Do you feel trepidation when Monday arrives? Or do you feel the weekend wasn't long enough? How about anxiety when you approach your work?
Maybe you're sour and tired from the week's work, and your leave isn't due anytime soon. Could you have a workplace anxiety attack? Or wait, you just no longer enjoy doing your work. We know it sucks.
Well, we at Flexispot understand that it can be draining to dress and get ready for work every day. Now, you can learn how to manage and deal with this anxiety, and that's precisely the focus of this article.
With the following tips, you wouldn't dread getting ready for work, and may get rid of your anxiety completely.
Let us dive right in but before that, let's get familiar with these terms:
What is Work Anxiety, its Symptoms, and Causes?
Anxiety is when we excessively worry about the unknown. When this happens in a work setting, it is referred to as workplace anxiety. Short-term work problems could trigger these anxiety attacks, resulting from the more-defined illness called anxiety disorder.
While anxiety is how the body generally responds to stress in one’s everyday life, work anxiety is a feeling of dread, stress, unease, and nervousness about one's affairs and performance at work.
Causes of Work Anxiety
Work anxiety is a common phenomenon amongst the general work population. Failure to meet deadlines, working long hours, relationships with colleagues, lack of incentives, and feeling unappreciated are some of the causes of anxiety in the workplace. Quite interestingly, some of these triggers are also consequences of work anxiety.
Now, when anxiety becomes excessive, it can take a significant toll on one’s health and general well-being. Aside from its obvious health implications, anxiety may also harm other aspects of one’s life.
Symptoms of work anxiety
Forgetfulness, loss of concentration, reduced productivity, and physical illness are some of the symptoms of work anxiety.
Tips for Coping with Work Anxiety
Although it may be almost impossible to completely eliminate anxiety in your workplace, it can be managed appropriately and reduced to the barest minimum. You would find the following tips helpful to deal with anxiety while you are working.
1. Speak to the Management
While you might be sceptical about this move, it may help you deal with your anxiety. Given that anxiety may interfere with the delivery of your duties, you may need a convenient arrangement to do your job more effectively.
2. Identify and Understand your Limits
You need to be aware of your limitations and learn to work within them. You can start by being realistic with your work targets.
Avoid multitasking and taking on more work than you can handle at a time. You can determine when you need a break and seek assistance, especially if you feel overwhelmed by a task.
You can also re-energize by taking short breaks to catch your breath. During this break, you could take a walk to stretch out your muscles. This may help you maintain focus by the time you return to your job.
3. Employ Quick Coping Mechanisms
There are coping mechanisms that help alleviate stress when you feel anxious at work momentarily.
Remember the saying, “all work, and no play makes Jack a dull boy?”. It'd be good to employ this approach in managing work anxiety.
These approaches include listening to a calming song, taking deep breaths, watching comedy clips, avoiding what triggers your anxiety, and so on. Whichever it is, the aim is to restore calm during your moments of acute anxiety.
4. Good Health Practices
Engaging in good health practices will go a long way in alleviating your stress at work. For instance, you should cut down on your caffeine intake, as it can disrupt your sleep-wake cycle. Not getting enough sleep will harm your health. Always eat healthily and adhere to a well-balanced diet.
5. Speak to a Co-worker
Research suggests that social support is essential in stress management. So, it would help if you endeavoured to speak to a friendly and trusted co-worker about your situation. Letting a colleague know about your anxiety issues may provide the support you need to ease your stress at work.
Conclusion
Anxiety is a common issue at most workplaces. The aforementioned tips should be helpful for you in ensuring you manage anxiety effectively since it can interfere with your productivity at work.
If, however, you have difficulty handling this anxiety yourself, then you may need to seek professional help. Consider visiting a mental health specialist.
You can get diagnosed and treated, either by therapy or medication, as it could prove to be a significant first step in dealing with severe anxiety.
