Stress is truly one of the things that plague us Americans in our everyday lives. Not only that, but it can also lead to heart depression, anxiety, depression, auto-immune diseases, and a plethora of other things. In fact, a study has even been conducted on how higher stress levels are directly related to lower capacity for the brain’s cognitive processes. It lowers mental abilities.
But the fact of the matter is – we’re very busy people. With deadlines around every corner, along with so many other things to do, how do we reduce stress? We need to get a grip of this before our lives start going downhill. Or if it already has, it’s time to take a 180-degree turn, and start getting your life back in shape, by eliminating stress.
Here’s how:
- Stay Single-tasked. Everyone has some degree of proficiency in their abilities to multitask. However, this often increases stress, due to the constant switching between tasks that you cannot fully get into. What often happens is your productivity decreases, which thereby means that you’ll take longer to get everything done, piling up the work you’ll need to do – increasing stress. To remedy this, stay single-tasked. If you completely immerse yourself at one task at a time, you’ll quickly find that you’ll be finishing it relatively quickly, allowing you to jump onto the next task with the same efficiency.
- Prioritize. This goes hand-in-hand with the previous point. Prioritizing your work when doing it is something that should always be done in routine whenever you start your day. Think about what’s most important, and then about what’s most time-pressing, and map it out on a table. You’ll be able to see what needs to be done first and what can be saved for much later. Sometimes, we start doing things that might not even be necessary for a few more weeks, whilst a report sits in the corner of your desk, due in 2 days.
Understand and Accept Things beyond Your Control. Often times, our stress levels rise when we are in fear of failure – failure in a new job, failure in a relationship, etc. Fear of failure causes stress, and when we feel like we cannot meet an idealized version of a situation that we’ve thought up, that fear of failure increases. It increases so much, that it’s hurting you. What you need to understand is that often times, there are things that are completely out of your control. Let go. Be okay with chaos and uncertainty, as trust that things will work out – even if they don’t.
