It is inevitable to experience stress at work; it’s pretty much tacitly implied when you agreed for the job. But it doesn’t mean that you have bear it until the end of the work day. There are ways to cope with stress, depending on a person.
For me, when I’m stressed at work I listen to my favorite artist. Music plays an important role in my life. Each artist has their purpose and time when I should listen to it. Being a Taylor Swift fan, I listen to her songs the most. If I’m stressed or came up blank in programming, I listen to all the albums of Maroon 5. In the afternoons, when I feel lazy, I listen to Hozier. Or if I have an assigned task which is overwhelming and I feel like I couldn’t do it, I listen to a playlist that I created, titled ‘Chin up’. It contains uplifting and confidence boosting songs.
If music couldn’t help, then I eat a tub of my favorite ice cream. It’s my body’s way of saying that while I’m stressed, at least I have a little bit of heaven — in the form of ice cream.
I guess the most common way for me to de-stress is that I check for updates from my favorite authors, or the release days of books that I’m waiting for. I have a calendar in my phone full of dates when this book or that book will be released. And usually a couple of days before the release day, there is a blog tour: it features teasers or excerpts. It isn’t that long but it is enough for me to take my mind off things for a while.
But mostly, I listen to my body. If I’m too stressed, and my body is screaming for a little break, then I stop whatever I’m doing to take a deep breath for a couple of minutes. I learned the hard way that I have to set a limit for the amount of stress my body can handle. If I pushed myself, I know that it will go back to myself and I’ll eventually get sick.
I tend to overthink things, and the way I usually understand a certain topic is far from what the clients actually wants, because I throw in a lot of what ifs, alternative solutions which, when you look at it, aren’t relevant to what the client is asking for. At these times, I communicate with our developers and when I get the feeling that I’m trailing away from the actual topic, that’s the time I say to myself to take a breather.
It is important for me to de-stress. I can’t work properly if I’m too stressed. Actually I can, but the output of my work is barely passable.
Stress is not good for our health. I think it is needed for someone to alleviate the stress they are feeling by doing things that can make them feel happy or light even for a brief amount of time.
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Written by Pauline Manolo
Pauline is one of Akubo’s customer care engineers, a bookworm, and an avid writer in her spare time.