How to Better Manage Your Stress to Stay Productive

Stress is the # 1 enemy of productivity. When you’re stressed, it’s hard to think and concentrate. We make less good decisions and we make more mistakes. To be productive, it is therefore crucial to learn how to better manage stress . So, how can you better manage your stress to stay productive?

In this article, we will see together a non-exhaustive list of techniques that will help you reduce stress and stay productive on a daily basis. Keep a healthy lifestyle Our body is a machine, and like any machine, it needs maintenance to work well.

This means that to properly manage our stress, everything begins with a healthy lifestyle. It is by laying these foundations that we can then build solid foundations to be more serene and resilient on a daily basis.

• Substances to Avoid

For starters, it is advisable to eliminate some things from our life, starting with coffee. Coffee is an excellent stimulant but if you are stressed by nature, it is to be avoided.

Caffeine (and all coffee drinks, by the way) increases our heart rate which exacerbates our feeling of stress. Our heart is already beating fast when stressed, so why stimulate it further? Plus, it’s best to avoid alcohol. Even if you feel more relaxed after 1 drink or 2, it also releases more cortisol into your body (the stress hormone). This hormone impairs the functioning of our brain and changes the normal perception of stress. If you are a smoker, stop smoking as well. A study published in the journal Molecular Psychiatry shows that nicotine would not appease at all.

On the contrary, it would increase our sensitivity to stress. One more reason to stop smoking. If these substances are part of our daily lives, it can be difficult to get rid of them. Especially since our body is physically attached to it, as well as our emotions. However, it is necessary if you want to be less stressed in everyday life.

• Sleep

In addition to eliminating these substances, one must also make sure to get enough sleep . Sleep has a huge impact on our level of stress. When you are short of sleep, you are more tense, nervous and irritable. We are therefore more inclined to be stressed and anxious. To sleep well, there is no secret. It is good to sleep at least 7-8h a day, in addition to eliminating coffee, alcohol and cigarettes. We have better sleep when we eliminate these substances from our life. There may be a time of adaptation, but everything comes back after a while.

• Sport

Playing sports is another key to well-being. Physical activity releases endorphin, otherwise known as the happiness hormone. This is the best way to instantly release our stress and boost our good mood. I realize that applying all these tips takes a lot of effort, especially if you start from scratch. On the other hand, it must be kept in mind that this will not only help us manage our stress well, but it will also completely change our lives.

• Get Organized

Stress is often caused because it feels like you’re out of control. A good way to quickly regain control is to re-organize. For that, we only have to open our agenda or our task manager and do the housework. We must get rid of all the superfluous tasks and all the things that are absolutely not essential. Thus, we will quickly feel already lighter and we will begin to see more clearly. Once done, we continue by structuring our schedule. We plan work blocks and define what we will accomplish during these blocks. For this, we can apply the Pomodoro method. This method consists of cutting our time into a 25-minute session followed by a 5-minute break. That is to say that for 25 minutes we stay focused on our work, then, we agree for 5 minutes break. And every 4 sessions, we take a longer break, 25 minutes. This Pomodoro method is excellent because it gives you more visibility on the work to be done. In addition, it allows you to take breaks at regular intervals to blow and relax.

• Go Out to Get Some Fresh Air

We have seen a little higher that to live less stressed, it is important to adopt a better lifestyle in the long term. But these changes take time. So, how to deal with stress in the short term? Go out and get some fresh air. When you feel stressed and anxious, you can take a few steps outside. We feel better very quickly and more productive afterwards. When you walk, there are many benefits. We release endorphin, which helps us relax. In addition, getting out the air gives us the feeling of escaping in a quieter environment or at least in an environment where you are not under pressure. We can quickly see that as we walk, our stress naturally decreases. It is therefore a fast and effective way to feel better.

• Lay Down his Thoughts on Paper

Keeping the stress in us can be like a pressure cooker. At first, the pressure is bearable and you can cash the blows, bad news and disappointments. But through stress and fatigue, the pressure becomes too strong and we bust, often in bad times, by the way. To avoid this, it is important to release the pressure regularly. For this, nothing like writing. Write, helps out the concerns of our head and reduce our stress and our anxieties. By putting down thoughts on paper, we are free from the demons that are in us. Very often, you hang your head for nothing. We see the problems bigger than they are. Thus, when writing them, we often find that they are smaller than we see them. Then, reading them again, we sometimes even wonder how X or Y was so concerned. In addition to all these benefits, writing also helps to be more clairvoyant.

• Say No

When we say yes to everything, we end up engaging in too many projects. We have more delays to respect, which causes stress. Accepting more work than one is able to support does no service to anyone, which is why learning to say no is crucial. The problem is that saying no is difficult, because we are afraid of conflict and rejection. You can not be upset or even afraid to miss opportunities. But let us remember that we create these barriers ourselves. If we say no, we have the right to say it. Now, if we really have trouble saying it, we have different solutions: Prepare our answer in advance and explain why we say no ‘ Sorry, that’s not possible. I have other priorities for the moment. ‘ ‘ I can not right now, I’m in the middle of a job. ‘ When we give the reasons for our refusal, people often understand better. It is necessary to be careful not to be too much justified, otherwise it seems uncertain.

• Preventing Us From Being Busy

Another way to say no is not to say it. Let me explain. Instead of waiting for someone to come to us for a request and to be forced to say no, we can warn the people in advance that we already have too much on the fire. For example, when starting a meeting , we can say: ‘ Before I start I just want to inform you that I have a lot of work right now, so I can not accept any extra work. ‘ By anticipating the potential demands, our entourage will refrain from asking us anything. Is there will be no need to deny it. Of course, stress prevents us from producing our best work. That’s one of the reasons we have to learn to manage it.

So, to find more serenity, we can keep a healthy lifestyle, get organized, get out the air, put our thoughts on paper and say no .

5 Effective Techniques for Managing Stress

The management of stress is certainly a faculty that we all want to acquire during times of anxiety, stress and anxiety. In this article, you will discover 5 effective techniques for managing stress when the pressure rises. Why apply techniques to manage stress?

The consequences of stress

Stress is certainly the evil of our century because it can cause a multitude of consequences. It can affect the physical, emotional, mental and energetic body if not taken in hand.

Here are some consequences of stress:

• The exhaustion of the nervous system
• The Depression Generalized anxiety
• Anxiety attacks
• The loss of motivation
• The weakening of the immune system
• The benefits of stress management techniques

Fortunately, there are methods for not falling into these negative consequences. When applied to your daily life, they can help you regain your well-being.

By applying these techniques, you could feel:

• An increase in the feeling of relaxation
• Greater motivation
• A strengthening of the adaptive capacity of the nervous system
• A more intense joie de vivre
• The feeling of finding inner peace

What are these 5 techniques? Let’s start immediately with the first technique to end the stress …

• Take your time to manage generalized anxiety

The act of taking your time will allow you to achieve two things. First, you will be much more attentive to the world around you. You will be more anchored in the present moment and therefore more in the contemplation and appreciation of what you do. By taking your time, you will rest your nervous system exhausted by precipitation and pressure. Second, you will be able to regain inner peace because you will naturally be happier by taking your time. By doing this, you will feel, in the evening, a sense of satisfaction and relaxation incomparable. Take your time, just want to say, slow down your pace. That is to say, do not add pressure on your shoulders, which is a factor of exhaustion of the nervous system. To do so, a good technique is to focus your attention on your senses. Observe the feeling of contact between your feet and the floor, your legs touching the seat, etc. If you follow this little exercise, you will be able to slow down and better manage stress. You can more easily enjoy what you live in the moment. So, to handle stress, take your time to the fullest.

• Learn to say no to focus on the essentials

The feeling of having to do something you do not like is certainly a destroyer of self-confidence. It is also a real generator of stress. Learn to say no to someone who asks you to do something you do not want to do. Concentrate your energy and your time on things that are really important to you. Always ask yourself, ‘ Will this help me achieve my goals? ‘. If the answer is no, in this case do not hesitate to say no, without giving an excuse. In reality, when you give an excuse, you give the other the opportunity to influence you. The probability that you say yes is so much greater even if you do not want to. On the other hand, if the answer is yes, then ask yourself, ‘ Am I going to enjoy doing that? ‘. The answer is positive? So say yes. If the answer is negative, keep your energy and time focused on what’s important, that’s what you like and that makes you happy and relaxed.

• Do one thing at a time to avoid stressful multitasking

To accomplish many things at once is a real stress on the nervous system. In fact, multitasking generates mental fatigue, nervous tension and a whole lot of negative emotions. Wanting to do everything at the same time requires more time and energy to the brain. Try to focus on one thing at a time instead. Want to clean your home and call a friend? Complete the first task to the end before starting the second. On the one hand, it will take less effort and time to complete everything. On the other hand, you will be more in the moment. And, who says more in the moment, says more relaxation and less stress.

• Take regular breaks to calm the nervous system

Every day, take at least 20 minutes to do what gives you pleasure and relaxes you. Indeed, it is really important to create time spaces dedicated to 100% in order to calm the nervous system. As you may know, the nervous system is a system that must be continually protected and regenerated. This is because it is exhausted in times of stress and anxiety. To do this, vary your state between ‘performance mode’ and ‘relaxation mode’. The performance mode is the set of times when you are in action mode. This is the time when you do tasks like working. The relaxation mode is the set of all the moments that bring you relaxation, peace and relaxation. I invite you to take some rest during the day. The natural anxiolytic, such as a nature walk, reading a book, practicing meditation, a massage, do deep breathing exercises , etc … you can be very beneficial.

• Consuming magnesium fortified foods promotes physical and mental relaxation

All foods are not equal. So choose a soothing food for your nervous system. It is especially the minerals in foods that help manage stress. In fact, magnesium is certainly the one that has the most positive effects to fight against stress. Do not hesitate to start a magnesium cure of magnesium sulfate or magnesium bisglycinate type. Both types of magnesium are very assimilable by the body. Try, this can only relieve your stress. Bananas, green vegetables, oleaginous fruits (nuts, almonds …), cocoa and cereals are also recommended foods in the event of a stressful period. The summary of 5 effective techniques to manage stress That’s it, you’ve seen some fast-acting methods for dealing with stress and anxiety.

Here is the summary of the 5 techniques:

• Do not hurry and take your time to focus on the present moment
• Say no to requests that take time and energy if you do not like them
• Limit multitasking to a minimum and focus your attention on one thing at a time
• Regularly go into relaxation mode to reverse the negative process of stress
• Increase your magnesium intake to be less sensitive to stress

By letting you assimilate these principles and techniques, you will notice the benefits to your body and mind. Test them and you’ll manage stress better naturally.