Everyday life already has plenty of things happening that may induce stress in us. And that’s not even counting the issues that may arise with work.
Too much stress can really eat at your health and work productivity. Stress can also negatively affect your relationships between your relatives and friends. Let’s not forget stress increasing the chances of you burning out.
Now there are ways to help cope with stress and help alleviate it all together. Some of these ways may feel counter-intuitive but I implore you to give them a shot – if you ever get overwhelmed and stress becomes just too much to bear.
Don’t Overcommit
A lot of income for freelancers comes from getting projects done. This may mean dealing with different organizations at the same time. Now it’s understandable that there may be a need to try to take on more than one thing at a time but that may end up biting you in the butt.
Have you ever been to a buffet? I am sure most of you have. You pile up food on your plate because you are just absolutely starving. You know you will ravage this plate in no time. Halfway through the plate you begin realizing you took on more than you can handle. A classic mistake of “your eyes are bigger than your stomach”.
I hope you see where I am going with this analogy. Don’t put too much work on your plate – like at the buffet, you may realize you’re trying to do too much after it’s already too late.
Doing too much at once is not good for you or your clients. Overextending yourself will put too much strain on you and quality of your work could suffer as a result.
Exercise
One of the best methods to reduce stress for anyone is exercise. It’s a fact that exercise is not only great to fortify physical wellness but works wonders for mental health too. Exercise will help deal with not only stress but with a variety of issues such as depression and anxiety.
This doesn’t even have to be a vigorous lifting routine. You may just choose to go for a walk outdoors, or try out some yoga. It doesn’t matter what you do, just go out there and be active. It’s great for you.
Take a Step Back
At times, work and life can be too much and become a bit overwhelming. You may be focusing too much on the small things of your work and forgetting the big picture of what’s really important.
Stress can cause you to start making brash and irrational decisions, while working and outside of work. As the title of this step suggests, take a step back and review your work and what is left to do.
Just a quick breather can make a huge difference. Re-organize your thoughts, and maybe come up with a new plan of approach. Starting the your project one way, after some time you may want to keep things fresh and go at it from a different angle.
Eat and Sleep
This may sound like common sense, but to many people out there, it isn’t. In fact many people are not sleeping as long as they should be and don’t have the right diets to keep them at their peak performance.
According to CDC (Center for Disease Control), 1 in 3 Americans don’t get enough sleep. Are you one of them? If you don’t get more than 7 hours of sleep, you may be sleep deprived – which affects your stress and work performance.
A well balanced diet will also help mitigate the effects of stress and reduce it overall. Not only a healthy diet makes you feel good but also look good. This in combination with exercise as mentioned before, will reduce the risk of a variety of health issues and keep you working efficiently and stress free.
Make Time for Yourself, Family, and Friends
Always try and make time for yourself and your family. A lot of people tend to forget about themselves and their relationships with other people.
Work can get in the way of a lot of things sometimes, but as a freelancer you are blessed with a bit of flexibility. Take advantage of that flexibility and allocate time for your relationships.
Strong bonds and relationships between family and friends are essential to dealing with stress and improving mental and physical wellness. Having people you can count on, talk about issues, or just sit down for a cup of coffee with can have a great impact on you and help deal with stressful situations.
