Tips For Managing Stress At Work Post-Lockdown

As anxiety therapists, we are sometimes asked how to destress after work. It's a legitimate question since many people have stressful jobs and don't want their anxiety to carry over into their personal lives. There's nothing wrong with having an after-work self-care routine, but for many people, that's just not enough.

If you don't also manage your anxiety during your workday, it may affect your work performance. You also risk bringing home so much stress that you're unable to calm it with your after-work routine. Your happiness, personal relationships, and sleep quality may all suffer as a result. By taking steps to manage stress while you're still at work, you can be more productive during the day and more relaxed in the evening.

We'd like to offer some advice for managing stress at work. But first, we want to encourage you to set reasonable expectations for yourself. It's not possible to completely eliminate workday stress, even if you do everything right in terms of stressor reduction and self-care. The working world is anxiety-inducing, and no one is immune to that.

Workplace stress is particularly bad right now for people returning to in-person work. Many who went remote during the pandemic struggled with the transition initially but eventually got comfortable with it. When they were called back into the workplace, their routines went out the window again.

Returning to in-person work involves a lot of changes. It means waking up earlier and navigating the morning commute. Nothing is convenient or familiar anymore. You can't just walk to your home kitchen for snacks/coffee. And because of COVID, many workplaces are no longer providing those niceties.

Changes like these may seem insignificant, but they take a mental toll. When your brain has to figure out where the coffee is or how to get lunch, that's just one more thing it has to process. If you've recently returned to in-person work, it's perfectly understandable if you're still adjusting. So, try to give yourself some latitude.

Of course, just because workplace stress is common doesn't mean you should resign yourself to constant anxiety. There are things you can do to make it less constant and more tolerable. But in our experience as anxiety therapists, it doesn't cross most people's minds to even pay attention to their mental health at work. They have so much on their to-do lists that they defer that for later.

Rather than ignoring your mental health all day, we recommend checking in with yourself regularly. To build this habit, we like The Pomodoro Technique, a research-based practice suitable for anyone feeling stressed at work or wanting to increase productivity. We recommend it to patients who are struggling with back-to-office anxiety and those looking for new ways to cope with chronic work stress.

Pomodoro breaks the workday into half-hour chunks, each consisting of 25 minutes of work and five minutes of break time. Stick to this schedule as closely as you can during your work shift and use the breaks to check in with yourself. When you first try it, you'll probably need to set timers to remind you to start and stop work. And you may be reluctant to stop working when you're right in the middle of something. But it does get easier as you fall into a rhythm with it.

Taking a break every 25 minutes probably sounds like a lot—especially if you work in a fast-paced environment. If you're skeptical, we encourage you to just try it for a week. Treat it like an experiment. You might ultimately decide that it doesn't work for you, but we think you'll be pleasantly surprised by how much calmer and more productive you are.

So. . . what should you do during those five-minute breaks? There are a wide variety of ways to reduce stress at work, so just pick something that helps you care for yourself. If you're not so great at self-care, just start with the basics. Visit the restroom, get yourself a snack or some water, or put on a sweater if you're cold, for example.

If you're already fed and comfortable, tend to your psychological needs. If you're feeling burned out, listen to an inspirational meditation or podcast for a few minutes. If you're anxious, you might try walking around the building or standing on the balcony. Maybe put on some soothing music and do some stretches at your desk. If you're too fatigued to even do that, silence your notifications for five minutes, close your eyes, and just breathe.

Try to get away from your desk as often as you can during these breaks. It's okay if some of them involve checking social media, but try to consider how that's likely to make you feel. For example, scrolling Instagram probably won't leave you feeling confident and refreshed. But if there's something you can do online that will feed you in some positive way—go for it.

You might have to try a few different things to find breaktime activities that serve you best. You might even have to adjust the amount of time you spend on work/breaks to find your sweet spot (although we strongly suggest trying the recommended ratio first).

If you need help coping with work stress, consider counseling. Our anxiety therapists help patients in New York City and throughout the state manage anxiety at work and at home. Contact us for a free consult to learn more about our virtual anxiety therapy service.