Eliminate Stress and Maintain Productivity

What is Stress? Why do we feel Stressed?

Stress is a state of worry or tension caused by an unpleasant situation or circumstances. Stress occurs when something you don't desire happens, either because of someone’s intervention or lack of time, resources etc. For example, you desire to be appreciated for your hard work, but you receive a different reaction from your boss, so stress happens. Or you want to complete a project, but you think you will not be able to complete it on time, so stress happens as what you want is not happening.

There are a variety of stressors in the environment which might seem very menial but have the power to cause an enormous amount of stress in your life. Stress can be caused by personal, familial, workplace or daily life hassles. As per 2024 statistics, 6/10 workers in major global economies experience workplace stress. This impacts the wellbeing of the employees and leads to their loss in productivity thus affecting the overall operations of the company. Stress at workplace is caused by various factors including demanding work, less pay, no job security, workplace harassment, no job satisfaction, poor company culture and ineffective communication. It is very essential for the organizations to invest in employee welfare programs and identify these stressors.

Stress Management

Stress management offers a comprehensive strategy to deal and manage the stressful life situations. Addressing stress management is as important for the organization as it is for the employees in order to ensure better employee participation, increase the overall productivity and reduce staff turnover.

The Right Reasons to Work

It is very important for the employees to access the right reasons for their work. If their work motivation arises out of any compulsion, it would lead to stress. For instance, you want to be successful because you want to prove yourself to your family, so there is a compulsion. Now all those times, when your job doesn’t satisfy your desires, it becomes stressful.

Action oriented vs. Result oriented reasons

You can work for the right reasons if you shift from result-oriented to action-oriented reasons for your endeavors. This change in perspective can transform stress-inducing tasks into fulfilling activities. For example, donating money out of a desire to help others is less stressful than investing in stocks for profit. This is because; the reason behind doing any activity determines your experience of it. The reason behind donating money is to serve and the reason behind investing money in stocks is to earn more profit.

It is also essential to note that when you willingly take an action, there are no issues, but when there is a condition attached to it there is a possibility for disappointment. Action would become willing when you learn to enjoy it for what it has to offer in the process itself. For example, if you are an ice cream seller, you must learn to enjoy the process of frosting the ice, whipping the cream and serving the dish. Then even if the customer dislikes it or you don't earn enough money, you won't be stressed. Similarly, if you are an investor, then why don’t you enjoy the process of evaluating a business idea and making the most of it as a mentor rather than just calculating what you will get from the process.

Avoid Complacency and increase Responsiveness

Complacency can have rippling effects on the organization as a whole. Becoming complacent frequently results from a loss of conscious response to situations. By being thoughtful and responsible you can stay motivated and productive without feeling crushed. For example, after diverting my responsibility to the youth, I never feel complacent in any way because I know I have so much to do for their happiness. But at the same, I don't feel stressed because I know I am doing all this to give a creative expression to my capabilities. If you are willing to respond to everything that's happening in your organization, you will not have a single moment of complacency. To become responsible, all it takes is to see reality and not live in hallucination. Your thought that “I need 600 million dollars to be happy”, is a hallucinatory idea. But thinking about what’s needed to be done in reality is the way to become responsible.

Managing your Aspirations

It is essential to live in the present and manage your aspirations rather than obsessing over the desired outcome in order to life a stress- free life. For instance, if you want a mango, would you keep on chanting and thinking about mango, or would you sow the seed and nurture it? This means if you are not thinking about “what you will get” all the time, and rather focus on your work, you will be more successful than others.

Practical Steps to Eliminate Stress

Phase 1

Visualize yourself sitting in the office working on your current project. You may already start to feel the stress. Now focus on why you are indulged in doing that activity. List the reasons on a sheet of paper.

Phase 2

Then see what the nature of the things is you have listed. Are they result-oriented or action-oriented? If you have listed money, status, or even social benefit, all these are result-oriented reasons. But in case you have mentioned things like “you enjoy doing the work”, “you get a creative expression” or “you feel fulfilled” then these are action-oriented reasons as they are related to the action and not a future outcome.

Phase 3

Now list down what are the different aspects of the problem that are still unsolved. For example, you envisioned a better market for ethnic clothes, so you started your ethnic clothing business. But still, there is a lot more to be accomplished to solve the problem you had focused on. Now list these things down. These are the things that make you feel passionate and fill you with energy.

Phase 4

Now, all you have to do is to work with focus in the direction of solving these listed aspects of your focus problem, but this time do it because you are passionate about it and it's such a joy to be able to contribute. If you work willingly for reasons like “It makes you feel fulfilled”, “you enjoy the creativity”, etc. and keep reminding yourself of that, you will neither have any stress nor will you become less productive.

Hence, working with the right mindset can help you overcome workplace stress. By being conscious of your aspirations, being passionate about your work and enjoying your work while being determined you can achieve success without stress. However, if you work for being successful, you don't become successful, you only become stressed.