Everyone deals with stress from time to time. For some people, stress is a regular part of their daily schedule. While some stress is good and can push us to achieve more, excessive stress can be debilitating and take away significantly from our lives. When you’re having a stressful day, try out a few of these tips to re-energize your mood.
Take a Break
When you start getting stressed, it can be tempting to try plowing through all of your work. However, this is the opposite approach you should take. Oftentimes, stress stems from feeling like we have too much work on our plate, so the constant reminder of that work reinforces that idea in our minds. Instead, taking a break and physically stepping away from your workspace can be much more beneficial. After a 15-minute break, you can jump back in with fresh eyes and start tackling to-dos with relative ease.
Write Your Problems
Regardless of whether your stress stems from a work overload or something else, writing down your problems can help put them into perspective. Start by writing how you’re feeling. Then, write why you’re feeling that way. Evaluate the situation and write down what you can control and what you can’t control within the issue. Finally, create a plan of 3 things you can power through to lessen your stress. These three things could be tasks, breathing exercises, or even a length of time. Then, when you’ve completed your list of three, write down how you feel now. If you’re still stressed, start over again. However, more often than not, you’ll find that taking away a portion of the stressor will help you reset your mind and give you the ability to move forward.
Re-Prioritize
At times, so much gets dropped onto our plates that it seems impossible to get it all done. In fact, it may very well be an unrealistic amount of work. This is where re-prioritizing is a big key to success. Write down everything you have to do and roughly how long it will take, making sure you round up. Then, rank your tasks by importance, separating them into three categories: urgent, important, and unimportant. At a glance, you’ll be able to see how long it’ll take to complete the urgent tasks, which is likely not too much time. If you can get through those items, you’ll see that your list is much more manageable and you won’t be wasting time worrying about what to work on next. Just follow the list, and be realistic about what you can and can’t get done today. Give yourself permission to ask for help if you need it, or to push off unimportant tasks to another time.
Stressful days can cause a frenzy in our minds, but it’s important to remember that the world won’t end just because of some excess stress. Follow these tips to remind yourself of that, allowing yourself to conquer any issue you encounter.
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