A Working Girl’s Guide to De-stressing the Day

As we get older, our days become busier and busier. At one time, stress was brought on by an 8am-3pm spent in the classroom. Now, we find ourselves juggling a 40+ hour work week, time spent with family, meetups with friends, and a heavy load of other extra-curricular activities…not to mention the day-to-day tasks that pop up.

Finding time to balance all of this and remain sane isn’t the easiest task (add that one onto the list too). Search for ways to find a little peace in your day – don’t pencil anything in, just do it.

Start the morning early.

Stressful

Evaluate how long it takes you to get out the door in the morning. Set your alarm for the last possible minute you can wake up. Grab a quick breakfast and fly out the door in a rush.

Stress-less

Set your alarm for a decent time and get up when it actually goes off. Eat a substantial breakfast and have a cup of coffee. You might even have time to revel in two cups. Maybe try something like CBD capsules to help relieve stress that will come later on in the day. The point is – don’t rush through the morning, enjoy it.

Break up the day.

Stressful

Get to work and open up your email. Respond to all 35 of them and immediately start on the next project. Tackle that, then call in for the conference call you have scheduled. Instead of paying attention to the call, respond to the emails that came in when you were working on project #1. At your desk, eat lunch as quickly as possible – while responding to emails. Power through the afternoon, half-tired/half-delusional. Stay at work late because hey, you have a lot to do still.

Stress-less

Get to work and make a goal list for the day. Although it’s difficult to gauge, plan out what you’d like to have done when. Respond to the emails in your inbox and start on a project or two. Take a break when needed – staring at a screen for 8 hours straight isn’t going to increase your productivity. Take an actual lunch. Sit outside, go for a walk, or eat lunch with a coworker. For those of us that have to sit at a desk all day, increasing blood flow makes a world of difference. Continue to take short breaks in the afternoon. Your eyes and legs need refreshers. Get a full day’s of work in, and leave at a reasonable time.

De-stress your afternoon.

Stressful

You’re leaving work late when you decide you’re too tired to go to the gym. You decide to pick up some fast food for dinner because cooking will take too long, and you’re starving. When you get home, you turn the television on and binge watch the best available program on TV. Before you know it, it’s 11:30 at night and you haven’t actually watched any TV – because you’re too busy catching up on social media, talking to family, and texting friends. You go to bed late and try to mentally prepare yourself for another early wake-up call.

Stress-less

You left work at a reasonable time and took breaks throughout the day, so to the gym you go. You get in a good workout and head home to cook a more tasteful dinner than a $0.99 cheeseburger. You talk to your loved ones on the phone and watch a show or two on TV. Before bed, you pick up a good book and read a couple of chapters – just in time to get to bed at a decent time. You close your eyes, clear your head, and realize you’ve done what you could today.

You may have just read this article and thought, “What I just read was pointless.” Of course, we’d all love to have stress-less days, and some days are just going to be plain demanding – but we have to give ourselves a break now and then.

I thought writing it in black and white might serve as a reminder, and it might make us slow down for a second. Remember, at the end of the day, you’ve done what you could. Don’t relish on things you couldn’t do, you should’ve done better, or you need to do tomorrow. You’ll figure out how to do it, you’ll do it better next time, and tomorrow you’ll get it done.

So what do you do to reduce stress? Share with us by commenting or sharing on social media!