We live in an era of constant technological growth and expansion. As the world becomes more complicated, as our screens become increasingly cluttered, it’s no surprise that the average person is feeling more and more stressed out by the day. Millennials are at the center of the many new changes in the world, and they’re also the ones that are feeling the heat, with studies showing that young people spend as much as 20 percent of the year being stressed out, with seventy one percent saying that they wake up in the middle of the night, at least three times a week, overwhelmed with thoughts about whatever is stressing them out.
Really, this is no surprise. The world is cluttered, tangled, and constantly buzzing. While the Ridge Wallet helps you declutter at least one aspect of your life — your wallet — and this value of minimalism can help destress much of your life, there are also certain stressors that will inevitably be a part of your working day. Canceling out the source of the stress is always the best option, but for those situations where you just have to grin and bear it, here are some tips to help manage it better.Â
This is the big one, and yet it is somehow the most neglected. Next to eating and breathing, getting a proper night’s rest is one of the best things that a person can do for their body, but most people don’t get nearly enough sleep — and if they do, it’s often poor quality sleep.
Sleep is necessary for the body, and necessary for the mind, as a time of full sleep is when memory consolidation occurs. Not getting enough sleep will cause grogginess, physical pain, poor motor control… and stress. While you can’t necessarily control whatever stressful situations you may encounter during the day, having poor sleep will worsen your response to those situations.
Don’t think of sleep as being “waster time.” Rather, if you want to be as productive and stress-free as possible, good sleep is the key.
When you’re working, you have to constantly be moving and making choices. Whether it’s sending emails to your boss, running to the other office across town, or deciding on whether a project should take a new direction, you have to make many, many decisions over the course of a day — and making the wrong decision could cause you a lot of stress, particularly if you have to work backwards to undo it. Mistakes are costly.
So don’t make mistakes — by not making immediate decisions. Whenever you have to make an important work decision, take a step back. Give yourself five minutes, an hour, or however long you need to fully process the situation, decide what will work best, and then get back to your coworker or boss about what you think the best choice is.
Do you ever feel like work has totally consumed every aspect of your life? If so, you’re doing it wrong. The more that you allow work to overwhelm your life, and the more you allow it to deplete from the time spent doing things outside of work, the more stressed you’re going to be.
Even if you telecommute, make a point to have a “shut off” time, where you devote some time to friends, family, and hobbies you might have neglected. This balance won’t make you a worse worker — in fact, by easing your stress, it will actually make you a better worker.
While the term “meditation” might intimidate some people, studies have shown that practicing mindfulness techniques, even in a minor way, significantly reduce stress. Just allowing yourself a few moments of meditation a day, particularly during an especially stressful moment, will give you the tools to unwind, reconsider, and make better decisions. Light meditation basically comes down to gentle breathing techniques, and it’s a great tool to add to your workplace arsenal. You can also use guided imagery, where you close your eyes, and then picture scenes and places that make you feel calm and at ease.
If you want to take mindfulness, you can also try picking up yoga, which combines gentle breathing with physical motions that will fix your kinks, work out your muscles, and help you feel better about any situations that come up in your life.
Finally, it’s always important to consider the source. What exactly is stressing you out? Can it be helped, fixed, or amended? If there’s a way to fix the root cause — much like the Ridge Wallet fixes the root cause of a cluttered, heavy pocket — that’s always the best way to go.
