Workplace Stress Management

Work-related stress is a normal part of working life but workplace stress is especially a problem during an economic crisis such as the present one. Acquiring the life-skills to help you cope with stress when the pressure is greater than normal is crucial for maintaining optimal overall health and you're now going to discover three surefire workplace stress management tips to keep job-stress at a minimum.

Not all stress is bad, and in fact a little bit of pressure is good for you. However, too much stress is harmful as prolonged periods of stress effects both mental and physical health and your productivity levels will also be impacted.

Flawed thinking modes are at the root of severe stress. It involves many aspects, usually assigning single-outcome, catastrophic meanings to events facing you. Thinking in this way will cause you to concentrate solely on unpleasant conclusions and if you add powerful, emotionally-arousing language to the brew, you will dramatically increase your stress levels. Being under so much stress will also expose you to the risk of experiencing an unpleasant episode of anxiety or depression.

To help you keep job-related stress decidedly in check, here are three powerful, simple stress management methods:

1. Estimate. Separate the more important tasks from the less important ones and focus on what needs to be done. Ask this question: What importance does this have? One effective method is a "stress meter", whereby you assign each job a priority level ranging from one to ten, where ten denotes a job of the highest importance. When you've prioritized your workload, give the bulk of your time to the tasks that are the most important and if possible, ditch as many of the less important ones as you can.

2. Various meanings. It is vitally important that you refrain from allocating a single catastrophic meaning to any problem confronting you. Levels of stress will soar sky-high if you indulge it. Constantly assigning various meanings and explanations to all the problems you face is one of the most powerful stress reduction techniques there is.

3. Word-watch. Try to resist using highly-emotional phrases as the words you use to describe events can increase stress. E.g. Phrases that involve words like useless, everything, ruined and always:

"I always get it wrong, I've ruined everything, I'm useless."

Powerful, emotionally-arousing phrases like that will do nothing except increase your stress levels. Here's an example showing how you can use moderate language instead:

"OK most of my job is going well except this but I'll keep working on it until it's sorted out."

Do you see how less emotionally-arousing that is? A very powerful stress relief technique.