Managing Work-Related Stress.
Pressure, or perceived overload in relation to ones capabilities is how stress manifests. Our perception is our reality. That means the lid of the pot will eventually blow off regardless of whether it is full of boiling water or not!
A good place to start with identifying these stress triggers is to simply ask yourself; ‘What is the reality of my current situation?’ This can apply this to any area of your life. From here, questioning your reality across 3 headings; a) Tolerations, b) Shoulds and c)Frustrations is useful.
There could be a list of 5-500 things that you are tolerating or putting up with, but once you identify and start to get rid of some of these, a weight of tension will slowly start to work its way out of your body!
‘Shoulds’ are where a lot of underlying stresses like to hibernate. Write a list of what you feel you ‘should’ be doing both personally and professionally. Make sure to honestly assess whether this is something you want and not coming from an outside influence or pressure. Next, try re-framing these ‘shoulds’ to ‘coulds’ and notice how this can shift that pressure.
Remember “ our words shape our worlds”.
‘Frustrations’ or emotions are extremely influential drivers of stress. It is important to remember that these may be things that are beyond your control that you may just have to accept for now. Alternatively they could be an easy fix once identified.
‘What are the 5 things that are most frustrating you now about your life, your work or others?’
Okay so you have now honestly recorded what is going on for you at the moment. Next it can be useful to look at categorising what you have on for the next week under the following headings.
A) Urgent and important (Necessity)e.g. Deadline driven projects.
B) Urgent but not important (Deception) e.g. emails, reports.
C) Not urgent but important (Quality & personal growth) e.g. Planning and preparation.
D) Not urgent not important (Waste)e.g. chat.
Admittedly the above may be useful if you can sense burnout or stress triggers on your horizon. However, often times we are blind to our internal pressures and the pot may be over spilling silently in the background.
There may not be a ‘one size fits all approach’ to manage stress or remedy such situations. Luckily there are a few techniques that have been empirically researched and shown to be useful. (https://www.workplacestrategiesformentalhealth.com/managing-workplace-issues/burnout-response)
List what stress looks like for you (anger, frustration, exhaustion, etc.) so you can identify it early.
Develop a list of self-care strategies, which could include journaling, meditation, massage, yoga, reading, music, mindfulness, stretching, exercising, dancing, breath techniques, etc. and build them into your schedule as a priority.
A nice idea is to have a jar with all of these written down and when you feel you may be veering towards stress, take out one of these pieces of paper ASAP
If you are feeling overwhelmed, ask for help, delegate tasks, or reset priorities.
Take regular scheduled breaks
Keep up strong relationships with those you care about through open communication.
Remember this list is only a guide, each person is inherently different and so your own management is an individual experience and journey. You may need more emphasis on different areas. If you are still feeling overwhelmed or are really struggling to come to solutions please talk with those close to you at work or at home or seek professional help.
In a nutshell: know your trigger points, be kind to yourself and try to reboot when you feel stressed instead of letting the computer shut down entirely.