The good news is you can give yourself a professional advantage by becoming an ace at managing stress. You'll find yourself more alert and prepared in meetings, better able to summon your creative spark at a moment's notice and more capable of clearly focusing on and prioritizing tasks.
Best of all, you can stay sharper just by adding a few simple habits to your everyday routine.
1. Take your nose off the grindstone. This one is beyond easy: Just stop. Once an hour, take five minutes, push away from your keyboard and get out of your chair. Fill your water bottle, pop in on a coworker to say "hi," or — even better — step outside and take in a little fresh air.
You'll feel a little lift, a recharge, and your next round of concentrated work will be more effective than if you'd simply kept plowing forward. You'll also help stave off repetitive stress injuries.
2. Streeeeeeeeeeeeeetch (physical). If you do nothing else, take the time to stretch at your desk. This type of stretching also is known as RSI (repetitive stress injury) yoga.
- Shoulders — shrug toward your ears, hold and release.
- Torso — sit square in your chair, take a breath, then exhale as you turn to face one side. Repeat on the other side.
- Arms and wrists — make two fists and place them thumbs-up on your desk. Without moving your arms, slowly flex each fist outward, then back inward. Hold for a beat at the end of each motion.
(The options here are limitless, so personalize your routine based on what works best for you.)
3. Streeeeeeeeeeeeeetch (mental). Push back from your desk, close your eyes and think about anything except work. Daydream about an occasion you're looking forward to or something you did recently that brought you joy. Lose yourself in the thought long enough to feel the muscles in your face relax and, ideally, start to form a smile. (Bonus points if you laugh!)
4. Do concentrated breathing exercises. When your body is stressed, your breathing becomes shallow and you inhale too little oxygen while exhaling too little carbon dioxide. You can manage your stress level by managing your breathing: Close your eyes and take a lung-filling breath of air through your nose. Hold it for a beat, then exhale through your mouth, this time trying to completely empty your lungs.
Follow this cycle five times, and be sure to concentrate on the rhythm. (For an added boost, visualize yourself "blowing out" stress on the exhale.)
5. Make your environment invigorating. Your human resources department surely has a few rules about what you can and can’t do when personalizing your office or cubicle, but the policies are likely flexible enough for you to create a positive atmosphere.
- Take sheets of coloured paper (bright colours to energize or mellow colours to relax) and tape them over those beige walls.
- Bring in a couple of mind-exercising toys, such as a Rubik's® Cube or peg-board puzzle. (And play with them when you need a break!)
- Put up photos that make you smile — shots of you on vacation, hiking in the woods or hanging out with friends.
You can't make stress disappear, but you can manage it. Adopt these techniques and you’ll be better able to stop worrying and get back to working.
