OFW Guide: How to reduce stress at work.

Stress can substantially affect one's productivity at work.

Oftentimes, fears about mass layoffs, budget cuts, and other issues can cause a great amount of stress in employees.

The stress that an employee feels may be compounded by his or her being unsatisfied with work, being overworked, and having unsubstantial pay.

A person under a lot of stress may become irritable, anxious, or depressed at work and at home.

The information site “Help Guide” listed some ways to reduce your stress at work:

(1) Identify signs of stress

When you feel that there’s just too much work or that the task at hand is difficult, you will definitely feel stressed.

You may start to doubt yourself and your ability to complete tasks, making you irritable, less productive, and even uncooperative in your workplace.

To avoid complicating things, you should first identify the tell-tale signs of stress so that you would know how to combat them:

• Feeling anxious, depressed or irritable
• Uninterested in work
• Sleep problems
• Fatigue
• Trouble concentrating

(2) Taking care of oneself
 

Stress can dramatically reduce your progress in work. This sometimes leads to a physical, mental, or emotional breakdown.
 

It is thus important to take good care of yourself and keep yourself in good health so that you can battle stress.

(3) Manage your time
 

Stress doesn’t only come with workload and problems. Time could also be a deciding factor whether you feel stressed or not.
 

You can reduce stress by managing your time better. Sorting out your responsibilities and priorities. Determine what should be done in a particular order to help clear your mind from time-pressing stressors.
 

Plan in advance and organize your commitments. When your life is in order, you will realize that you have more time to spend in your hands.
 

(4) Improve emotional intelligence
 

Improving emotional intelligence is a must when dealing with stressful situations. Having a high emotional intelligence will help you communicate with other people in a better manner.
 

Paired with intellectual ability, emotional intelligence gives you insight to see the bigger picture. This will help you deal with stress in a better way.
 

(5) Break bad habits
 

Some people may find "satisfaction" or even "comfort" by indulging in bad habits. However, in the long run, these are just short-term "feel-good emotions" that easily contribute to your stress.
 

Although it takes patience and discipline, dumping bad habits will help you counter the negativity in your life.
 

(6) Look up to managers
 

Choose a manager that you admire and ask that person to take you under his or her wing in an informal mentorship program.
 

They will usually accept and act as positive role models who can teach you the need-to-knows of work.
 

In times of stress, you could ask them for advice, without having to worry about prejudice or any form of judgment. - VVP, GMA News