Our jobs can take a toll on our mental health, no doubt. If our jobs put us under a lot of pressure, it can make us very stressed. Work stress is probably one of the most common forms of stress among humanity. Anybody who’s been a part of the workforce has experienced work stress at some point.

Managing stress at work I think is one of the most important aspects of stress management. By working full-time were putting ourselves in the same environment and circumstances for several hours every day. We’re exposed to the same pressures over and over again, which can keep us in an ongoing state of stress.

We already spend so much time at work just to make a living. So we want to be careful that we’re not also “selling” our mental health away for that salary as well.

For that reason I think learning how to manage your stress at work is an important lesson for anyone trying to overcome anxiety or improve their mental health. So, this is my method for managing work-stress. It includes identifying all the triggers of your stress, deciding how you’re going to deal with them, and then putting your plan into action.

Process

To really manage stress at work you have to know what is causing your stress. What are all the triggers of your stress at work? You want to become aware of all the pressures acting on you from your job. As long as you’re not aware of what’s triggering your stress, it can continue to act on a subconscious level.

To identify all the pressures it might be beneficial to do a little retrospection on your entire career up to this point. Recall every job you’ve ever had and try to identify all the triggers of your stress for each one.

Then you need to “change the way you respond” to the triggers of your stress. You need to propose how you’re going to deal with every problem or issue or circumstance that’s been causing your stress.

Lastly, you need to make an active effort “on the job” to monitor your state of mind and start consciously “taking away” your manifestations of stress.

Retrospection

Recall some of your first jobs as a teenager and young-adult, whether they were fast-food, restaurant-dining, or retail, factory labor, construction etc.

If you worked in fast-food it was probably a rather fast-paced environment. They probably first had you working in the back preparing all the food orders. This could have included cooking the fries, making the sandwiches and operating the grill. Your duties may have gotten tricky and hectic when the store got busy. You might have received some complaints from your co-workers and supervisors about your speed and efficiency, which might have made you nervous and stressed.

At some point in fast-food you probably had to learn cash and serve customers. Now having to talk to people might have been intimidating if you had any kind of social anxiety. You might have received complaints from some of the customers who were being really rude and disrespectful to you. That might have made you even more nervous and worsened your social anxiety. There might have been people making special requests and over-complicating their orders, making it difficult for you to remember it all. Then you probably found yourself getting overwhelmed and stressed when the store got busy, facing that crowded, endless line of customers.

If you worked in a restaurant, it was probably the same idea, a fast-paced environment. Even if you started in the back washing dishes, it could still get hectic when the restaurant got busy. You might have received complaints from your co-workers/ supervisors about your speed and efficiency.

Then if you ever started waiting on tables or working as a bus-person, there’d be even more pressures acting on you. You’d have to talk to customers which would intimidate you if you had social anxiety. You’d have to deal with rude customers making complaints and losing their temper. And you would still have to deal with the fast pace of the restaurant when it got busy.

If you ever worked in construction or in a factory, that would have been a fast-paced environment. Your duties were probably very repetitive and exhausting. You’d be busy every single day and probably be nagged and criticized by your supervisors about your speed and efficiency. If you had to operate heavy machinery, that might have intimidated you at first. The dangers of working around heavy machinery might have scared you.

These are just some common examples of first-jobs and the stress-inducing circumstances associated with them. You have to look back on your own career and recall all of your various jobs. Then try to remember what exactly was it about them that may have stressed you out.

Your Current Job

Now start to examine and analyze the conditions of your current job. What are all the circumstances of your current job that might be causing your stress?

Your job duties probably get hectic and overwhelming when your workplace gets busy. You probably have to juggle several different projects and tasks in a single day. Then you also might get interrupted by your co-workers and supervisors to do other random tasks and favours for them at the most inconvenient times. You must find it irritating and frustrating and it drives you crazy.

The actual projects that you work on might not always be so simple and straight-forward or clear. They might sometimes be complex or vague and you have to struggle to figure them out. You might get stressed when you’re stuck on a certain project and you have to think just to come up with something for it. Then you might be worried about the poor quality of that project and the time that you wasted on it.

You might occasionally have some technical difficulties with your computer software or photocopier machine or any other equipment. This then holds up your productivity and slows you down. You probably get frustrated and irritated every time it happens.

Perhaps your co-workers and supervisors have a temper. Maybe they criticize you about the quality of your work and give you a hard time about your mistakes. Your supervisors might lose their temper with you for not catching on fast enough, while being trained on new duties. Or maybe you are a supervisor with newer employees working under you. Perhaps you find it frustrating when they’re slacking or not trying hard enough to catch on to their work-duties.

Your boss might be a big jerk. Perhaps he’s naturally obnoxious and always speaks his mind even if it’s completely rude and offensive. He might be really childish and selfish and greedy, overly concerned with making money. He probably doesn’t hesitate to criticize you on your performance, especially your speed and efficiency.

Depending on what you do for a living, your work might have some serious implications on people’s lives or the environment or society. You could be a medical professional and have to perform risky operations on people. You could be a pilot, having to safely fly hundreds of people around the world. If you’re a structural engineer you have to ensure that buildings and bridges don’t collapse. Therefore if you have a job that poses risks and carries high responsibilities you can easily find yourself stressed.

Identifying the Pressures

Now that you’ve taken the time to revisit all of the jobs that you’ve ever worked, it’s time to identify the pressures. What were the specific pressures acting on you that triggered stress from working those jobs?

In just about any job there’s always a big pressure to be productive. You’ve probably received all kinds of criticism and nagging and complaining about your speed and efficiency. You’re being paid for your time. So you’re expected to be using your time to generate profit for the business. After all, time is money. Therefore, whenever your workplace gets busy, this pressure gets worse, and anything that “holds you up” or “slows you down” will stress you out.

After productivity there must be some sort of pressure to enhance the quality of your work. In order to please your customers and clients you want to actually do a “good job” with the goods or services you provide. Otherwise you could get complaints and upset or anger your customers, which could potentially hurt the business. If you’re someone who doesn’t like conflict or gets intimidated by people, then this could potentially cause you anxiety.

Your job might have some serious implications on people’s lives or their safety or the environment or society. Perhaps you have to make important business decisions that have large consequences. Perhaps your work is potentially dangerous to you and the workers around you. Maybe your job is so important that you have thousands of people’s lives in your hands. The greater the effect your work has on the world around you, the more pressure is acting on you.

These are just some common examples of work-related pressures. You have to examine the conditions of your own job and determine the pressures acting on you.

Changing Your Response

Now that you’ve become aware of all the pressures acting on you, the next step is to change the way you respond to them. You have to decide how you’re going to “deal” with all the circumstances from your job, which have been triggering your stress.

Some of these circumstances might be more important than others. You might conclude that some of these circumstances don’t matter at all. Perhaps some of these circumstances are completely beyond your control. The 3 methods I like to use are Removing the Pressure, Taking Responsibility, and Accepting the Futile.

Removing the Pressure

When external pressures are acting on us, they induce stress within our mind. But when we take those pressures off, the stress within us will disappear. When it comes to managing stress I always first look for certain pressures that I can take off.

Once you’ve identified the pressures acting on you, you’ll want to evaluate how important these circumstances really are. There should hopefully be certain things that you conclude are completely unimportant and not even worth worrying about. Then you’ll have to decide that you won’t let these things stress you out anymore.

For example, if you have a problem with social anxiety then you probably get nervous and stressed interacting with customers and clients and dealing with their complaints. You also might be intimidated by your boss and supervisors if they have a temper. This is something you’re going to have to realize is not worth stressing about and you’re going to have to get over.

Taking Responsibility

After you’ve removed some of the “unnecessary” pressures, you need to acknowledge the most important pressures acting on you. Your job might pose some risks or have you take on some serious responsibilities. Your work might have some serious consequences or impacts on the public or the environment or society.

So your task here is to become “confident” in your ability to handle these pressures. By building up your confidence, you’re basically building up a “resistance” to the pressure. That should reduce the stress in your mind.

If making a mistake in your work will have serious consequences, then you need to become “confident” in your ability to do your job properly or correctly. Hopefully, you’ve spent some time working under more experienced professionals to give you a chance to learn and practice. Obviously the more experienced you become the better you’ll get at your job and the more confident with it you’ll be.

You should only work on projects or duties that you are knowledgeable of, experienced in, and comfortable with. This is basically your “comfort zone”. It’s like you are only exposing yourself to pressures that you are mentally “strong” enough to handle. Anything else is pressure that you aren’t strong enough to handle, which will induce stress in your mind. In order to manage stress, you have to know what your comfort zone is and stay there. Then slowly and gradually expand your comfort zone over time.

Accepting the Futile

Lastly, you need to recognize when your stress is being triggered by circumstances of your job that are beyond your control. You need to recognize situations or circumstances that aren’t your fault or you can’t do much about.

The best example I can think of is the pressure to be productive that typically comes when your workplace gets busy. You have to remind yourself that your workplace’s level of business is beyond your control and your stress isn’t going to do anything to help. All you can do is to casually work your way through it. Focus your attention on one project or task at a time. Try not to get distracted, worrying about the whole pile of work that lies ahead.

As your co-workers or supervisors interrupt you to do other random tasks for them, just accept it. If someone asks you to do something, then you have to do it, even if it slows down your productivity. Getting stressed out about it isn’t going to help. If you get overwhelmed trying to remember everything, then make use of stick-it notes and write down all your tasks to be done.

When you get busy, try to examine each task individually, and evaluate how genuinely “stressful” each one is on its own. If one simple, easy task doesn’t stress you out, then a long serious of simple, easy tasks shouldn’t stress you out either. This should prevent you from falling under the illusion of being “overwhelmed” by a large load of work or an endless To-Do list.

When you’re facing technical difficulties with any equipment at your workplace, you have to accept that as futile. If any of your workplace’s equipment is malfunctioning then that is a circumstance beyond your control. Therefore, getting stressed out and frustrated about it isn’t going to solve anything.

You have to accept that all these “annoying” or “inconvenient” circumstances are a normal part of any workplace and you have to live with them. You have to recognize that they are mostly beyond your control and stressing out about them isn’t going to accomplish anything.

Self-Observation & Death-in-Motion

It’s not quite enough to just have an “idea” of all the triggers of your stress, and have an “idea” of how you’re going to deal with them. You have to make an active effort “on the job” while you’re actually working, to manage your stress.

In just about any workplace, random incidents and problems can come up at any time. One minute the workplace can seem really slow, and the next thing you know a huge pile of work can come out of nowhere. Customers and clients can make complaints about your services at any time. Your workplace equipment can start to malfunction at the most inconvenient times. Therefore, if you’re not in a state of vigilance, you can easily react any of these random incidents.

That’s why you need to work with Self-Observation to monitor your state of mind throughout the work day. Then you need to work with Death-in-Motion to “take away” any minute manifestations of stress and start to “weaken” this anxiety.

Self-Observation

Next time you go to work, before you even walk through the door, plan to monitor your state of mind throughout the whole shift. As you start working, try to “fold your attention inwards” and be aware of the mood that you’re in. This should fix you into the present moment and help you focus on one task at a time.

As soon as you start to feel any kind of stress, stop right there and question it by asking “Why am I stressed?” Identify what triggered the stress and why. Once you know the root cause of your stress, you can try to change the way you respond to the trigger.

Example:

You’re in the middle of working on some project and your boss suddenly comes and asks you to print some paper work for him. You start to feel frustrated and irritated. Ask yourself “why am I stressed?” After self-observing on this incident, this is what you discover:

• You were busy in the middle of working on a large project and were inconveniently interrupted.
• You have to make the effort to remember this task on top of everything else you have to do.
• Taking the time to do this little favour is going to slow down your own productivity.

Now that you’ve clearly described the triggers of your stress, you can evaluate it. Ask yourself “Do I really need to be stressed out about this? Is this really such a big deal?” Then try to change the way you respond to it:

• Anytime your boss asks you to do something, you have to do it. You might as well just accept it as futile, and not bother stressing out about it.
• This is a very simple task, just printing some paper work, even if it does add to my To-Do list.
• If your productivity gets slowed down because someone else asks you to do something, then that’s not your fault. There’s no point in you worrying about it.
• If you’re worried about remembering all your tasks to do, write them down and focus your attention on one thing at a time.

So, you want to basically do this throughout the whole day. Carefully monitor the mood that you’re in while you’re working. Catch yourself whenever your start to feel stressed. Question the reason for it and identify what triggered it. Then try to change the way you respond to that trigger.

If you keep this up for a couple weeks to maybe a month, you’ll hopefully start to “weaken” this work-stress. It should become easier for you to just be relaxed at work.

Death-in-Motion

After you’ve gotten enough practice at self-observation, you should be able to improve your speed with managing stress. You should get to the point where you can just consciously “stop” any manifestations of stress as soon as you feel them coming. Death-in-Motion is the process of monitoring your state of mind on a daily basis from moment-to-moment and consciously “stopping” any manifestations of the subconscious.

Start by trying to become more aware of the small things that stress you out at work. These could be little things like being interrupted by your coworkers while you’re working or having technical difficulties with equipment. Catch yourself when you’re about to get stressed about these little things and consciously “stop” yourself.

Remember that all these small, minute manifestations of the subconscious are basically how it “feeds” and sustains itself. Therefore, when we take these minute manifestations away, we’re basically “starving” our anxiety. Keep this up and you’ll be gradually strengthening your consciousness and weakening your anxiety.

Eventually you’ll reach a point where you can face the bigger challenges at work that used to drive you crazy. You should be able to handle really unfavorable circumstances that perhaps used to warp your mind with stress before. This could be something like your workplace being insanely busy and you being severely overwhelmed with an endless line of projects. Once you’ve mastered the little things, you should be in a position where you’re equally matched to take on the bigger things.

Stressing About Stress Itself

Let’s say your stress is so bad that you’ve tried everything up to this point and you still can’t control it. You might have identified the trigger and tried to change your response to it. But your mind is just so badly warped with stress and tension that you can’t control it.

There’s a part of you that is simply stressed about the state that you’re in. Your body is likely in a very discomforting state. Your head probably feels like it’s under immense tension. You might be short of breath and light-headed. Because of all this discomfort, a part of you is simply stressing about “being stressed”, or stressing about stress itself.

But if you can change the way you respond to this uncomfortable state, then you can remove the stress right there. Instead of trying to resist it and wanting it to stop immediately, just surrender to it and let go. You have to actually “not mind” it or “not care about” it, like it’s not even bothering you.

This might sound kind of silly and counter-intuitive at first, but it works. Just by pretending that you’re not bothered by the physical discomfort of your stress, you can start to relax your mind. The next time you find yourself overwhelmed with stress at work, find a place to sit down in your office and try this exercise:

1. Sit in a chair and close your eyes. Breathe deep to fill the body with oxygen.
2. Observe or recognize the stressful state that you’re in. Become aware of how your stress is manipulating your body by describing what it’s doing and how it feels. Your head probably feels like it is being pulled in multiple directions. Your sinuses might be clogged, making breathing difficult. Your throat might be sore. You might be light-headed. Try to observe and describe all the discomfort that your stress is causing your body.
3. Surrender to the discomfort and let go of resistance to it. Try to think and feel like it’s not even bothering you. Pretend that you don’t mind it or don’t care about it, like it’s not even bothering you. Maintain this state of relaxation in your mind until you’ve calmed down.

Conclusion

Learning how to manage work-stress is important since we spend so much time working and getting exposed to the same pressures for years. To start managing work-stress we should start by becoming aware of the circumstances from your work that trigger your stress. From this we can then identify the pressures that our job places on us.

Once you know the triggers of your stress and the pressures acting on you, you need to change the way you respond to them. First you need to recognize any “unimportant” circumstances that are not worth stressing about and choose to stop. Then you need to identify the most important pressures acting on you and work towards building up your “confidence” in your ability to handle them. Know what your comfort zone is and stay there, while gradually expanding it. Lastly, you have to recognize all the circumstances that are beyond your control and choose to stop reacting to them.

After you’ve planned out how you’re going to respond to all your work-related pressures, you have to make an active effort on the job to manage your stress. Carefully monitor your state of mind while you’re working and catch yourself when you start feeling stressed. Question what triggered it and why? Then try to change the way you respond to that trigger. Improve your speed by just consciously “stopping” any small, minute manifestations of stress whenever you feel them coming. Eventually, you’ll reach a point where you can handle the bigger challenges at work without getting stressed about them.

When you find yourself completely overwhelmed with stress and can’t control it, you have to recognize the part of you that’s stressing about the uncomfortable state that you’re in.Take a short break from your work and observe all the physical discomfort that your stress is causing you. Then change your response to that state by thinking and feeling like your not bothered by it.

That is my method for handling work-stress. I’ve certainly had my fair share of experiencing stress at work. But using this method I’ve managed to greatly reduce this problem and gotten to a point where I can just relax. I hope this helps you at least a little with managing your excessive work stress and you finally learn to relax at work.

Good luck in your career.