Table of ContentsView AllTable of ContentsHow Stress Impacts Work (and Vice Versa)How to Stay ProductiveStrategies to Calm Down QuicklyHow to Tell Your Manager You’re StrugglingLong-Term Strategies for Work-Life Balance

Table of ContentsView All

View All

Table of Contents

How Stress Impacts Work (and Vice Versa)

How to Stay Productive

Strategies to Calm Down Quickly

How to Tell Your Manager You’re Struggling

Long-Term Strategies for Work-Life Balance

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Taking care of yourself is key to managingwork stresseffectively, saysAshley Peña, LCSW, the executive director at the mental health care center, Mission Connection. “Having the right tools to focus on your well-being can directly support how you manage stress.“

But what does this self-care look like? We tagged some mental health experts and got their recommendations on the best stress-relief strategies that can help improve your work productivity.

At a GlanceStress and work form a vicious cycle that throws your productivity off track.Prioritizing tasks, compartmentalizing projects, setting realistic deadlines, and managing time efficiently can help you stay on top of your workload and be productive when you’re uber stressed.However, if you don’t have a healthy work-life balance, no amount of project management can prevent burnout.

At a Glance

Stress and work form a vicious cycle that throws your productivity off track.Prioritizing tasks, compartmentalizing projects, setting realistic deadlines, and managing time efficiently can help you stay on top of your workload and be productive when you’re uber stressed.However, if you don’t have a healthy work-life balance, no amount of project management can prevent burnout.

Stress and work form a vicious cycle that throws your productivity off track.

Prioritizing tasks, compartmentalizing projects, setting realistic deadlines, and managing time efficiently can help you stay on top of your workload and be productive when you’re uber stressed.

However, if you don’t have a healthy work-life balance, no amount of project management can prevent burnout.

Stressand work have a bidirectional relationship, where each can significantly impact the other. Let’s take a look at the ways stress affects our work and how work can contribute to our stress levels.

How Stress Impacts Work

Stress impacts our work depending on the level of stress we’re experiencing, saysJenna Nielsen, MSW, LCSW, a therapist at ADHDAdvisor. “A small amount of stress may make our work better or more valuable; whereas, high stress typically causes us to make mistakes, become overwhelmed, or feel incapable of the job,” she says.

According to research, these are some of the ways that stress can affect our performance at work:

How Work Causes Stress

On the other hand, these are some of the ways that our work might contribute to our stress levels:

How to Take a Break from Work (and Why You Need To)

Staying on top of your workload can help you manage your stress levels and improve your productivity. These are some strategies that can help:

States Are Now Accepting “Mental Health Day” as a Valid Reason for Missing School

When stress hits hard at work, you need to be able tocalm down quicklyin order to regain your focus. These are some strategies that may help:

The Best Essential Oils for Stress Relief and How to Use Them

Sometimes meditation techniques or a well-planned task list aren’t enough to alleviate workplace stress and you might have to get your manager involved. It is daunting? Abso-freaking-lutely. But chatting with your boss is the first step towards getting the support you need.

Once your manager knows about your issues, they can collaborate with you to find solutions like reducing workloads or adopting new strategies and procedures that promote a healthierwork-life balance, says Peña.

Not sure how to approach your manager? Here are a few tips:

8 Tips to Handle Work From Home Stress

A healthy work-life balance is key to stayingproductiveand maintaining stability, says Peña. These are some strategies that can help you achieve a better balance in the long run:

Quitting Your Job Could Do Wonders For Your Mental Health—Is It Right For You?

Takeaways

Stress can take a toll on your productivity as well as your health. Find ways to manage it—not just in the short-term to make that deadline—but in the long run to maintain a healthy and sustainable work-life balance.

Unlinking Your Self-Worth From Your Work

9 Sources

Verywell Mind uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.

Dhabhar, F. S. (2018).The short-term stress response – mother nature’s mechanism for enhancing protection and performance under conditions of threat, challenge, and opportunity.Frontiers in Neuroendocrinology,49, 175–192. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.yfrne.2018.03.004

Bui, T., Zackula, R., Dugan, K., & Ablah, E. (2021).Workplace stress and productivity: A cross-sectional study.Kansas Journal of Medicine,14, 42–45. https://doi.org/10.17161/kjm.vol1413424

Salam, A., Segal, D. M., Abu-Helalah, M. A., Gutierrez, M. L., Joosub, I., Ahmed, W., Bibi, R., Clarke, E., & Qarni, A. A. A. (2019).The impact of work-related stress on medication errors in Eastern Region Saudi Arabia.International Journal for Quality in Health Care: Journal of the International Society for Quality in Health Care,31(1), 30–35. https://doi.org/10.1093/intqhc/mzy097

Bowers C, Kreutzer C, Cannon-Bowers J, Lamb J.Team resilience as a second-order emergent state: A theoretical model and research directions.Front Psychol. 2017 Aug 17;8:1360. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2017.01360

Bayes, A., Tavella, G., & Parker, G. (2021).The biology of burnout: Causes and consequences.The World Journal of Biological Psychiatry: The Official Journal of the World Federation of Societies of Biological Psychiatry,22(9), 686–698. https://doi.org/10.1080/15622975.2021.1907713

Asfaw, A. G., & Chang, C.-C. (2019).The association between job insecurity and engagement of employees at work.Journal of Workplace Behavioral Health,34(2), 96–110. https://doi.org/10.1080/15555240.2019.1600409

CASTELLINI, G., CONSONNI, D., & COSTA, G. (2022).Conflicts in the workplace, negative acts and health consequences: Evidence from a clinical evaluation.Industrial Health,61(1), 40–55. https://doi.org/10.2486/indhealth.2021-0283

Rasool, S. F., Wang, M., Tang, M., Saeed, A., & Iqbal, J. (2021).How toxic workplace environment effects the employee engagement: The mediating role of organizational support and employee wellbeing.International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health,18(5), 2294. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18052294

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