I'm going to give you a top 10 countdown today for how to handle stress at work.
And spoiler alert, firing your boss doesn't come in till number 5. We spend a
lot of our life at work. So how to handle stress at work is going to be really
important as we take on the top 10. Number 10
"Stop working". Duh! Then you wouldn't have any stress at
work, right? Wait a minute Dr. Paul, you can't tell me to just quit
my job. Right. That's not what I'm saying. here's the psychological piece to this
It's an option to stop working. Now, why would that be important? Because you're
choosing to be there. Think about it. When I say, "well, stop
working." You're like, "I can't stop working I need the income. I got to have the paycheck."
Right. Yeah, but it's an option. And if you stopped you'd lose all of those great
benefits that you have from working. See it as a choice and the stress level
changes. So, I'm not saying that you should quit your job. I'm saying consider
that this is actually a choice. Number 10, stop working or at least consider it. Now,
coming in at number 9 today is "self-care". Take care of yourself. What you do
outside of work matters, a whole lot. So if you're going home from work or if
you're taking all of your work home with you, then what kind of a break are you
getting at home? Self-care means that you're going to have some appropriate
recreational activities planned for after work or for on the weekend. You're
going to spend some time exercising, you're going to hang out with people you
love, you're going to interact with your family and with your friends, you're
going to do a little work in the yard. Take care of yourself, that's huge and it will
change the way you experience stress at work. Number 8.
"Focus on the big picture" What is it that you're doing at work? Why is all this
effort necessary? What are you making? I was walking across campus as an
undergraduate at BYU. One of the legends at BYU is Professor Hugh Nibley and
he was walking along with me. I was walking next to this amazing man who
knows so much and he blows me away with his intellect. And he stopped and looked
at some smokestacks that were there near the campus. And he said, "what is it that
we're making that's worth all of that smoke?" This is a great way to get that
perspective. Get the big picture. What is it that I'm making that's worth all of
this smoke, all of this stress, all of this effort that I put in everyday? Think
about what the end result is of your work and as you focus in on that big
picture it's likely to help you handle the stress that you're handling right
now. I'm thinking of a cartoon that I saw once with two Stonecutters hanging on
their scaffolds, chipping away at this rock wall to cut stone out of this wall.
And the one guy says, "man, this is terrible that I have to cut this stone
every day and it's hard and he's whacking away at his chisel" And the
other one is just kind of whistling while he works as he says, "man, I'm
building a cathedral." See? Big picture makes a difference in how you experience
stress at work. Number seven, "take breaks". If you get stuck in a trap
of just working, working, working, working, working. No breaks. You're going to get
stressed out. This is not a brain friendly kind of a thing to do. So, taking
breaks, now what I mean is brain friendly breaks. Example, sometimes people take a
break at work they got ten minutes, right? They grab their coffee and they go to
their social media feed. I'm not saying that either coffee or
social media is a bad thing. What I'm saying is you want a brain friendly
break. Social media tends to engage some of the same parts of our brain that
we're already using in our job. You want to get up walk around. Do something
physical, go outside, take a nap. These are the kinds of things that are going to
support your brain functioning and actually help you to recharge it, so that
you can reduce the amount of stress that you're having on the job.
Number six, already kind of slipped it in. "Take a nap." This might be something
choose during your break. But here's the thing. I included it as its own item here
on the top ten list because of the social taboos that are out there around
taking a nap. It makes it seem like, "oh, you're being lazy." No you're not. You're
doing a brain friendly activity that is going to reduce your amount of stress
and actually make you more efficient on the job. Here in my office, I have a couch.
It's right over there. It's got pillows on it. It's soft and
yeah, my clients will sit there and visit with me. But guess what happens? if I've
got a few extra minutes or a missed appointment, oh yeah, I am kicking back. I
take off my shoes, I laid out on my couch and I'll take maybe 10 minutes, maybe 15
minutes for a little power nap and when I come back from that nap, I am so
refreshed. It helps me to manage the stress of a job that I love but that
demands a lot from me, emotionally and intellectually. So, those naps are one way
that you can do this. Now, here's one that some people really love. Fire your boss!
Number 5, "Fire your boss". Now you might choose to literally do this or to just
consider it as an option. It's kind of like that first one number 10 when we
talked about stop working. Fire your boss is something that you could do
and it doesn't necessarily mean that you're going to quit. Now,
where this gets really tricky, is if you are your own boss. That's the situation
with me. I don't have a boss that I answer to. I am him. What would it mean if
I fired me as my boss? You know what, I have done this a few times just in the
last year and of course, I'm still here and I'm still running my practice. But I
fired myself as the boss over certain things. The production of these videos
for example. Nate Woodbury of Be the Hero studios is sitting right over, there. He's
running the camera. I fired myself from video production because I suck at it.
But he rocks at it. So do you see what I mean? You can fire your boss even if
you're your own boss, I took myself out of that position, put him into that
position and my stress level, went way down. I also fired myself from answering
my phone and running my calendar and sorting through my inbox.
That's what Cindy does. She's brilliant at it. I'm not so much. I fired my boss. Do
you see what I'm saying? There's a lot of ways you can get out of your own way and
reduce the stress level and that actually helps to give other people a
nice way to make a living too. Pretty great idea. Let's move on to number 4. "Do the
hard stuff first" I think it was Steven Covey that used to talk about eating a
live frog first thing every morning and then nothing else that happens to you
all day long is going to seem quite so bad. Well, you've got a whole list of things
that you need to do right for your job? There's things that are expected or
things that are on your task list. Pick the hardest stuff and do that first.
Because then it gets easier not harder. And psychologically, what a gift. Do the
hard stuff first. Coming in at number 3 on our list is to
"connect socially". This is where you acknowledge the other people in your
environment because you're not alone, are you? What if you have a job where you do
work alone. I'm betting that even if you work alone, you got to interact with some
people at some point, in some way. Get to know the people that you interact with.
Even if it's the delivery guy. Get to know them. These are real people and they
have some kind of a vested mutual interest in your success. That's why
they're around you. Get to know them as people. Where do they live? What does
their life look like? Do they have a family? What are their interests? Social
connection in the workplace has been shown to reduce stress. Number two on our
list for managing stress at work, is to "breathe". I know you breathe all day, every
day. In and out. I get it. I'm talking about taking an intentional approach to
calming your body and your brain through focused breathing. There's other forms of
meditation and mindfulness that could be useful here.
The quickest way I know to get there is simply to breathe, pay attention to your
breathing. You know what, a lot of the fitness wristbands, the Fitbit, Apple
watch, things like that. Have an app installed on them that allow you to do
this. To focus on your breathing. Just pay attention to it.
Stop for a minute or two and simply watch your breathing. Now, there's other
things you can do as well with breathing like, I like this particular exercise. In
through the nose, nice deep breath and hold it for maybe 5-10 seconds and
then out through the mouth. Nice and slow. Restrict the flow. Take about twice as
long to exhale as you did the inhale. Do a few of those and see
how you're feeling. This has a natural calming effect on the brain and helps
you to manage stress better. Breathe. Now, coming in at number 1. No surprises
here folks, "positivity". Positivity. How you look at your life matters.
Your perception has a huge impact on what kind of stress you experience. In
your work. Also in your relationships, in your finances, everything is affected by
your attitude and it's a choice. Keep watching the videos on this channel to
develop that positivity. It's the number one thing you can do to manage stress. So
works going to go a lot better now that you're handling the stress. Come back
tomorrow we'll have some more great content for you here at Live on Purpose
TV.