IT related jobs can be super stressful and get overwhelming from time to time. Work pressures and stress is a real issue in today’s fast-paced society. The causes can lie in the work itself, workload, the managerial style, or even unrelated private circumstances.
If not managed properly, the stress from high-pressure tech jobs can affect employees in various ways as well, including impacting their health, performance, and productivity.
Herein is a comprehensive look at eight ways to deal with stress at work for those in the digital marketing profession.
1) Recognize the Signs of Excess Work Stress
In many cases, work-related stress is acknowledged only when it is too late. There are several warning signs that you may be dealing with too much. In order to be able to manage stress, you must be able to recognize the signs. They may include feeling anxious, depressed or irritable, an inability to focus or concentrate, regular headaches, social withdrawal as well as using alcohol or drugs to cope with the problems.
There are some signs that are a bit more subtle. You can often find clues of looming work issues directly in your processes. For instance, you may be rushing your tasks with too many errors or mistakes. It can also be the other way around, where you are slower than normal at completing tasks or finding yourself without the motivation to finish.
2) Learn to Delegate Work
As a manager in the Internet marketing industry, you cannot do everything by yourself. An excessive amount of work is one of the sure recipes for burnout. When under pressure, it can be tempting to just do it all yourself.
Doing this unnecessarily increases your workload and just make problems worse. Carefully analyze the tasks that you manage yourself on a daily basis.
Select the jobs that you can readily delegate or even outsource. Delegation is a good practice even when there may be some startup time during transitioning and supervision of a subordinate requiring some initial handholding. You need to be able to rely on others or else you will get overwhelmed.
3) Planning and Organization
Proper planning and organization can be the solution to many work-related problems. Planning helps turn your mind map into a workable outline and also helps eliminate wasted time and procrastination. Prioritize your tasks and formulate a to-do list by order of importance.
Start your days with the tasks that are urgent and important, followed by those that are important but not urgent. The unimportant tasks without time binding should be at the bottom of the list. Devote appropriate time to these tasks and follow the formula every day.
This way, you will always deliver on the important tasks, thus alleviate some work pressure. Check on your daily progress, intermittently for motivation and confidence then keep going. Having control over your workload through the organization allows you to directly manage it when the pressure begins to mount.
4) Take a Step Back and Slow Down
When you experience excessive pressure from your job, it helps to first take a step back. The almost instinctual reaction we have pressure is to try and rush through projects and worry about deadlines. Slowing down and stepping back can help you analyze your particular situation and decide on the most effective approach.
Rushing through tasks when under pressure leads to mistakes and oversights, which result in even more pressure and stress. Slowing down can help you realize that some work-related situations may not be as challenging as they seem.
5) Manage Your Response
Your response to pressured work situations largely determines whether you thrive from them or break down under pressure. If you develop the right mindset, pressured scenarios can be opportunities to learn, develop, and grow.
Make the decision to use these situations as your motivation to succeed. One way to do this is cognitive restructuring. Cognitive restructuring is a mental technique that you can use to turn negative scenarios around such that they work in your favor. It involves a series of steps, which facilitate positive thinking.
The steps include calming yourself down, identifying the situation, analyzing your mood, identifying your automatic thoughts, identifying the evidence, identifying the contradictory evidence and letting go. Managing the way you respond to work situations will help you focus on finding solutions rather than on problems.
6) Avoid Taking Excess Ownership
Managers, especially in the digital marketing domain, can have an enormous responsibility. However, if you take to much ownership, you may end up disempowering your subordinates or teams. Disempowered employees will not be bothered with collective responsibility or initiative as they feel that you will do everything.
Taking excess ownership is a surefire way to invite work pressure and stress. The best way to navigate ownership and foster collective responsibility is to share it. Sharing ownership will take some of the work pressure off. One of the best ways to do this is to involve your subordinates or team members in the decision making the process.
7) Stay Physically Healthy
In the tech domain, it is very easy to foster bad habits such as consuming poor quality foods, sitting at a desk for long hours, lack of exercise, lack of sleep, and excess screen time. Ensure that you put time aside for regular physical activity and adopt a proper diet that incorporates healthy organic foods.
Another neglected but equally important aspect of physical health in sleep. Ensure that you get at least 7-8 hours of quality sleep each day. An all-around healthy body and mind is more capable of dealing with work pressures.
8) Have Disconnection Time
We stare at screens all day. We are addicted to our devices. It is crucial that you take some time off screen and disconnect in order to avoid eye strains, neck pains, lower back pains, and increased anxiety.
Most people assume disconnecting means taking a break to exchange on social media or send messages to friends. You need to turn off your computer and mobile device screens and rest your eyes whenever you can. During your free time at work, opt to read a book or take a brief walk.
Overall, the right amount of pressure can be a motivational factor for peak performance. However, excessive and unmanaged stress can take its toll on you. Changing the way you go about doing your job is the key to handling the pressure in tech-related fields.
About The Author
Rodney Warner is the founder of Connective Web Design. You can find him on his company website or on Instagram.
