Most people experience some stress in the workplace, some people especially those working within the emergency service sector experience more than most.  Any job can have a stressful element, even when you love what you do.  In the short term you may experience pressure to meet deadlines or fulfil a challenging obligation.  But when work stress becomes chronic, it can be overwhelming – and harmful to both physical and emotional health.

You can’t always avoid stress at work but you can take steps to manage it.  Here are some tips

Breath deeply

When you feel overwhelmed and need to clear your head, a few minutes of deep breathing will restore your balance.  Simply inhale for five seconds, hold and exhale in equal counts through the nose – it’s like doing a yoga class.

Identify self-imposed stress

Learn to stop stressing by building your self confidence.  It is easy to get caught up in other peoples perceptions of you, which you can’t control.  Focus on your work rather than what you think others think about how well you are doing your job.

Concentrate

Most of us are interrupted constantly during the working day, while you may not have control over the interrupters, you can control your response, you don’t have to be rude just explain you have a deadline to meet.

Schedule your day

Most of us go through the day using a ‘push, push, push’ approach, thinking if we work flat out we will get more done, instead productivity goes down and stress levels go up.  Take regular breaks for tea and coffee and definitely go to lunch this will certainly rejuvenate you.

Eating and sleeping are important

You need to manage your diet and ensure you get enough sleep.  A low sugar, high protein diet is good for energy.  Anyone who says they only need four hours sleep a day must be a robot, most of us need at least seven hours to function well.

Don’t self doubt

Your perspective of stressful office events can be subject to interpretation often seen through the filter of your own self doubt.  Step back and take an objective view, you’ll be more effective if you don’t take things personally.

Chill out

When you are feeling frustrated or angry – chill out. Take a deep breath and hit the pause button.  Never respond to situations in anger, think about the stressful situation you’re in and make rational decisions.

Prioritise your priorities

When you have competing deadlines and changing priorities it is very important you define what you need to do first and why.  Manage your to-do-list by focussing on jobs which will have the most impact first.

Don’t let other stress you out

Don’t be influenced by others, your stress is your stress, don’t take on anyone else’s stressful behaviour.  Constant negativity needs to be addressed or if you are not in a position to address that person – try to avoid them

Be your own best critic

Apparently 60,000 thoughts stream through your mind each day and negative thoughts are likely to stress you out.  How do you solve this?  Instead of being critical of yourself try bigging yourself up.  Have positive thoughts this will motivate you to achieve all your goals

We hope this has helped you, the key to it is to accept that stress is not just in the workplace it is part of life, it’s how you deal with it that makes you stronger.

Happy job search!