By Nancy S  October 26, 2021

We’ve all experienced it: an enormous project comes up that’s extremely important for the company or your career. At that moment, you need all the hands-on deck. Everything else in your life falls by the wayside as your work becomes your number one priority.

Your days at the office suddenly turn into 12-hour stretches, you’re answering emails from home late at night, and you’re battling off a million things that need completion before sleep. Running between your desk and printer is what you do for exercise, and you cannot remember when you last ate something.

As a busy professional, it’s challenging to let go of stress. For instance, if you work in the medical profession, you probably already understand how people depend on you to help them every day, resulting in a great deal of stress and anxiety. It’s essential to look for ways to reduce the anxiety and pressure of the job.

Here are five ways to reduce stress being a busy professional.

Establish a Bedtime and Morning Routine : Set up a morning routine that includes daily morning practices, such as meditation or waking up half an hour earlier to complete work before checking email. Following this, each morning will automatically put you in a positive mindset and boost your sense of accomplishment.

Try to go to bed at the same time every night, read some books, write tomorrow’s to-do list, or do whatever else calms you before you drift off to sleep. It’s crucial to engage in a nighttime ritual that tells your body it’s time to sleep, and soothing your mind before bed will help you fall asleep.

Rid-off Messes and Incomplete Tasks : Identify all the things in your life that you need to complete. Things that keep you awake at night or distract you in the middle of the day.

Perhaps you need to have a conversation; you have an essential task hanging over your head. The door to your office is squeaky. The lighting needs replacement; you promised to send a report; whatever it is, write it down.

By putting everything on paper and clearing your head, you will prioritize your list and determine how best to deal with the stress.

Smile More : The act of smiling triggers a feeling of happiness in the person smiled at, but it also makes other people respond positively.

According to Psychology Today, smiling has hormonal and physiological effects on our bodies that make us feel better. When we smile, we self-medicate and heal. When a person smiles, it has rapid and immediate rewards for themselves and others.

It makes them feel better, makes others respond better, and makes them more successful in their tasks. The more they smile, the better they feel about themselves and their work.”

Prioritize Tasks and Organize : An excellent way to reduce stress daily as a busy professional is to implement time management practices. You can set up checklists at home and work. Lists help you stay focused and reduce time spent on email and social media or chatting with colleagues.

As you make your checklist, prioritize the most urgent tasks first and plan enough time for the least urgent ones. If you prioritize, not only will you feel less stressed, you may also concentrate better.

You may also experience increased stress if you feel the need to do everything at once. According to Kyle Brost, you can follow the two-minute and 10-minute rules.

To avoid pressure from having too many incomplete tasks and promote an organized workplace:

Get rid of jobs that take less than two minutes.

If a duty takes more time, follow the 10-minute rule.

Give yourself 10 minutes to work on the task.

Apply Premack’s Principle : Premack’s Principle is a great technique to apply at work. Here, you reward yourself with an easy task after a complex and highly stressful assignment. An arduous task is highly stressful and cognitively demanding. Taking care of a low-key but vital job like running an errand or organizing your files helps you pace yourself and stay organized. It gives your mind a break time without being unproductive. You get fully charged after it to tackle any stressful assignment ahead.

Breathe Like a Navy Seal : U.S Navy Seals display remarkable calmness in some of the mo

st threatening and stressful situations. They follow a technique called ‘box breathing,’ or four-square breathing that imparts incredible serenity upon you and de-stresses you completely. The technique’s beauty is that you can practice it almost anywhere and at any time, even during the middle of a challenging situation. It helps you control your emotions and deal with things in a much better way. Its technique is:

Inhale air for four seconds.

Hold breath with lungs full for four seconds.

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