Surviving a stressful week at work

How do you deal with a stressful week at work? Here’s ten helpful tips…

Prioritise Your Workload – It seems obvious, but if you feel like all your jobs are getting on top of you, then sit down and work out what needs doing first . What is an absolute priority, and what jobs can be rescheduled?

Write A To-Do List – There is nothing more satisfying than ticking something off your to-do list! Once you’ve prioritised your jobs, write them all out in the order they need doing then begin to work your way through them.

Delegate What You Can’t Do – No matter how good you are at your job, you’re not superhuman. Sometimes, even the best of us just have to admit that we’re not going to get every task done on our task list in the time we’ve got. See who you could ask to help.

Take A Break – When a deadline is looming, or a stressful situation needs to be dealt with urgently, it can be tempting to just put your head down and work through your breaks. However, this logic ends up being counter-productive. Breaks away from your desk or your laptop are an essential part of maintaining your mental health and ability to do your job. If you skip meals or don’t just get some fresh air from time to time, then your health will be impacted.

Talk To Your Colleagues – When the pressure is on, it’s easy to start feeling like you’re the only one suffering and this leads to resentment and negative feelings. Usually, however, if you’re feeling the pressure, then it’s likely those around you are too.

Treat Yourselves For A Job Well Done – Doing a job day-in-day-out with no rewards is a thankless task, so, if you’ve managed to complete a project, then reward yourself and your team for a job well done.

Try Relaxation Techniques – Do some simple mindfulness or breathing exercises at your desk or take a break and for a nice cup of tea – do what will work for you!

Exercise – Like the relaxation techniques, the level of exercise you wish to engage in will depend entirely on you and your level of fitness. Regardless, however, of what you choose to do, the benefits of getting up and taking part in some gentle exercise can be of limitless benefit to you.

Rationalise Your Worries – It’s very easy to slip into a cycle of stress and worry over work, which leads to more anxiety, which results in less sleep, which leads to you to be less productive and your deadlines don’t get met, which in turn leads to more stress and worry over work. The cycle is endless and very easy to get lost in. Instead of focussing on the bad points, try to look at the positive elements. It can be easy to say and hard to do, but once you learn to see the silver lining in things, the stresses can be rationalised, so they don’t become so all-encompassing.

Be Kind To Yourself – Cut yourself a little bit of slack; you’re not rubbish at your job at all, you’re just having a bit of a stressful week. Put it in perspective and give yourself a little treat for all your hard work. What your reward should be will be up to you; maybe a glass of wine at the end of the week is sufficient, or maybe a night out at the weekend with friends will better help you blow off steam? Perhaps a day trip with the family, or just a giant piece of chocolate cake will do the trick.

Either way, remember to be kind to yourself every now and again and it will make all the effort seem all the more worthwhile.