7 Ways to Clear Your Mind and Reduce Stress in the Workplace

You’re reading this because your professional duties probably are causing you a lot of stress. You want a solution, and you want it quickly. If it’s possible, the solution also should be quick and efficient. Well, my dear reader, I have some news for you.

In today’s post, I’m giving you all the necessary advice for reducing (and even removing) the stress that you experience daily. Change your mindset, habits, attitude, and behavior, and you’ll change your existence.

The tips I’m giving you are extremely simple. However, they’re truly effective. You probably know most of them, but until you care enough to implement them, to put them into action, you probably won’t change a thing!

1. Exercise Daily

Daily exercise will improve your mood and mental performance, but you probably know that already. The thing is…you don’t have to become a professional athlete. However, moving your feet every day is surely an acceptable form of exercise that still brings benefits. It has been proven countless times – exercising reduces stress!

2. Work Because You Want to, Not Because You Have to

Most people work because they have to, not because they want to. That makes the crucial difference between a stress-free and a stressful job. Whenever you have difficult tasks to perform, don’t perceive them as your enemies. Instead, see them as your challenges.

Moreover, understand that you’ll never be happy if you work only for money. You need to like what you do. Otherwise, you’ll be stressed out all the time.

Jane Harvey, HR manager at Careers Booster, gives us a nice insight:

“To improve your time at work and keep stress out of your life, you first must acknowledge there will be some work involved. To be honest, it depends only on you. External factors are merely illusions, in case you’re blaming them.”

3. Take Breaks

 Take breaks as often as you feel the need to do so. Each of us has our own working rhythm. For example, I work for 25 minutes, then I take a 5-minute break, then I start back up again. Some people prefer working 50 minutes and taking 10-minute breaks.

What you need to do is try seeing which working style fits you best and decide upon the intervals between breaks.

4. Disconnect Every Now and Then

Disconnecting is different from taking a simple break. You disconnect by leaving work aside for good. When you disconnect, you turn-off your phone, you do something extremely enjoyable, and you simply forget about your professional responsibilities.

You can spend time in nature, go to a concert, or have a drink with some friends. Every working professional must disconnect every now and then!

5. Improve Relationships and Remove Conflicts

Strengthen the relationships with your colleagues and you’ll have a better time in the office. That’s a fact. Obviously, this is not a rule of thumb, because sometimes you simply can’t build a good rapport with certain individuals. However, you still should be oriented toward that. Try to be friendly, give, and expect nothing in return.

6. Pay Attention to Sleep and Nutrition

Lack of sleep and poor nutrition likely will bring a lot of stress into your life. You need to be very careful with your body. If your mind is on the task but your body is sleeping, you won’t perform well. If you begin performing badly, negative critiques and feedback eventually will follow.

That’s when the stress becomes real and strong. To prevent it, you must pay attention to what you eat. Eliminate sugar and try to eating as many unprocessed foods as possible. Moreover, make sure to sleep at least seven hours every night.

7. Organize Yourself Properly and Control Your Days

If you can’t control your days, you can’t control your life. That’s creating a lot of stress that needs to be completely eliminated. You should organize yourself consistently by keeping track of your actions and optimizing consistently. In fact, here’s what you should do:

• Plan – Write down everything; your ideas, plans, goals, etc.
• Organize – Pay attention to the assignments of your tasks, time, and responsibilities.
• Measure – Sit back and reflect; do some introspection every now and then and perceive your life from an objective angle.
• Optimize – Eliminate the disempowering thoughts, behaviors, and actions from your life and add new, positive habits.
• Scale – Continuous growth, that’s what’s going to drive a better work performance.

Takeaways

A stressful life is not a healthy life. Your job occupies most of your time, so you need to make it enjoyable. Stress might be abundant sometimes, and that’s exactly when you need to step back and reflect. Are you doing the right things? Are you thinking straight? Are you making some things more important than they actually are? Introspection is key!