3 Ways to Stress-Proof Your Life
Think about the last time you experienced work-related stress. Was it five seconds ago? Five minutes? Last week? Chances are, if you’re similar to more than three-fourths of U.S. adult workers, it has been within the last month. According to a recent Korn Ferry study, employee stress levels have increased almost 20 percent in the last thirty years. And, stress decreases motivation, interest and energy.
Knowing this, here are some ways to help stress-proof your life. These are some things that I’ve been experimenting with and studying over the last few weeks. This is not a list of “do more”. In fact, to do more we often need to scale other things back – things that fill our time but may not be the most effective at helping us remove and reduce stress. Some of our time-fillers actually create more stress and we don’t even realize it.
Eliminate Distractions
When we’re stressed, one of the first things we do is try to self-soothe. We do this by picking up our phone and checking social media, flicking on the TV, or grabbing a beer or glass of wine (and sometimes we do all three at the same time!) The problem is that these self-soothing actions only partially relieve our stress and help us recover. They would be categorized as “passive recovery” because your brain is still partially firing, and you’re not really letting your body, mind, and emotions relax and fully restore.
The first step to stress-proofing your life is to remove distractions, and even embrace some boredom in your routine. Here are a few tips to help you remove some of those distractions:
- Remove all social media from your phone
- Turn your phone on Do Not Disturb for certain portions of the day (if you need to be accessible to certain people, you can set these as favorites to ring through even on DND mode)
- Set specific windows of time when you’ll check phone, email, and texts during the day
- Set aside a day or two a week when you will abstain from all screens (TV, phone, computer)
- Use apps like Freedom to stay focused during critical work periods
Eliminating distractions is not easy. Our lives often seem like an endless loop of one distraction after another. We’re bombarded with information and ads, all competing for our attention. Yet, removing distractions to focus on the important and essential is vital to one's overall health. See what kinds of distractions you can eliminate to provide more well-being to your life.
Execute Time Blocking
Time blocking is a skill that takes discipline but can also help relieve stress. You set aside specific times each day to devote yourself to specific things: work, recovery, sleep, exercise, and more.
Think about and make a list of your top five priorities for your life. What do you value the most and want to spend the most time doing each day or week? Write them out and then decide how much time each day you will devote to each area. Maybe social connection is important to you and you want to spend 2-3 hours each week devoted to connecting with others or even making new friends. Maybe health and wellness is high on your priority list, so you want to make sure you carve out 1-2 hours each day to devote to a couple of different specific wellness activities. Put these on your calendar and protect these times.
The trick with Time Blocking is to put it on your calendar and stick to it. Schedule your five main priority areas just like you would anything else and fight to preserve that time for those things specifically. Sure, there might be an occasional adjustment, just don’t remove it altogether. Find a way to make time for the things and people you want to invest in.
Engage in Active Recovery
Finally, schedule and focus on active recovery. In contrast to passive recovery, active recovery helps your body and brain relax and be restored. These are proven techniques to help you recover so that you don’t live in stress, burn out, and live in a continually deficient state of being.
Sleep is the number one way you can actively recover, and the most important one to get right. Lack of sleep can wreak all kinds of havoc on health, mood, and stress. Being able to get a good night’s sleep is also linked to major health benefits. If you’re not sleeping well (studies show you need 7-8 hours of mostly uninterrupted sleep to see these benefits), then this is the first and best thing to focus on.
Listed below are some really good ways to add active recovery to your schedule. To begin, add one or two of these a day and get them scheduled on your calendar (i.e., Work out at 5:30 am, followed by a cold shower at 6:15.) Stacking these works well too (Exercising, Stretching, and Foam Rolling stack very nicely together, for example) and then you get the benefit of multiple protocols together.
Active Recovery Protocols
- Cold Shower, Ice Bath Sauna, Steam Room, Hot Bath
- Meditation, Sensory Deprivation Tank, Nature Immersion, Exercise, Massage
- Foam Rolling, Stretching, Aimless Play, Sleep, Yoga
- Breath Work, Weighted Blanket, Acupuncture, Belly Laughing, Non-Sleep Deep Rest (NSDR)
Once you have these built into your day, how can you build these into your week? What about setting one day a week aside to focus on active recovery? It doesn’t mean you do this to the neglect of all else, but maybe devote a chunk of your day to remove all distractions and focus on recovery. Notice how refreshed you are and ready to tackle the rest of the day or the next few days even!
Then when you have mastered the one-day-a-week schedule, how can you fit a weekend a month into your schedule? Or one week every quarter or six months?
For those who are driven and tend to constantly run in overdrive, this is one way you will likely accomplish more. Our bodies weren’t meant to be pushed to the limit without rest and recovery. See if you can find a regular cycle of recovery and performance, and notice how much more you can accomplish in the time you set aside for deep work when you are refreshed and restored.
Resources:
https://www.apa.org/monitor/2022/01/special-burnout-stress
https://www.kornferry.com/insights/this-week-in-leadership/workplace-stress-motivation
https://www.livestrong.com/article/13719308-passive-vs-active-recovery
