Making the workplace less stressful

Are you feeling stressed this new year? Lucy Parker from the Page Kirk team offers some advice on organisational skills, stress management, wellbeing and 'ergonomics' to ensure you are getting the most out of your day.

Have you ever walked into work in the morning not knowing what task to tackle first at the start of your day? Have you had those days where you have fallen behind on your workloads? Missed a deadline? Have you ever felt overwhelmed in the workspace, causing you to become stressed?

If so, you are not alone. Let's take a look at how crucial organisational skills, stress management and wellbeing are within your life. Not just in the workspace, but in your personal time too.

Negative Impact

There is an old saying: “If you fail to prepare, then you prepare to fail”. This pretty much summarises what will happen if we do not keep our lives organised and remain as free of stress as possible.

Our bodies our designed to react in certain ways when they become impacted by stress. They warn us that we are being exposed to a potential threat.

Originally, we would have developed these reactions to protect us from being attacked while hunting. But as time has gone by and we have evolved, we can still experience the same feelings.

If we do not learn to manage our stress levels, it can lead to a huge impact on our daily lives. It can affect our mood, attitude and physical and emotional wellbeing.

These days, something as simple as not being organised can lead to stress in the workplace or at home. For example, you were asked to prepare a presentation for a big meeting but did not prioritise this task and are now 15 minutes away from the start of the meeting with no presentation prepared. What happens? Stress kicks in.

Which is why it is crucial to stay ahead. This helps you to feel in control and feel relaxed. You are prepared and have greater confidence.

Stress can cause a range of impacts to your body and mind:

• Struggling to sleep
• Feeling fatigued
• Headaches
• Feeling unmotivated
• Loss of appetite or increased appetite
• Feeling miserable
• Feeling shaky and sick inside
• Finding it difficult to make decisions
• Feeling agitated and irritable

If these feelings persist, it's important to speak to your GP or seek out professional help. Below, however, you'll find some suggestions that may help you to avoid the problems arising in the first place.

Staying in control

Being organised and recognising signs of stress help you to stay in control and always be prepared for any situation. This doesn't mean life won't throw the odd curve ball at you! Sometimes things are beyond our control and happen to us whether we are ready or not. For example, the loss of a loved one, redundancy or becoming ill. Unfortunately, we cannot control these kind of life events, but we can recognise the stress it causes us and take steps to handle the situations and take care of ourselves.

In the workplace or at home there are many things you can do to keep organized and reduce stress creeping its way in.

1. Keep a To-Do-List – Keeping one of these lists is great, as you can list and write down the tasks you need to carry out and mark these off when completed. This provides a clear and structured visual reminder of what you must do. It also feels great when you strike off a task once it is completed and allows you to see you are being productive.
2. Use a calendar – Appointments, events, meetings, dinners and gatherings can all be marked into a personal calendar. Whether this is in electronic or paper form, you can add reminders to yourself on certain days that a specific task may need to be completed by a certain date or keep this as a countdown for upcoming exciting events to keep you motivated.
3. Have desk trays or use folders – Keeping documents together in relevant categories is great, as it helps you to locate certain documents quickly without having to filter through piles of papers.
4. Eliminate your “Time Thieves” – When busy and needing to complete tasks, ensure you recognise and eliminate anything that causes you to be distracted. For example, one of the biggest distractions in the world right now is your mobile phone. Whether it's your social media notifying you of a new post, news flooding your screen with irrelevant information or emails from your favourite clothing website telling you about a sale. If it is not something you need to know at the time and it's taking your time, it is a time thief!

Ergonomics – Ultimate wellbeing

Your job, environment and equipment are what make up the core of Ergonomics. This determines your well-being whilst carrying out your tasks.

Let's talk more about this and delve a little further.

Is your desk or workspace always messy? Papers all over it? Your telephone miles from reach? If yes, this means your desk is not ergonomically set up to serve you best. This can be resolved by ensuring paperwork is filed into paper trays or folders. Having your telephone on the side of you of which hand you would use to pick this up and dial. Your desk should be laid out in a way that makes each movement you make feel effortless and easy. A tidy desk leads to a tidy and clear mind.

Do you sit and focus on a task for a long period of time and become drained? This is a sign that you are not working ergonomically. When you have focused on a task for 25 minutes or more, it is good to take a short break, which revives your pre-frontal cortex in the brain. This part of the brain affects your decision making. Not taking regular breaks can affect it, leading to you making minor mistakes without noticing. Not taking a break can also lead to headaches, neck ache, back ache and eye strain.

Quick stress busters

Curing stress or preventing stress can be helped by performing some simple and straight forward activities in the workplace or at home. For example:

• Carry out breathing exercises for 1-2 minutes
• Take a quick walk around the office/home
• Stretch out tense or taut parts of your body
• Close your eyes to rest them for a couple of minutes

Real life stress in everyone

At some point or another we have all felt or experienced some degree of stress over one thing or another. Looking and turning to other people for their experience and guidance helps us to understand how we all react differently when trying to cope.

Recognising and controlling stress within ourselves is vital, but it just as equally important to recognise and try to help stress in others. This could be your friends, family and colleagues. Supporting one another is essential, by working together to distribute workloads, meet deadlines, cover all areas of tasks, and turn to each for help and guidance when needed. Not only does looking out for others create a friendly and supportive work environment for them, but it creates a rhythm within the workspace which will ripple and create an attitude within the team, making staff happier and more motivated. This is great for them and great for you as they will then give a helping hand when you need it too.

If you would like to work for an award-winning firm, check out our job vacancies here or email recruitment@pagekirk.co.uk. At Page Kirk, we work as a team, and you will never feel alone.