Work Pressure

If a large project seems overwhelming, make a step by step plan. Focus on one manageable step at a time, rather than taking on everything at once.

Make sure to take short breaks throughout the day to take a walk or sit back and clear your mind. Also try to get away from your desk or work station for lunch. Stepping away from work to briefly relax and recharge will help you be more, not less, productive.

Even 10-15 minutes can make the difference between frantically rushing to your desk and having time to ease into your day. Do not add to your pressure levels by running late.

Avoid scheduling things back to back or trying to fit too much into one day. All too often, we underestimate how long things will take. If you have got too much on your plate, distinguish between the "shoulds" and the "musts." Drop tasks that are not truly necessary to the bottom of the list or eliminate them entirely.

Time management tips for reducing work pressure:

☛ Create a balanced schedule

☛ Do not over-commit yourself

☛ Try to leave earlier in the morning

☛ Plan regular breaks

When you feel overwhelmed at work, you lose confidence and may become irritable or withdrawn. This can make you less productive and less effective in your job and make the work seem less rewarding. If you ignore the warning signs of work pressure, they can lead to bigger problems. Beyond interfering with job performance and satisfaction, chronic or intense pressure can also lead to physical and emotional health problems.

Analyze your schedule, responsibilities, and daily tasks. All work and no play is a recipe for burnout. Try to find a balance between work and family life, social activities and solitary pursuits, daily responsibilities and downtime.

Signs and symptoms of excessive job and work pressure:

☛ Feeling anxious, irritable, or depressed

☛ Apathy, loss of interest in work

☛ Problems sleeping

☛ Fatigue

☛ Trouble concentrating

☛ Muscle tension or headaches

☛ Stomach problems

☛ Social withdrawal

☛ Loss of sex drive

☛ Using alcohol or drugs to cope

While some workplace stress is normal, excessive stress can interfere with your productivity and impact your physical and emotional health. And your ability to deal with it can mean the difference between success or failure.

There are a variety of steps you can take to reduce both your overall pressure levels and the pressure you find on the job and in the workplace. These include:

☛ Taking responsibility for improving your physical and emotional well-being.

☛ Avoiding pitfalls by identifying knee jerk habits and negative attitudes that add to the stress you experience at work.

☛ Learning better communication skills to ease and improve your relationships with management and coworkers.

There are five key skills that you need to master in order to raise your emotional intelligence and manage pressure at work:

☛ Realize when you are stressed

☛ Stay connected to your internal emotional experience

☛ Recognize and effectively use nonverbal cues and body language

☛ Develop the capacity to meet challenges with humor

☛ Resolve conflict positively

Many of us make work pressure worse with negative thoughts and behavior. If you can turn around these self-defeating habits, you will find employer-imposed stress easier to handle:

☛ Resist perfectionism

☛ Clean up your act

☛ Flip your negative thinking

☛ Do not try to control the uncontrollable

No project, situation, or decision is ever perfect, so trying to attain perfection on everything will simply add unnecessary pressure to your day. When you set unrealistic goals for yourself or try to do too much, you are setting yourself up to fall short. Aim to do your best, no one can ask for more than that.

There is no better pressure buster than a hearty laugh and nothing reduces pressure quicker in the workplace than mutually shared humor. But, if the laugh is at someone else's expense, you may end up with more rather than less pressure.

Resolving conflict in healthy, constructive ways can strengthen trust between people and relieve workplace pressure and tension. When handling emotionally charged situations, stay focused in the present by disregarding old hurts and resentments, connect with your emotions and hear both the words and the nonverbal cues being used. If a conflict can not be resolved, choose to end the argument, even if you still disagree.

In many cases, what we say is less important than how we say it or the other nonverbal signals we send out, such as eye contact, facial expression, tone of voice, posture, gesture and touch. Your nonverbal messages can either produce a sense of interest, trust, and desire for connection or they can generate confusion, distrust and pressure. You also need to be able to accurately read and respond to the nonverbal cues that other people send you at work.

You should stay connected to your internal emotional experience, so you can appropriately manage your own emotions. Your moment to moment emotions influence your thoughts and actions, so pay attention to your feelings and factor them into your decision making at work. If you ignore your emotions you will not be able to fully understand your own motivations and needs or to communicate effectively with others.

Relationship management is the ability to inspire, influence and connect to others and manage conflict.

The ability to control your emotions and behavior and adapt to changing circumstances.

The ability to sense, understand, and react to other's emotions and feel comfortable socially.