Workplace Effectiveness: Manage your stress triggers

05.21.2019

stress triggers

Stress. That pesky antagonist that bothers nearly every professional in every profession. While we can’t escape from stress entirely, we can develop helpful management habits — especially when stress is at peak levels, like at the start of a new job.

According to the Mental Health Foundation, more than 70% of adults have felt so stressed in the last year that they felt unable to cope. Instead of powering through, pause. Reevaluate. Can you do something to change your stress levels? Here’s a brief checklist to get you started:

  • Make sure you’re getting at least 7 hours of sleep a night
  • Eat lots of fresh, nutrient-rich foods
  • Practice deep breathing exercises
  • Drink lots of water
  • Exercise regularly
  • Take frequent breaks from your devices 

If you’re already incorporating these ideas into your day and still experiencing stress, it might be time to dig a little deeper. Here are a few ideas.

Identify Your Stress Triggers

For one week, record the situations, events and people who cause you to feel negative stress — meaning you have some kind of negative physical, mental or emotional response or reaction. Write a bit about each situation, like:

  • Where were you?
  • Who was involved?
  • How did you feel?

After that week, take stock of when and where you felt stress. It might be after meeting with your toxic boss (link) or following your long commute.

Tackle Your Triggers

Once you’ve figured out what triggers your stress, find a way to resolve each situation. For example, during a meeting with your micromanaging boss, try asking detailed questions. Don’t just ask what needs to be done, but rather how it should be done. Or, if you’re stressing about tonight’s commute and picking up your kids from school, check with other parents or neighbors about an after-school carpool. Taking action to change the circumstances causing stress is one of the most productive ways to cope with it.

Besides getting to the root of your stress, sharpening your time management skills helps ease tension and anxiety.

Chunk Your Time

What’s on your to-do list right now? Or, is your list more like a never-ending stream of must-dos and emergencies running through your mind? That creates stress and anxiety. Instead, try chunking tasks together — figure out what needs to be done and break down those tasks into small steps. For example, if you want to remodel your bathroom, you wouldn’t just take a sledgehammer to the walls. You would start with a plan.

  • Decide on a bathroom design
    This might include things like color scheme, light fixtures and storage space.
  • Gather your tools
    Grab your safety mask, gloves and goggles.
  • Demo day!
    Start by removing drywall, fixtures and insulation

Do this for each item on your to-do list. Then, set realistic time expectations. If Demo Day is going to take five hours, break that down into small chunks: first, remove drywall. Then, remove fixtures. Lastly, identify when you’ll need to delegate tasks or ask for help.

Maybe you can remove the drywall yourself, but you need help with the insulation. By breaking tasks down and chunking them together, your goal becomes much easier to achieve.

Create Habits That Will Make You Better

Rather than big, sweeping changes, experts say the secret to success is in simple daily routines. The key is to start small. James Clear, author of Atomic Habits, says we should devote just two minutes a day to a new habit or practice. So, if you want to start exercising more, you lace up for running shoes and take 30 steps outside.

Want to create new habits? There’s an app for that.

Momentum encourages you to not break the chain. “Every day that you complete a habit, your chain grows longer,” their website states. “As your chain grows longer, you become less likely to quit.”

Productive empowers you to organize your life and build a healthy routine through positive, life-changing habits.

When you sign up for StickK, you create a commitment contract with yourself to reach your goals. You can even assign a friend to check in to make sure you’re reaching stickKing with it.

While these apps are helpful, they can’t actually make you get out of bed at 6:30 a.m. five days a week and head to the gym. In the end, you have to actually do the work.

Lastly, to prevent burnout, make time for activities and hobbies that lift you up — like reading, seeing friends or cooking. And, after work, try to set your devices aside and enjoy your time with family and friends.