Modern working life can often be stressful and challenging. People experience external challenges as a burden when they feel they cannot influence them and also do not believe they have sufficient resources to cope with the stressful day-to-day. But there are ways in which you can make your working day stress-free.

By incorporating some practical strategies and mindsets into your routine, you can reduce stress and create a more productive and enjoyable work environment.

Tip 1: Take breaks and actively pay attention to your body signals

Continuous work without breaks can lead to exhaustion and overwork. To counteract this, you should take regular short breaks. Breaks help to maintain concentration and reduce stress by releasing tension in the body. How attentive are we to our body's signals? How carefully do we treat it? Many managers I work with treat their bodies and their problems with ignorance, harshness and discipline. There's no question that discipline is important. But is it always the right thing to do? If we push our bodies to extremes and don't give them a break, their performance will decline in the long term.

Tip 2: Effective communication & solution orientation

Clear and effective communication is crucial to minimize stress in the workplace. Misunderstandings and unclear instructions can lead to frustration and wasted time. Try to state your concerns clearly and be prepared to ask questions if you don't understand something. Also keep regular channels of communication open with colleagues and superiors to identify and resolve conflicts and misunderstandings early on. The strongest employees are willing to do everything in their power to focus on their goals despite adversity and have an indomitable will to achieve them, which in the majority of cases leads to success.

Tip 3: Emotional agility

People who are able to deal well with stress in everyday life do not allow their negative emotions and thoughts to control them, but they also do not try to ignore them or actively fight against them. Instead, they deal with their emotions consciously and constructively, a characteristic that is often referred to as emotional agility or self-control. In our complex, ever-changing knowledge society, the ability to manage one's own negative and destructive impulses and feelings will become increasingly important for one's own success and that of the company. Numerous studies suggest that emotional agility can help you to manage stress, reduce wrong decisions and become more innovative and efficient.

Tip 4: Healthy distance

You certainly know the feeling when you are so deeply involved in a task that you can no longer see the wood for the trees. People at work who have cultivated a high degree of resilience identify with their role and are committed to achieving their goals. On the other hand, they make an internal distinction between their own person with the associated needs and interests and the role they hold, which is linked to certain expectations. The expectations are both the interests of the stakeholders and their own assumptions regarding the role.

For example, an employee who is promoted to the next level and given significantly more responsibility is usually very aware of what their assumption is about what is expected of them. This assumption can be true, but in my experience it is only true in very few cases.

He perceives less clearly what is really expected of him from various directions. And they are even less aware of what their own needs are. People at work with a high level of resilience are able to perceive the different areas separately and with a healthy distance and consciously decide which needs or expectations they want to pursue, when and to what extent. This allows them to chart their own course based on their "inner compass" and prevents them from taking responsibility for everything too quickly and then inevitably feeling overwhelmed and exhausted at some point.

Tip 5: Leading trusting, authentic relationships

People who know how to help themselves in stressful situations have a tendency to build and maintain close, authentic relationships with trusted caregivers. Stress resistance depends to a large extent on the extent to which they have developed the ability to open up to other people and be vulnerable. These attachment figures can be relatives, friends, spouses, pastors, mentors or even coaches. It is not about the sheer quantity of contacts or the frequency of conversations, but rather the constructive quality of the relationship in which you can show yourself as you really are - authentically. Non-constructive relationships, on the other hand, have no comparable effect; they are usually perceived as stress. Especially in difficult situations, good social relationships obviously act as a buffer against negative stress in everyday working life.

A stress-free working day is definitely achievable if you consciously work on the way you work and deal with stress. Experiment with the suggested tips and find out which strategies work best for you. With a little practice, you will be able to get through each working day stress-free.

The author

© Leadership Choices

Karsten Drath is a coach and Managing Partner at Leadership Choices, an international management consultancy based in Wiesbaden. His work focuses on leadership and organizational development at top management level. The author works with top managers and their teams to improve the efficiency and resilience of leadership. Karsten Drath is also a certified executive coach, book author and lecturer.