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Page 1: Learn to managing stress, boost productivity

Learn to managing stress, boost productivity

Page 2: Learn to managing stress, boost productivity

Stress is the number one killer of our times. It is an insidious emotion that eats up all the happiness we need in life and at work. Because of it, we are unable to perform at the levels we are supposed to. Our own career prospects suffer because of this, as does the organization. When a person is stressed, it is natural that the productivity levels start dipping. This calls for ways to tackle stress, because it is always better to find ways of dealing with it, rather than to let it overpower us and make us succumb to it.

Page 3: Learn to managing stress, boost productivity

Effects of stress

When a person is stressed, it is a lot like being in an angry state of mind. When our mind is angry, we hardly have control over what we are saying and doing. The same happens when we are stressed. When stressed, we are not able to think with clarity. We allow unwanted expressions to blurt out of the mind. And then, we start to lose our temper at our colleagues, affecting the workplace. In addition, many people also carry home the stress they build at work. People who are stressed start to lose their temper at their family or neighbors. They also become anxious, nervous and irritable towards them. Because of this, both the person’s professional and personal lives take a hit.

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Although the reasons for stress are varied and depend largely on the individual’s threshold of tolerance and ability to respond creatively to stress; stress needs to be handled tactfully. Some people behave a rather casual and carefree outlook, because of which they don’t get stressed easily. Others take their lives and careers too very seriously and get disturbed at the slightest provocation. In such people who already have a high level of stress, the triggers play only a small role.

Page 5: Learn to managing stress, boost productivity

At a more personal level, continued stress can be dangerous to the individual’s health. People who are very stressed suffer from psychosomatic diseases, many of which can be avoided or eliminated with the right approach to stress. Even though stress is a major factor in the personal and professional lives of people, many do not know how to handle it.

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Ways of dealing with stress

Place things in the right perspective: The first approach to handling stress is to understand it. This is one of the most important means to handling stress. We all have different factors or reasons that cause stress. The basis to handling stress is the realization that stress is always going to be there all our lives. It is the way we approach it and the way we handle it that determines how much we let that stress impact us. Getting the right perspective of what stress we are going through is the first step to handling stress.

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Some of the questions we can ask ourselves when confronted with problems at work or at home could be: Is this problem one of a short duration, or is it likely to stay with me in the long run? How much time and energy is it going to consume out of me? Do I need to devote the same time and energy for it throughout its duration? Are there ways by which I can find family or friends or colleagues to take up some of the load without bothering them or seeming as one who depends on them for resolving one’s own issues?

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Assess the stress rightly

Stress is the response we make to problems and issues that we confront in our lives. Understanding the nature of these issues is important. Some of these are of long term duration, like what we need to plan for our lives and how we intend to go about planning our careers. We know for sure that these are long term plans and endeavors, for which we need to work consistently. If there are some hiccups or roadblocks along the way, we need to know how to handle them without getting stressed or at least to the extent that it clouds our thinking.

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Further, some problems may be of midlevel duration. Stress could be about finishing a long project. If the project is going to last a few months or even years, there is no point in getting stressed throughout the duration of the project, because by the time the project gets completed, we would often have become wrecks, depriving ourselves the joy of the fruit of having completed that project. Taking issues one at a time is an important means to stay afloat. Planning a big party after the completion of a long project may be a good idea, but not everyone may be willing to wait for the whole duration, by when their stress levels would have become too high. In the meantime, colleagues can get together over a weekend or so and unwind by taking a trip to the countryside, for instance.

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Some problems are of short term duration. Many people for instance get stressed about the prospect of having to reach the workplace on time, battling their way through traffic. If this is what is causing stress and a subsequent dip in the productivity at work; it is important to get up earlier and get ready for going to work. A few tasks need to be prioritized or set aside in order to achieve a bigger one. Taking the right approach to handling stress is an important first step to finding a solution.

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Learn to compartmentalize: This is a very important wayof dealing with stress. At some positions, it is impossible to take time off work. Many people bring their work home. Many a time, this may be necessary, but what such people can do is to allocate times for handling this work when at home. This allows them to give more time slots for the family, helping them to destress to a large extent. Prioritizing work into the more urgent, less urgent and not urgent or important is an important means to handle stress, because this helps us understand what we need to give our peak energies to and what we need to handle at times when we are less energetic.

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Keep unwinding at regular intervals: We need sleep every few hours. Why? Because the brain is conditioned to work at peak load for a while, after which it starts wearing off. This is just how the cycle of a work schedule works. So, it is important to keep relaxing at very short and frequent intervals.

Doing small things like cycling, taking off from work to attend a marriage, trekking or taking part in related activities can go a long way in helping to take stress off. It is well established that meditation is a great exercise that relieves stress. Try doing it as often as you can. Deep breathing, controlling the intake of nicotine and alcohol, reading on topics that interest us, keeping the use of phones at work at a minimum are all important destressing steps.

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Doing what you love doing is important to help take stress out. Spending time with one’s child could be the ultimate de-stressing factor for many people. For others, it could be taking a swim. Combating stress is about finding ways to deal with it in creative and constructive ways. Agreed, all these do not solve the root causes of the stress, but doing all these helps us to take the intensity off the stress. It helps us to rejuvenate and refresh our minds, as a result of which we could come back energized. This helps us take a fresh approach and perspective to the stress on hand, helping us to cope with it better.