5 Effective tips to cope with stress at work

Bye-bye Burnout: 5 Tips to cope with stress at work

Sarah Khan

21 Sep 2016

updated the 22 September 2016 à 10:37

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Have a morning routine
Set aside a good amount for yourself to get ready for work, plan out your day, squeeze in a quick morning jog if time permits, and make sure you have a healthy breakfast. When your mornings tend to be rushed and frantic, it sets the day off on a negative tone that only adds on to the stress you might feel later at work.

Planning your day will give you a structure to your day that can make it more seamless, rather than starting your day haphazardly without a clear direction of your goals and tasks ahead. It is also crucial to take time to have breakfast as it starts off your day right by maintaining a good amount of blood sugar that can greatly help with your moods and stress levels.

Try and commit to a fixed morning routine that gives you ample time to do the above without starting your day in a rush.
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Schedule breaks during work
Being an effective and dedicated employee does not entail being rigidly bound to your desk all day.

Schedule breaks in between or during your tasks at work. You can opt to either take a short walk, grab a hot drink, stretch, or do a simple breathing exercise. This will not only give you little breathers that help you keep your stress levels in check, it will also help you focus better at work.

According to Tony Schwartz of the Energy Project, if we schedule short breaks every 90 minutes of intense concentration, it clears the buildup of stress and helps you rejuvenate yourself.

If it takes a while for you to get in the habit of taking scheduled breaks, there are free online apps like Eyeleo and PC Work break that you can use to remind you to take a periodic break.
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Practice good work-life balance
Some may say a work-life balance is idealistic, but it is definitely something worth striving towards. It is easy to feel overwhelmed by your work, when you let it consume and define a huge part of your life. As such, it is important to spend quality time outside of work.

Spend time with your friends and family either on weekends or even after office hours. We are all social creatures by nature and spending time with people whom we love will make you feel valued and boost your overall mood at work and life, in general.

Better still, pick up a hobby! Enrol in a fitness class near your office. Not only does it allow you to make friends, it keeps your day nicely balanced between work and play, and gives you something fun to look forward to after a long day. When your mood is up, your ability to keep perspective and cope with stress at work gets better.
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Eat well and get a full 7-hour sleep
It is no secret that the food you eat can greatly influence your moods.

Eat dark leafy greens like spinach, which are rich in nutrients that produce mood-regulating neurotransmitters and opt for foods with a lower glycemic index (GI) that helps maintain a steady level of energy. Avoid greasy, unhealthy lunches in particular as it can make for a midday slump that can be hard to get out of later during the day.

Having trouble falling asleep due to stress? Try simple breathing exercises or incorporate specifically scented candles or pillow scents in your room - lavender scents, for instance, is shown to induce sleep more easily.
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Prioritise your tasks
While some of the stress we face at work may be self-imposed and a matter of perception, a long list of tasks to complete can definitely leave you frazzled and overwhelmed. Effective prioritising can greatly help you manage your tasks, and in turn your stress levels matter.

Write down a list of all your tasks and identify the urgent or important ones, and the ones that are less so. Then, order these tasks according to the estimated effort required to complete and begin with the urgent task that requires the most effort.

Move down your to-do list in descending order of urgency, importance and effort. That way, it will help you gauge the time you require to get your work done and make your workload a lot more manageable.

Finally beat those office blues with these 5 effective tips!

Stress at work is perhaps one of the most universally relatable experiences. With a standard 9 to 6 schedule that often bleeds into overtime, we definitely spend a sizable bulk of our day as adults in the office at work. As such, it can easily get overwhelming, particularly when dealing with a work overload, meetings, deadlines, or difficult colleagues.

With an estimated 40% of working adults admitting to sleep difficulty resulting from stress faced at work, it is clear that office burn-out is a very real and pressing issue. Fret not – we have narrowed down 5 effective tips to cope with stress in the office that will help you prevent having stress in the office, manage it better, and deal with difficult colleagues or situations.

Sarah Khan

Photos: Getty Images

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