5 Ways To Reduce Stress At Work

Hi guys!

Hope you had a great weekend?

I was at #BookHubTheEvent on Sunday and was really happy to see some of my favorite poets and my friends again. We discussed Poetry and Social Media and it was quite an enlightening session. I also bought two books: Chimamanda Adichie's "We All Should Be Feminists" and Okey Ndibe's "Arrows of Rain". I started reading the latter yesterday morning and I'm enjoying its direction so far. Did you go for the event? How did you find it?

Usually around this time and especially on some work days, stress could set in. A few people have favorite days of the week, saying it's Monday, but a whole lot of others will disagree. When I'm stressed or bored at work, I do any one of these five things. They're pretty basic and easy to do and depending on the type of person you are, you just might find one of them useful or even strike a balance between two or more options.

1. Doodling

Doodling is my to-go thing to-do when I'm stressed. I have always been quite artistic but, I promise you that doodling doesn't require any artistic experience. When you just keep drawing random lines and shapes on a sheet of paper, it takes you out of your current state. It relaxes you and takes your mind off things that might be stressing you. Remember you aren't doodling for an art exhibition, so it might as well look like a baby's fascination with a pen when you're done; at least the goal has been achieved.

2. Give in to distractions

You will always need distractions for times like stress. This is because, they are exactly the things you don't want, but are very necessary because they take you away from the fire that stress has created in your head. Distractions give you a clean slate. It comes in different variations and can help place your head anywhere else but the task that's stressing you out.

3. Rubix Cube

Try solving a rubix cube; consciously or unconsciously. The unconscious part would do just what the first two points do: take your mind off things and calm you down. The conscious part helps you to see the stressful task differently. You probably have been stressed because you have been limiting yourself to only two methods of problem solving or strategy. The rubix cube is a decision making type of "game" that could open your minds to the many possibilities you hadn't even thought of.

4. Music

This is probably cliche, but even as a writer, music helps me sometimes to do certain things creatively. When I'm stuck on a certain brief and I'm stressing myself too much with not knowing how to execute it well, one of the things I do is turn to music. I sort of feel the beats speak to me and from there, I somehow am able to concentrate on the lyrics I've always listened to, but never paid much attention to. Then I think of the brief again and somehow I'm able to coin something from it.

5. Take a dump

Absolutely the funniest thing because you can't just call excreta whenever you want. I can unapologetically say that this is one of my most effective ways to reduce stress from a task. This might only work for certain people, but I get most of my ideas (when it comes to writing) from the loo/toilet.

I honestly don't know how it happens, but I go in with an empty book and a pen and come out with scribbles. I think the toilet creates another world for you, away from the familiar faces and whatever their facial expression might do to heighten the already high pressure on you. The toilet tells you that you control this space and there are no bosses there. Just you and your task.

These methods might or might not collectively work for one person, but you could also find ways to tweak them to your taste; make it work for you. Look stress in the face and tell it to sit somewhere because you call the shots.

Image source (Apart from poster): Google.

What do you do to reduce stress at work? Which one of these would you try?

Have you read my last post?

Till Friday, xx