Work-related stress is prevalent here in America. While occasionally stresses like meeting a deadline or facing a challenging task are necessary parts of any job, there are low-level stressors which can be completely eliminated. Getting rid of background stress can actually improve overall productivity.
Here at Business Success Consulting Group, we hope you will both use this article to reduce your stress levels and share it with your employees and team members to benefit the overall efficiency in your workplace.
Eliminate These Common Stress Inducers
Every one of us has one or two work habits that can create everyday stress. While it can take time to change a habit, we think you’ll agree that ending routines that add tension to your day will make your day better and increase your output.
Here are a few common things many individuals do which generate unnecessary anxiety and ties up time.
A Full Inbox
Empty your email inbox daily. This may be a daunting task if you have a very full inbox, get many reports, or have never zeroed out your emails. However, there are tools which can help:
– Folders can help you organize emails.
– Auto-sorting tools like labels and rules can help you direct emails to appropriate folders.
– Archiving emails allows you to save them for future reference if needed.
– Creating an email schedule in which you only answer emails at specific times of the day.
– Taking your email alerts off your phone.
Finally, there are many free and paid tools alike that can be used to organize your existing and incoming emails, making them manageable.
Interruptions
There are more potential interruptions at work these days than ever before. Between electronic notifications, chat programs, and other employees, it’s amazing we get any work done. There are ways to mitigate the many interruptions you may encounter on a daily basis. Here are a few:
– Take a cue from your university days and create “office hours” and establish the hours before and after this time as uninterrupted work hours.
– Create a schedule and stick to it.
– Turn off any notifications and even try to go offline when you need to focus.
– Only take part in meetings necessary for you to perform as an executive – trust your employees to get on with their own tasks.
– Build company policy addressing interruptions if this has become a company-wide issue.
– Set out a sign when you need to do an uninterrupted deep-dive.
Constant interruption can degrade productivity, reduce focus, and make work much harder than it needs to be. If this is a problem in your workplace, do what you can to nip it in the bud.
Feeling Undervalued
Sharing how vital an employee is to the company can make work a joy for that person. It’s equally critical that you, as an executive, feel that the daily work you do has value and is beneficial.
One of the simplest ways both employees and executives can express how much they value each other is to create effective reporting systems. Not just to report mistakes that are made but to share who has accomplished what.
A powerful reporting system can also help mitigate other small daily stressors, like having to take on another’s tasks or feeling as if one is taking on more work than another. Sharing to whom duties are assigned, the quality of completed tasks, and the length of time it took to complete tasks can all go far toward sharing how much excellent work an individual is doing within a company.
Are you hoping to increase workplace efficiency? Contact Business Success Consulting Group today!
