You are feeling stressed, fidgeting over your desk, unable to concentrate, and your work is piling up. You are trying to communicate or pitch in, but you are scared. You have lots of ideas and potential, but everything seems difficult.
If this is what you are feeling, there’s a chance you might be facing work anxiety.
Sometimes when we join a workplace, we are overwhelmed. There are new people, a new environment, and a new life. Feeling anxious and stressed is normal when you start a new one. But if your symptoms last longer and start affecting your life, you should follow some steps on how to overcome work anxiety.
Before that, let’s understand what work anxiety means and how to deal with stress and anxiety at work.
What is work anxiety?
Feeling anxious at work includes feelings of uneasiness, worry, and apprehension. These feelings can appear even when you are outside working hours.
In today’s world, anxiety is normal in the workplace because competition is increasing. Many people face depression and stress.
Sometimes these feelings are so frequent and intense that they can affect your ability to do your work.
Work anxiety symptoms include constant worry or hopelessness, feeling trapped, fearful and paranoid, and experiencing panic attacks, fatigue, and muscle tension.
These symptoms may hamper your work as you lose concentration, become demotivated, etc. This might lead to a decrease in performance and frequent leaves.
Work anxiety can be a result of many factors.
If you constantly face workplace issues like conflicts with colleagues, workplace bullying by seniors, or working long hours. You are exhausted, or when you have imposter syndrome, you don’t believe in your achievements and think of them as mere luck or a deposit doing all the hard work. You are being given low wages.
How to overcome work anxiety?
Now that you know the symptoms of work anxiety, it’s time to learn how to manage stress and anxiety at work by practicing mental health activities that will make you more productive and stress-free.
1. Acknowledge your emotions as valid
We generally suppress our feelings, considering them invalid. Whatever we are feeling is not a big deal. When you face burnout at work, you might make it normal without thinking about what you are going through.
But if you want to know how to overcome work anxiety, the first thing you need to do is, accept your emotions as valid. If you are feeling anxious and stressed, think of them as normal and that you are not weak. Then you can work towards a solution on how to manage stress and anxiety at work.
2. Practice time management
In today’s work culture, the workload is increasing, and people face issues with time management and deadlines. It becomes hard to complete tasks, and one might get stressed and frustrated.
Another step on how to overcome work anxiety is learning proper time management for a smooth working experience. Various time management techniques include Eisenhower Matrix, Time blocking, Eat the Frog and Pomodoro Technique.
Learning proper time management can help you achieve your goals faster and keep you stressed free, and you can avoid work anxiety.
3. Keep Yourself Organised
An organized person can complete deadlines and be stress-free from the workload is a great step in how to overcome work anxiety. If you want a productive day, organize your work and desk. Declutter your desk, and make your surroundings clean to avoid distraction.
Organize your work and keep track of your work. Creating a weekly or daily work plan is a significant step. This will help you see a clear picture of what needs to be done and what you have completed. Organising can help you stay calm.
4. Make a to-do list
A to-do list is essential to incorporate into your daily schedule if you want to know how to get over anxiety at work. Make a to-do list and list all the vital work that needs to be done and all the work that can be done later.
Making and sticking to a to-do list can take a lot of work. But it is the most practical solution. We need to remember everything that needs to be done. Therefore we must write it down so that we complete it. This will help us keep track of deadlines and other essentials and keep us stress-free and less anxious.
5. Set Realistic Deadlines
Another way on how to overcome work anxiety is to set realistic goals. Take the amount of work that you can complete according to your capacity. Talk to your employer about deadline adjustment. Make a note of the previous deadlines and try making changes accordingly.
Identify the important work and complete it first. Others can delegate work. Make a proper plan while dealing with multiple projects.
Make short-term goals instead of long-term ones, as they can be overwhelming. Short-term goals are faster to achieve and will keep you motivated and help you learn how to cope with work anxiety.
6. Take a mental health day off
It is always mandatory to take a mental health day off. You can reflect on your feelings, try to understand your work anxiety, and practice ways on how to overcome work anxiety. You can give time to yourself and not worry for one day. Don’t think about work on your day off.
All the pressure and stress can affect our mental health, and we can feel discomfort. To be productive and creative, good mental health is a mandate. If you are happy and healthy, you can work properly. Mental health day off helps you tackle work burnout and calm you.
7. Practice Anti-anxiety techniques
As normal anxiety is dealt with, work anxiety can also be handled similarly. You have various techniques on how to get over anxiety at work when facing stress or frustration in your work.
Take deep breaths, practice other breathing exercises, walk, take a break from the computer, recognize your thoughts, and validate your feelings. You can also do short meditation techniques to calm yourself down. This will increase your productivity and regulate your anxiety. You can easily focus on your work and get it done without any hassle.
8. Talk to trustworthy people
Sometimes all we need is to vent or talk about our feelings. Indeed, people at work are not always good, but sometimes they are. Try having a best friend at work.
Talk to them. Tell them about their concerns. Take advice from them on how to manage work stress and anxiety at work.
This will help you stay stress-free and enjoy your work environment.
9. Talk to your employer
Sometimes, when nothing is working, it is essential to talk to your employer. Tell them about your workload. Make them understand that you want to do the work; you just need adjustments.
Properly conversing with your employer can develop an understanding and find solutions together.
10. Set work boundaries
Due to the recent pandemic, people have become used to working at home. They are now taking work home even after working all day hours.
It is essential to set boundaries between work and home. Say no to more work when you already have more than your capacity. Only engage in work once you reach the workplace. Only be available during office hours. Only bring it home if you cannot complete the day’s work. Do it tomorrow. Tell your employee when you are feeling overwhelmed.
11. Complete your work to avoid piling up
It is essential to complete the day’s work on the same day. If you miss a day’s work, things will start piling up. You might need help to finish it when the load has increased.
Therefore make a checklist to tick off and complete all the essential work in time so that you are free and don’t have to work extra hours.
This will keep you stress-free, and you can avoid work anxiety.
12. Get enough sleep
Sleeping is always important. It is normal to have a disrupted sleeping schedule when there is an increase in your workload. Stress and anxiety affect the sleep schedule of a person.
You must have about 8 hours of sleep. Proper sleep helps you have a productive day at work. You could have a creative mind if you slept the other day enough.
So go to bed early and rise early for a successful day!
13. Ask for help
When you find that the techniques to reduce work anxiety are not working, you should ask for help from your manager, HR, or a mental health professional about how to manage stress and anxiety at work.
If the anxiety symptoms are getting worse and affecting your life if you are not feeling motivated to work and constantly missing deadlines because if your feelings and stress, you should consult a health professional.
They will help you understand your emotions, look for healthy coping mechanisms on how to get over anxiety at work or prescribe medication.
Conclusion
Dealing with work anxiety is difficult but a bit impossible. Many coping techniques can help you deal with the symptoms of work anxiety. The important part from your side is acknowledging that you are facing issues before it’s too late and learning effective ways on how to overcome work anxiety.
It is normal to face anxiety at work; it is normal to miss a deadline; it is normal to make mistakes; it is normal to be late; it is normal to feel overwhelmed and stressed when you have a lot of work.
You just need to keep working towards creating a stress-free environment to work using these coping skills. Remember that results are going to take time.
Be consistent. Be confident. Believe in yourself.
You can have some anxiety-reducing food that you can have at your workplace during break hours. To learn more, click here.
For more knowledge on mental health and issues, subscribe to Your Mental Health Pal.