How to Manage Work Stress

No matter the type of job we have, we all experience stress at them. Whether it be due to feeling overwhelmed about our responsibilities, feeling unheard by our coworkers, or experiencing burn out. It’s important that we are taking steps to manage our stress before it consumes us alive.

When we let our stress run amuck, we experience more anxiety in other parts of our lives. Relationships with friends, family, and even ourselves can become stressors. We may inappropriately take our stress out on loved ones. It can feel more difficult to manage as we let it accumulate.

Without leaving the job, you may be wondering how to better manage work stress? Quitting is not always the solution or answer, and could result in financial stressors. Although it’s good to keep your options open and explore other opportunities, see if you can balance work stress at your current job. If not, it may be time to go job hunting.

It’s likely that you will experience some form of stress no matter what job you have. The best way to accommodate and manage stress is to utilize tangible coping mechanisms for yourself and others. This includes maintaining firm boundaries, practicing self care, and working on communication skills. 

Anxiety therapy in Simi Valley, Ca, provides you with tangible tools to utilize in times of stress.

How to Manage Work Stress: Maintain healthy yet firm boundaries

Although we may feel like an outstanding employee, adhering to every task your boss gives you is not always the best thing. It’s understandable if you want to make a good impression or maintain a good reputation; however, you don’t want to fall into burnout.

Having clear communication about work expectations with upper management is crucial to ensuring your needs are met. Examples of this include staying firm in your work availability. It could be that your boss is asking you to come in later or earlier than your agreed upon availability. To set a boundary, you can discuss how you had already agreed upon your availability, and it cannot change at this time. But, you will let them know if it does in the future.

Boundaries are meant to be healthy and positive, not negative or spiteful.

It’s important to install your boundaries from day one on the job. However, you can assess them at any time when it feels necessary to bring them up. If you fear you will receive punishment for “randomly” bringing up boundaries, it’s a sign that your workplace may be toxic. It’s important to remember that you deserve to feel comfortable at work!

Maybe you are unsure what your boundaries truly are aside from work availability. Your personal boundaries may stem from your life values for your limits, your assets, and other aspects of life that you need to consider. 

Sometimes, boundaries can be as simple as delegating work to someone else by saying “no”. This can look like someone asking you to cover a shift, for example. Saying “no” is not easy, but with practice, it will be less stressful to decline work requests. 

Take some time with yourself to understand what boundaries you want to implement at work. Consider all factors of your life, including your downtime, social life, relationships, and more. Communicate clearly up front about boundaries, such as, “I cannot work Monday mornings as I have family commitments.” 

Anxiety and depression therapy in Simi Valley, Ca, helps you gain the confidence to exercise your boundaries.

Click here to read about what to do when you feel overwhelmed.

How to Manage Work Stress: Develop a morning routine

Being able to start your mornings right can really help get the day started in a positive light! It’s difficult to kickstart a routine, but with persistence and dedication, you can make it an everyday thing.

Our days start out more stressful when we are rushing around, constantly pressing snooze, and not providing our body with enough nutrients. Maybe you are waking up just 10 minutes before your departure for work, and experience irritability and disorganization.

By having a morning routine, you also need to have a nighttime routine. This looks like ensuring you are getting enough restful sleep throughout the night. It could be that TV shows, movies, or social media apps are keeping you awake until late at night.

Setting reminders to drink water, turn off distractions, and have down time will help reinforce your routines.

There are a number of ways to have a positive morning routine. Granted they aren’t always easy to catch onto, start off the routine small, and gradually grow it. This can look like ensuring you drink a crisp glass of water with lemon as soon as you wake up for a week. The following week, implement 5 minutes for stretching your body out. 

You can also build a night time routine by preparing for the day ahead of you. Lay out your outfit for the next day and have all necessary items available (laptop, charger, chapstick). It could also mean double checking if your car needs gas, for example.

Whatever helps in making your day start off right, you have the ability to create a unique plan tailored to your needs! Click here to read about how to beat depression in the mornings.

Anxiety counseling in Simi Valley, Ca, can help you work on creating and implementing these positive habits!

How to Manage Work Stress: Practice positive self-talk

Maybe you are feeling overwhelmed about not hitting all the marks on a certain project. It could be that the final result of something has left you feeling bad about yourself and your work performance. 

Even though your boss or coworkers did not mention anything negative, you are still feeling down about yourself. You are stressed with the quality of your work, and are giving yourself a hard time for it.

Maybe you came into work experiencing negative feelings or stressors from something unrelated, like a relationship or family situation. The effects of that stress could seep into your work day, where you are berating yourself or talking poorly to yourself. You may have a negative outlook or attitude on the day and feel it cannot be fixed now.

Anxiety therapists providing CBT in Simi Valley can help you re-write your internal narrative and learn to become your own advocate!

It’s not always easy to be kind to ourselves – especially if we feel we don’t deserve it. We can easily give into the spiral of negative thinking by piggy backing off one. This can look like, “Oh, I never get anything right. Remember when I messed up last week’s numbers? I bet I will mess up this week’s numbers as well.”

Click here to read about how to conquer your negative self talk. It all starts with recognizing that you are giving into it, and being able to stand up for yourself in your mind. It could be that your negative thinking stems from anxiety, where you experience feeling fearful or irritable on a regular basis. Click here to read about how to be the boss of your own anxiety.

Take time on a daily basis to appreciate yourself for everything that you do. You are awesome, and deserve to start everyday feeling ready to accomplish anything.

More about Simi Psychological Group: 

We are a  team of psychologists and therapists in Simi Valley, Ca offering an array of therapy services. At our therapy practice in Simi Valley, Ca we offer Child therapy and family counseling, Teen therapy, Anxiety Treatment, Depression Therapy, Marriage Counseling, and Neuropsychological Testing. Now Offering Online Therapy in Los Angeles and Online Counseling Ventura County