beating work stress

fret_wimp

How do you guys beat work stress and wind down at the end of the day?

I find that even when I go home and especially when im trying to get to sleep my mind is racing with work issues and devising possible resolutions to them. I usually read but im wondering how you guys clear work from your mind when you leave for the evening/weekend?

ntlbell

there's no point trying to combat stress after work or in the evenings at home.

combat it while you're in work and change how you work as to not get stressed in work in the first place.

run_Forrest_run

ntlbell wrote: »

there's no point trying to combat stress after work or in the evenings at home.

combat it while you're in work and change how you work as to not get stressed in work in the first place.

this is some good advice. There is no point in letting yourself get totally wound up in work and then trying to undo it all in the evening (on your time!).

Do you work in IT? Just wondering because I do and I have often had problems trying to de-stress and sometimes it ended up all piling up on top of me until I just got sick from it all and ended up out of work for a day or two.

I'm no expert on this at all as I still get stressed from work but i am beginning to realise that a job is a job and nothing else. There are far more important things in life, friends and families and work should not take the best part of you and leave you knackered.

For me it's a long learning process, learning to let go, learn to realise that work will still be there tomorrow and learning to ignore those who put unrealistic time pressures on you (because they are probably not stressing themselves out, they are getting you to do it for them!).

Learn to work wiser, not necessarily harder.
Just my tuppence worth.

fret_wimp

How'd you guess I worked in IT??!!:D

I know from others in the office its a similar suituation as myself, you feel tired, but the minute you turn off the light and your head hits the pillow you start mentally going through code and scenarios. Can keep me awake for hours. I usually get up and read a completely unrelated book/novel to distract me. I would much rather just go to bed with a clear head and be able to switch off my brain.

ntlbell

fret_wimp wrote: »

How'd you guess I worked in IT??!!:D

I know from others in the office its a similar suituation as myself, you feel tired, but the minute you turn off the light and your head hits the pillow you start mentally going through code and scenarios. Can keep me awake for hours. I usually get up and read a completely unrelated book/novel to distract me. I would much rather just go to bed with a clear head and be able to switch off my brain.

I also work in IT but I don't have the racing mind at night because I don't do much racing in work.

You need to find out what part of the job adds stress is it deadlines? is it the work load? is it the people? and attack each one the things seperatley.

As was mentioned above, you have to remember work is just somewhere we go a few hours a day so there's a few quid in the bank at the end of the month nothing more nothing less, you're going to be working I'm going to guess you're in your 20's so for the next 40 years or so, where's the rush?

run_Forrest_run

fret_wimp wrote: »

How'd you guess I worked in IT??!!:D

I know from others in the office its a similar suituation as myself, you feel tired, but the minute you turn off the light and your head hits the pillow you start mentally going through code and scenarios. Can keep me awake for hours. I usually get up and read a completely unrelated book/novel to distract me. I would much rather just go to bed with a clear head and be able to switch off my brain.

this sounds like a carbon copy of me up to a few years ago! I was the exact same but once myself and the missus had a child it changed everything...now I don't really get distracted by floating lines of code in my sleep...don't get my wrong, work still gets on top of me sometimes but just not as often, I am learning to say 'fcuk it, other things deserve my time and energy more'.

hey, sure I was reading a book on Photoshop CS2 in bed once, reading about curves and stuff and I was up half the night (well half dreaming, half awake) wondering why two shots I took were underexposed even though the lighting was perfect...crazy meaningless stuff but that's the mind for ya..I am reading Slash's (Guns N' Roses) bio at the moment so no such problems with that...nice and light...and brilliant BTW.

fret_wimp

good advice, thanks all. Ive been trying to put that all into practice over the last few weeks, but your conscious mind can be saying one thing, and your subconscious wont be listening and will be stressing anyway! its a strange organ the brain.

I think the most stress is trying to keep up with my team mates. I work with some truely excellent people who are a good deal better than myself, and I want to do my best to ensure that my managers see that I am making an effort to get to that level so that come promotion time/salary increase time I wont be overlooked. so by the sounds of things Im putting the pressure on myself. Cool! its neat how I figured that out just by writing this post. Il defo work on that. thanks all!

ntlbell

fret_wimp wrote: »

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I think the most stress is trying to keep up with my team mates. I work with some truely excellent people who are a good deal better than myself, and I want to do my best to ensure that my managers see that I am making an effort to get to that level so that come promotion time/salary increase time I wont be overlooked. so by the sounds of things Im putting the pressure on myself. Cool! its neat how I figured that out just by writing this post. Il defo work on that. thanks all!

Why are you trying to keep up with them? how will it benefit you in the long run? no matter what job we're in or where we are in life there will be people around us that do it better.

Set some goals for yourself, get good at things that interest you in the job and become "that" guy for "that thing" and let others be good at what they do but it's not a race you don't have to do it by next week, again as was said it's about being a "smart" worker not a "hard" one.

FibbersON

I've found listing my important tasks at the beginning of the day keeps me focussed, I get the big stuff out of the way ASAP, and if the little stuff soesn't get done it doesn't keep me awake.

Also, I changed my email to not show a notification when a new mail arrives, that way I only check email when I want to.

If I need to work an extra half hour to get something done I do it

Nody

Well I can only give you the answer I was given by the top brass of a world wide leading company to new managers, you have to learn to build walls. You have to learn to shut off work once you walk out the door mentally and leave it behind you or you will burn out before 40.

Personally I listen to audio books on the way home as a way to disconnect from work and have my brain readjust. Nothing fancy or something you need to actively listen as such. If the brain starts to spin away on a work issue I actively start to listen to the words until the work issue sinks down and away until the following work day.

ntlbell

Nody wrote: »

Well I can only give you the answer I was given by the top brass of a world wide leading company to new managers

Wow, You can really see why he's top brass with that nugget lol

Who was it? Micheal Dell? lol

run_Forrest_run

Nody wrote: »

Well I can only give you the answer I was given by the top brass of a world wide leading company to new managers, you have to learn to build walls. You have to learn to shut off work once you walk out the door mentally and leave it behind you or you will burn out before 40.

Personally I listen to audio books on the way home as a way to disconnect from work and have my brain readjust. Nothing fancy or something you need to actively listen as such. If the brain starts to spin away on a work issue I actively start to listen to the words until the work issue sinks down and away until the following work day.

yes, I think that is the knack one needs to perfect, the top CEOs of the world must be able to shut off from work also, they are human too I suppose.

yes, I listen to talk radio on the way home in the car, a good debate on the Last Word or The Right Hook gets my mind thinking about things other than code/plugins/UML etc..

ntlbell

run_Forrest_run wrote: »

yes, I think that is the knack one needs to perfect, the top CEOs of the world must be able to shut off from work also, they are human too I suppose.

yes, I listen to talk radio on the way home in the car, a good debate on the Last Word or The Right Hook gets my mind thinking about things other than code/plugins/UML etc..

If i was puling in a few mil a year i'm not sure home is where i'd be going after work and i'm sure i could find ways to distract me after work

run_Forrest_run

ntlbell wrote: »

If i was puling in a few mil a year i'm not sure home is where i'd be going after work and i'm sure i could find ways to distract me after work

problem then would be finding ways to shut out the distractions while you were in work