5 Work Stress Relief Tips

Whether you love your job, or hate it, you are bound to have days when things seem to get on top of you.  Stress at work is one of the commonest forms of stress and can be caused by one particular thing, or a combination of things.  Whenever you feel stressed out at your work place, follow these tips for work stress relief.  These little tips will help to reduce immediate feelings of stress and help to prevent you from taking it out someone else, which will just cause more problems!

Tip #1
Take time out.  If you are feeling overwhelmed, can't solve a problem or feel like you're about to explode, get yourself away from your desk, and preferably the building and go for a brisk, short walk. 

Often when things are getting on top of us what we need is to get away from the problem and get some perspective.  Getting out into the open and focussing on something completely different can really help to get yourself out of that "hamster wheel" feeling that you're trapped in a situation that you have no control over.

Take notice of the things around you.  Smell the roses (or whatever other flowers are available!), notice the trees or the traffic, interact with someone, buy a bar of chocolate - anything that will get you focussed on the things around you instead of the stuff churning round in your head.  When you get back to your desk, your brain will feel refreshed and more able to deal objectively with the task in hand.

Tip #2
Drink More Water.  What many people tend to do when they feel stressed is to reach for the diet coke or the coffee machine.  In fact, these are the worst types of drink you can take for stress!  The high caffeine levels in coffee, and the sugar and other chemicals in soda drinks, will not only make you feel more "hyped up" and stressed, but will dehydrate you and that will result in low performance levels, so causing more stress.

Keep coffee to a limit of one or two a day, and the rest of the time drink water.  Keep a bottle of mineral water on your desk, or take a drink every time you pass the water cooler. 

When your body is properly hydrated your brain will function better and you will feel more able to cope with the every day tasks and stressors at work.

Tip #3
Smile.  Or better still, laugh.  Sometimes we can lose our perspective on life and take things a little too seriously.  This makes us feel more stressed than we need to be.  Try to see the humour in everything and take yourself lightly.

Share a joke with a colleague and make yourself laugh.  Laughter is an extremely healthy way of de-stressing and it actually creates the "feel good" hormones in your body called endorphines.  These create a feeling of welbeing and relieve stress levels.

After a good laugh, you will often find that the things that were bothering you beforehand do not seem half as bothersome as you thought they were.

Tip #4
Get enough sleep.  It really is not worth sitting up all night trying to get a job done.  Sleep deprivation will make you work slower and ineffectively, and you will therefore get less done than if you were more alert and refreshed.

Sleep recharges our batteries and while we sleep our brains work to resolve problems and issues.  Getting enough sleep every night is extremely important.

If you are having difficulty sleeping at night, and this is affecting your work and stress levels, try some natural remedies such as valerian tea or tablets, a massage with lavender oil.

Also, before going to bed every night, make sure you have written down all the things that are bothering you that need to be seen to the next day.  This will prevent them from keeping you awake.

Tip #5
Prioritise.  Unless you sort all the jobs you have to do into order of importance, you will feel very overwhelmed by the amount you have to do. 

Create a schedule for yourself every day and make sure you do the most urgent jobs first, before concentrating on the slightly less important jobs and then at the end of every day, decide your schedule for the next day - and make sure it is achievable and realistic.  If you are setting yourself too much to do every day, this will lead to more stress.  If your schedule is realistic, then you are more likely to achieve them, and this will make you feel more confident and calm. 

Of course, sometimes stress at work goes much deeper and needs more serious remedies than the above.  But for day to day stress and anxiety, the above work stress relief tips will really help you to cope on a daily basis - and you will then be more equipped to deal with any serious issues that turn up.