Plan Regular Breaks. Plan short breaks during the day. Take a moment to stretch out, take several deep breaths, get up and take a short walk. Anything to clear your mind and change your environment for a few minutes will do. Especially at lunch, try to get away from the office for a while.
- Give Yourself Plenty of Time in The Morning. Don't rush. Give your self an extra 15 minutes to get to work each day. Don't add to your stress levels by having to worry about be late to work in the morning.
- Create Balance. Make sure that you have enough time planned for family, friends, social activities and personal pursuits. All work and no play is a recipe for increased stress.
- Prioritize. Make a spreadsheet, that lists three categories ranking from highest, most important (must do today type tasks) to lowest, least important (can do whenever I get around to it type tasks). Then tackle these tasks in order of priority with the most important getting your utmost attention first, and the lowest only getting your attention after all higher ranking tasks have been completed. Review your list periodically and clean it up. Discard those lowest ranking tasks that still haven't been completed. If they aren't important enough to complete after several weeks, let them go.
- Break large projects up into smaller ones. When a large project seems overwhelming, simply break it up into smaller bite sized components. Then prioritize the pieces and tackle each smaller task in order of importance until the entire project is done.
- Delegate. Let go of the need to control every aspect of the job. When others can handle a particular part of a task, why not let them? You will immediately release stress when you allow others to help.
Yoga and meditation provide amazing ways to reduce levels of stress and anxiety in the workplace.
