or text messaging while youâre trying to get your work done.
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Assess Your Skills And Resources
Look at the work that you do. What are your biggest frustrations? Where are you most inefficient? Where are your bottlenecks ?
These situations often point to a lack of tools, resources, skills development, or help all of which can contribute to workplace stress.
You need to keep your skill set under continual review, particularly if your organization is developing new ways of working. You also need to have the right equipment, and know how to use it.
Make a list of what you need. Let your boss know what you’re lacking, and explain how these items will improve your productivity and effectiveness. If your boss can’t provide the resources that you need, think about how you might be able to negotiate for them with others, or acquire them on your own.
Take Time To Recharge
Taking even a few minutes of personal time during a busy day can help prevent burnout.
Listening to an interesting podcast in between meetings or watching a funny Youtube video can give you relaxing pauses throughout the day.
Its also important to take breaks from thinking about your job by not checking work-related emails on your time off or disconnecting from your phone in the evenings.
Sometimes, feeling overwhelmed by work comes down to how organized you are. Try setting up a priority list at the beginning of your work week by preparing tasks and ranking them according to importance.
You can also beat procrastination by setting aside specific time blocks for deep concentration work.
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Example Answers To How Do You Deal With Stress
Example answer #1:
Ive found that stress at work often comes from having too many tasks to handle. So the first thing I do is step back and prioritize. I cant do 10 things at once, but I can take time to identify which tasks are the highest priority and then take care of the most important things first. Also, Ive found that communicating well with other team members is key. If Im overwhelmed, Ive learned to ask for help or to clarify my priorities with my boss to make sure Im working on the most essential things first. I think stressful situations pop up in any job, but if you stay calm and level-headed and keep your team members informed, the stress doesnt need to hurt your productivity.
Example answer #2:
I like to take ten minutes to write down everything thats on my plate in terms of work, and determine why Im feeling stressed. Then, I look at what actions I can take to move my work forward most effectively that day. This helps me look at the situation logically instead of getting overwhelmed. For example, in my last job, I had days where I couldnt possibly complete every request from customers that I received. However, by identifying the most crucial tasks and doing them first, I was able to keep our customers happy and finish the secondary tasks a day or two later.
Example answer #3 :
Note that you can also use the sample answers above if they ask, how do you work under pressure? Its essentially the same interview question.
To See If You Know How Pressure Affects You
You might be surprised to know that employers dont actually want to hear that you never feel stressed, or that youve never been involved in a stressful situation.
Aside from the fact that it will seem like youre being dishonest, denying that youve ever been stressed will leave the employer wondering how youd react if ever you were. Realistically, everyone has experienced stress at some point in their lives.
Likewise, all graduate jobs will be stressful at one time or another – so an employer will be looking for confirmation that you can handle the pressure, and have the experience to back up your statement.
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Managing Stress During The Interview
Job interviews are stressful for most people. Even if you’ve interviewed a lot, it can still be challenging to stay calm and collected. You’re meeting new people in a new environment, and you’re trying to sell your credentials to someone who might be your next boss.
There are strategies you can use to handle interview stress and to sell yourself to the hiring manager.
A big part of handling stress is preparation. Be sure to research the company in advance and practice answering common interview questions. The more you practice, the more comfortable youll feel in the interview.
You can also reduce stress by avoiding negative thinking . Instead, visualize having a successful interview . Do this visualization in the hours right before the interview.
Use these relaxation techniques. If you start to feel stressed just before the interview, try taking a deep breath or two to relax. During the interview, feel free to take a breath or a sip of water before answering a question. This will give you some time to compose yourself and prepare your answer.
Watch your body language. Your body language during the interview can also help convey that you’re relaxed. Try to avoid fidgeting too much. Stand up straight and look the interviewer in the eye . By appearing calm and confident, you are more likely to feel calm and confident.
Being able to effectively handle a stressful job interview will indicate to employers that you’ll also be able to handle workplace stress.
Identify Work Stress Among Employees
Exposure to a little stress from time to time is very natural and healthy. Sometimes it even helps to work extra well. With stress, the body produces adrenaline, which gives you a boost and improves your performance. Think for example of top athletes. When they are under pressure, they make an extra effort due to the release of the stress hormone, adrenaline. Because of this, the body thinks that danger is imminent and creates action. For example, such a runner runs even faster and perhaps sets a record time. However, when someone suffers from stress for a long time, this can cause many unpleasant symptoms. It is therefore important that you ensure that it does not develop to this stage. You can keep an eye on your own boundaries. But how do you find out if you have employees who suffer from too much stress?
How to reduce stress in teams?
Have you tried a lot without impact?
Look at our training stress prevention
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Start Your Day Off Right
After scrambling to get the kids fed and off to school, dodging traffic and combating road rage, and gulping down coffee in lieu of a healthy breakfast, many people arrive to work already stressed. This makes them more reactive to stress in the workplace.
You might be surprised by how affected by workplace stress you are when you have a stressful morning. When you start off the day with planning, good nutrition, and a positive attitude, you might find that the stress of your job rolls off your back more easily.
Tip : Dont Skimp On Sleep
You may feel like you just dont have the time get a full nights sleep. But skimping on sleep interferes with your daytime productivity, creativity, problem-solving skills, and ability to focus. The better rested you are, the better equipped youll be to tackle your job responsibilities and cope with workplace stress.
Improve the quality of your sleep by making healthy changes to your daytime and nightly routines. For example, go to bed and get up at the same time every day, even on weekends, be smart about what you eat and drink during the day, and make adjustments to your sleep environment. Aim for 8 hours a nightthe amount of sleep most adults need to operate at their best.
Turn off screens one hour before bedtime. The light emitted from TV, tablets, smartphones, and computers suppresses your bodys production of melatonin and can severely disrupt your sleep.
Avoid stimulating activity and stressful situations before bedtime such as catching up on work. Instead, focus on quiet, soothing activities, such as reading or listening to soft music, while keeping lights low.
Stress and shift work
Working night, early morning, or rotating shifts can impact your sleep quality, which in turn may affect productivity and performance, leaving you more vulnerable to stress.
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Find Ways To Stay Calm
Stress can often cause you to stop breathing for several seconds, even though you may not realize it. When you’re feeling stressed, practice deep breathing exercises . Deep, slow breathing floods your body with oxygen, slowing your heart rate, relaxing your muscles, and helping you to focus.
You might also want to practice yoga or meditation after work both are effective methods of managing stress.
Frequent daily breaks and regular vacations are also important for reducing work stress. Even a long weekend can help you to de-stress after a tough week. When you do take a break or go on vacation, leave work at work. Taking a “working vacation” won’t give you the time that you need to rest and recharge.
Stressful Situation Example 5
I often find that helping colleagues with their stressful situations or any problems they come across, enables me to put my problems into perspective. I can give advice on how to deal with certain circumstances and in return, my colleagues sometimes help me with my problems too. Sharing a problem often takes a great deal of weight off, as the saying goes – a problem shared is a problem halved!
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Focus On Your Strengths
When answering a question associated with workplace stress or pressure, it is only fair to be talking about issues you have come across in your workplace. Consider your strengths and try sharing your experiences from a learning and constructive viewpoint, as it can position you as an optimist and an analytical thinker. Through such a question, the employers want to know how you succeeded despite adversities at the workplace. They want to know your story of resolving the situation to develop a solution to the problem. Here is an example:
“My work as a marketing manager at an advertising firm required me to prepare marketing briefs to send to the clients and discuss their requirements before we began executing on a project. Once I mistakenly sent the wrong data brief to one of our international clients and they agreed to move ahead with the project without reading the brief since they trusted our judgement. Since I was not aware of the incorrect data that we sent, we started with the project and it only came to our attention while we were handling online advertising.
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Task Management Tips To Reduce Stress At Work
- Prioritize tasks. Make a list of the tasks you need to complete and tackle them in order of importance. Tackle high priority items and unpleasant tasks first. This will make the rest of your day more enjoyable and less stressful.
- Break big projects down into small, manageable steps. Focus on one manageable step at a time, rather than taking it all in at once.
- Delegate responsibility. You don’t have to do everything yourself. If other people can do the job, why not let them? Let go of the desire to control or supervise every little step. In so doing, you let go of unnecessary stress.
- Be willing to compromise. If you ask someone to engage in a task differently, revise a deadline, or change their behavior at work, you should be willing to do the same. Sometimes, if you can both bend a little, you will be able to find a happy middle ground that reduces stress levels for all involved.
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How Do I Avoid Stress
You may be surprised to hear it, but you can control much of the pressure in your life! Often, we create work-related stress for ourselves through bad planning or by setting unrealistic expectations.
Its easier said than done, but having some basic techniques at your disposal can help you avoid many of the stressful situations that a lot of people experience:
- Dont leave things to the last minute.
- Dont say yes whenever youre asked to take on a new piece of work.
- Take steps to motivate yourself and avoid procrastination.
- Learn to plan ahead and prioritise.
This last point is perhaps the most important of all. If you have two weeks to revise for an exam, and try to learn the whole syllabus, youll go into the exam hall feeling stressed and worn out. Far better to use your time to learn the most important content thoroughly.
And of course, an even better example of good planning would be to start your revision earlier and make sure you do have time to cover everything!
Reduce Work Stress : Keep Moving
A healthy mind in a healthy body. That is an ancient wisdom that most people support. However, exercising is often one of the first things we remove from our schedule when we are busy. No time for that. Nevertheless, it is more important than ever to keep exercising and moving during busy periods.
For example, when running, the cortisol level in your blood drops . It also appears to help you deal with stress better. People who are physically fit can handle stressful situations better. Of course, running is not for everyone. But walking for half an hour at a heart rhythm of approximately 120 bpm also has a beneficial effect. The principle is clear: make sure you have enough exercise to dispel the stress from your body.
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Perfect Answers To How Do You Handle Stress Interview Question
Stress is a normal human response, and we all deal with it in different ways. If youre in an interview and the employer asks you how you handle stress, its because they know youre going to deal with stress at some point in the workplace and they want to know how it will affect you.
How an employee handles stress is a pretty big indicator of how well they will work under pressure, and if youre interviewing for a job where stress will be a regular occurrence, the employer needs to know youll be able to keep your cool even in a stressful situation.
Here are some dos and donts on answering the question How do you handle stress?
Stay Calm And Collected
Interviewers often observe nonverbal cues. Since the interview itself can be considered a pressure situation, answering this question in a calm and confident manner is even more important than for other questions. As you verbally express your confidence, your tone and demeanor should be fully aligned with your words. This manner may help you gain the interviewers trust and help them feel confident that the rest of your answers are also truthful.
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