Stop Taking On Other Peoples Problems
The whole advantage of other people having problems is that they arent your problems. When you frequently take on other peoples problems, you get into the habit of enabling.
Lets get crystal clear about the definition of enabling: enabling is the art of continuing to take responsibility for other people, thereby disallowing their personal responsibility.
Some people develop an addiction to drugs, alcohol, or food. Others choose the seemingly kinder, gentler addiction of enabling. It is of no service to other people to take on their problems because they cant/wont/dont know how to fix the problem.
It is of service to empower others to take responsibility for themselves and their lives, to encourage, teach, and motivate others to address their own problems.
Time Management Tips For Reducing Job Stress
Create a balanced schedule. All work and no play is a recipe for burnout. Try to find a balance between work and family life, social activities and solitary pursuits, daily responsibilities and downtime.
Leave earlier in the morning. Even 10-15 minutes can make the difference between frantically rushing and having time to ease into your day. If youre always running late, set your clocks and watches fast to give yourself extra time and decrease your stress levels.
Plan regular breaks. Make sure to take short breaks throughout the day to take a walk, chat with a friendly face, or practice a relaxation technique. Also try to get away from your desk or work station for lunch. It will help you relax and recharge and be more, not less, productive.
Establish healthy boundaries. Many of us feel pressured to be available 24 hours a day or obliged to keep checking our smartphones for work-related messages and updates. But its important to maintain periods where youre not working or thinking about work. That may mean not checking emails or taking work calls at home in the evening or at weekends.
Dont over-commit yourself. Avoid scheduling things back-to-back or trying to fit too much into one day. If youve got too much on your plate, distinguish between the shoulds and the musts. Drop tasks that arent truly necessary to the bottom of the list or eliminate them entirely.
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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How To Stay Stress Free At Work
Work and stress are two sides of same coin. Though you cannot separate stress from work, staying stress free at work is possible. Read on to find more about the simple ways to stay stress free at work. Try out these simple tips and find out if you are able to stay stress free at work.
In this article
Draw Lines Between Work And Personal Life
Stress can grow beyond the pressure applied by the stressor if its impact is realized in your personal life. You attended to more patients today and had an unnecessary argument at home. You had to pass on morbid news in the hospital and skipped an important family event in the week. These might seem to be unrelated events, but the correlation is causality.
As a doctor, both your personal and professional life are important to keep a healthy mind at work. And if you are unable to compartmentalize both areas of your life, it can become challenging to deal with stress right when the stressor is present. You can visualize this as an exercise in minimizing collateral damage if it did not happen in that room, you should not exert a reaction.
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Are Your Best Employees Leaving
Employers can often feel that their best employees are continually leaving them, and that may be related to your organization. HR experts have spotted some reasons why good employees quit their jobs.
Among them, the lack of confidence and autonomy, lack of appreciation or recognition, lack of respect, few or no opportunities for growth and development, feeling underutilized, having a bad manager who discharges frustrations and resentment over the team, poor
management, poor communication, excessive workload, lack of support, not finding a balance between work and personal life, lack of inspiration or unhealthy environment, seeing that the other good employees leave, lack of coincidence with the values of the company, and changes in their personal life.
Thus, feeling undervalued is among the main reasons for leaving jobs. You spend many hours at work, sharing time with your colleagues and of course, you want to feel comfortable. Nobody enjoys spending eight or ten hours a day in a place that make them feel unhappy. When you work hard and nobody notices it, or your ideas are not even considered, frustration and unhappiness levels increase.
Tip : Support Your Health With Exercise And Nutrition
When youre overly focused on work, its easy to neglect your physical health. But when youre supporting your health with good nutrition and exercise, youre stronger and more resilient to stress.
Taking care of yourself doesnt require a total lifestyle overhaul. Even small things can lift your mood, increase your energy, and make you feel like youre back in the drivers seat.
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Common Sources Of Work Stress
Certain factors tend to go hand-in-hand with work-related stress. Some common workplace stressors are:
- Low salaries
- Few opportunities for growth or advancement
- Work that isnt engaging or challenging
- Lack of social support
- Not having enough control over job-related decisions
- Conflicting demands or unclear performance expectations
Come Up With Healthy Responses
When you are trying to fight workplace stress, dont indulge in unhealthy coping mechanisms like junk food or alcohol. Instead, you can try developing healthier habits that enable you to relieve stress and make you more active and productive.
Various types of exercise can help you beat stress. Trying yoga can help you center yourself and find peace. Any physical activity after work can be beneficial for you. Setting aside time for taking part in activities that can lift your mood can help you improve your performance at work.
Another healthy stress-reliever is getting enough sleep. A good night of sleep can improve your mood and enable you to give your best at work. You should work on maintaining healthy sleeping habits.
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When Is Workplace Stress Too Much
Stress isnt always bad. A little bit of stress can help you stay focused, energetic, and able to meet new challenges in the workplace. Its what keeps you on your toes during a presentation or alert to prevent accidents or costly mistakes. But in todays hectic world, the workplace too often seems like an emotional roller coaster. Long hours, tight deadlines, and ever-increasing demands can leave you feeling worried, drained, and overwhelmed. And when stress exceeds your ability to cope, it stops being helpful and starts causing damage to your mind and bodyas well as to your job satisfaction.
You cant control everything in your work environment, but that doesnt mean youre powerless, even when youre stuck in a difficult situation. If stress on the job is interfering with your work performance, health, or personal life, its time to take action. No matter what you do for a living, what your ambitions are, or how stressful your job is, there are plenty of things you can do to reduce your overall stress levels and regain a sense of control at work.
Common causes of workplace stress include:
- Fear of being laid off
- More overtime due to staff cutbacks
- Pressure to perform to meet rising expectations but with no increase in job satisfaction
- Pressure to work at optimum levelsall the time!
- Lack of control over how you do your work
Give Someone A Hug Or Kiss
Hugs have been known to release oxytocin, which is a hormone that can lead to relaxation, trust, and compassion. Kissing, on the other hand, helps the brain to release endorphins.
“Kissing relieves stress by creating a sense of connectedness, which releases endorphins, the chemicals that counteract stress and depression,” says Laura Berman, an assistant clinical professor of psychiatry and ob-gyn at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine.
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Stop Living Only In The Past And The Future Get Present In The Moment
Being present in the moment involves being in your body and feeling your feelingstwo things that lots of folks actually dont know how to do.
Ask yourself these two questions: What does fear feel like in your body? What are you afraid of?
If you dont know the answer to these questions, you probably arent present in the moment. Being present involves vulnerability, humility, and openness.
Being in the past or the future involves living in your head and ignoring whats going on in your body and emotions.
The past and the future stop being so relevant and intriguing when youre able to get in your body and feel your feelings. When you can do these two things, you actually want to be in the present moment. Try these tips: How to Live in the Moment and Stop Worrying.
Stress Is Serious Business
Stress releases cortisol, which takes energy away from the prefrontal cortex. And that makes the brain less able to reason and respond well in any given situation. Essentially, youre way less productive, says Joanne Vitali, a certified career coach.
When stress goes up, productivity goes down and that can lead to office burnout. The World Health Organization defines office burnout as a state of vital exhaustion. But its better known as chronic workplace stress that is not being managed successfully.
Understanding how stress impacts your employees health will help you create a healthier workplace. And Millers can help you achieve that. One way to tackle this very serious issue is to implement stress-reducing resources and policies based on how your employees use the distinct spaces within your office environment.
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Write Down Your Stressors
Identifying and recording stressful situations can help you understand whats bothering you. Some of these can be subtle sources of tension, such as an uncomfortable workspace or a long commute.
Keep a journal for 1 week to track your stress triggers and your reactions to them. Make sure to include the people, places, and events that gave you a physical, mental, or emotional response.
As you write, ask yourself:
- How did this make me feel?
- What was my reaction?
- What are some ways of resolving it?
Try To Find Humor In The Situation
Stress isnât funny, but some situations that cause stress can be seen as humorous if you make the effort.
A good laugh is a good thing. Research has shown that laughter reduces stress and has other positive benefits. Not only does it relieve the stress response, but it brings more oxygen into your body, activates your body, and soothes tension.
Being angry or worrying, on the other hand, is extremely unhealthy, harming your heart, your immune system, and even increasing your risk for stroke.
Finding humor in a situation means:
- You never laugh AT a person. No one person is the target of the humor.
- You laugh about the ridiculousness of the situation.
- You compare a situation to a funny metaphor.
- You laugh about a similar situation in the past and try to show the current situation as a temporary problem.
Youâve probably been in that moment where it feels as if a situation could get very ugly very easily, and then someone cracks a joke and the tension seems to immediately leave. Thatâs what youâre aiming for.
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Know The Difference Between Good Stress And Bad Stress
Not all stress is bad, and not all stress can be avoided.
Good stress motivates you. Deadlines, tests, or being asked to speak in front of other people â these are all situations that create stress, but they are also what motivates us. Good stress tends to be short-term and can even enhance or improve brain function. When the pressure is on, the brain sharpens up.
Bad stress, however, is chronic. It harms your health, slows you down, and can even start to inhibit thinking.
Essentially, stress uses your fight-or-flight response. Good stress gives you time to recover from that response, but bad stress locks you into it and wears you down. Itâs important to know the difference between good and bad stress so you know which is the problem and which is actually helping you.
Unhealthy Methods To Deal With Stress
Dealing with stress can be a rather lonely task since only doctors can understand the pressure of being a doctor. And taking up cues from only your peers might not be the best practice for every doctor dealing with stress. Hence, these are the unhealthy methods often used by doctors to deal with stress. It should be noted that the common denominator between these methods is that they exacerbate the impact of stressors in the long run.
Some doctors take it personally and might conflate stress with a lack of competence. If she/he cannot deal with stress, she/he has chosen the wrong line of work. this is the response quite frequently cited by doctors who might be escaping workplace stress in some form. Such responses come from a place of fear.
These erupt in the form of changes in temperament. If they are allowed to become the go-to response for stress, the doctor might end up with anger issues over the long run.
Such mechanisms give a temporary sense of relief but do not solve the problem. Medical professionals engaging in such activities make it more difficult for themselves to deal with stress and might even be putting their patients lives at risk with sub-optimal decision-making fogged by such addictions.
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Take Care Of Yourself
Setting aside time for self-care is a must if you regularly find yourself feeling overwhelmed by work. This means prioritizing sleep, setting aside time for fun, and making sure youre eating throughout the day.
Feel like you dont have the time? Keep in mind that youll likely be able to tackle work issues more effectively when your core needs are being met.
Stay Away From Conflict
Interpersonal conflict takes a toll on your physical and emotional health. Conflict among co-workers can be difficult to escape, so its a good idea to avoid conflict at work as much as you can.
Dont gossip, dont share too many of your personal opinions about religion and politics, and steer clear of “colorful” office humor.
When possible, try to avoid people who dont work well with others. If conflict finds you anyway, make sure you know how to handle it appropriately.
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The Most Common Sources Of Work Stress
Stress produces physical symptoms, and many of its roots can be traced to the workplace. Here are Haythornthwaites top sources of on-the-job stress.
- Work-life balance. American women are spending more hours working than ever before, leaving less time for personal obligations. Meanwhile, they shoulder a large caretaking burden, she notes. More often than not, women are still the caretakers for children and are involved in elder care, says Haythornthwaite. We have caretaker obligations at both ends of the life span.
- Relationships. The inflexibility of work environments is a huge stressor for women, says Haythornthwaite. For instance, some women might want to telecommute or maintain nontraditional hours to enable them to fulfill personal obligations, but many employers still dislike flexible working arrangements. Other women struggle with pervasive issues, like sexism or discrimination.
- Technology. Mobile devices, like laptops and smartphones, creep into our personal time. Some people may leave the office at 6 oclock, but theyre checking their email in bed, says Haythornthwaite. Ever-present technology makes it more difficult for already time-strapped women to unplug from work and to have any real downtime.
Stop Living Through Other Peoples Lives
Um, Im just going to state the obvious here, because sometimes, we cannot see what is right in front of our own noses :
Someone elses life is not your life. Your life is your life.
Let me break that down even further. What that means is you get to live your life, and other people get to live their lives. You get to make stupid, ridiculous mistakes, take leaps of faith, and stuff things inside your handbag of fear just as much as the next person. And you dont get to judge that other person for their life choices or manage their life for them so they dont have to go through all of what you have gone through.
Going through stuff is the whole great messy adventure of being human! Being alive and living life is terrifying and glorious and everything in between.
Dont rob someone else of being able to experience the richness of humanity. And dont let everyone else have all of the adventure and intrigue grab some for yourself.
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