3 Stress Management Tips for Office-Based Entrepreneurs

As entrepreneurs, we thrive on the continued grind of the day, feeling accomplished, achieved, determined, you name it. What happens when stress takes over and our productivity plummets? Those feelings we thrive off of start to become critical self-doubt, and stress management is out the window. 

We’re here to help and remind you that giving your 100% doesn’t look the same day after day. Taking mental health breaks, building time management skills, and practicing self-care throughout the day will help to stress management. Resulting in an overall happier you, at least, we hope!

01. Mental Health Breaks

Fresh air can boost your productivity and mood, cleanse your lungs, reduce airborne illness and infection, lower your heart rate, and improve digestion and overall body function. Your brain uses 20% of the oxygen you breathe to function. 

Exercise can also help relieve stress and boost productivity. Physical activity increases your brain’s feel-good neurotransmitters, called endorphins. Endorphins are produced to help relieve pain, reduce stress, and improve mood.

Try these workplace wellness techniques you can do at your desk job.

• Breathing Exercises. If you want more direction, check out this deep breathing exercise. 
• Office-Based Exercises. Squats, Push Ups, Jumping Jacks, Calf Raises, anything to get that heart rate up slightly.

02. Time Management

Establishing time management skills will help a stressful day feel less stressful and help you become more productive. Think of time management as a road map or outline of your day. Creating a schedule and breaking down each task will help you set realistic expectations for your daily accomplishments.

There’s no harm in asking for help. There is only so much a single person can accomplish in a day. We’re all human, right? The time you spend trying to work your schedule to incorporate the additional three tasks you could have spent asking for help and focusing on your workload. Knowing your limitations and setting boundaries will set you up for success!

Time Management tips to help boost productivity:

1. Create a daily to-do list that’s been broken down from your weekly workload for stress management.
2. Highlight each task based on the time you think it will take. (This will help you pace your day.)
   • Green for less than two hours. 
   • Yellow for two to four hours. 
   • Orange for four to eight hours.
3. Set a timer for the expected time frame of your task to keep you on track. Once the timer goes off, take a break. 
4. Utilize Apple’s ‘Focus Mode’ on all devices for one hour. Allowing you to focus on the task at hand entirely.
   • Don’t have an Apple product? Silence your phone and notifications, and set a timer for one hour.

03. Self Care

Taking care of yourself will help you reach optimal productivity. When we say self-care, we don’t mean bubble baths and candles, and that wouldn’t be work-appropriate. We’re here to shine some light on how you can practice self-care at your office.

Taking breaks from your computer, standing up, exercising, drinking water, and eating throughout the day are great ways to maintain workplace wellness. Those may seem obvious, but for some (including me), I need the daily reminder to drink water and eat an actual meal (chips don’t count).

Outside the box workplace self-care ideas:

• Read your favorite book during your lunch break. (Great break from the screen!)
• Try massaging your face or ears for three to five minutes. Relax your face, unclench your jaw, and drop your tongue from the roof of your mouth.
• Check out these 30 different office exercises.
• Change the scenery, pack up your laptop, and work at a local coffee shop for the day.
• Bring headphones and blast your favorite playlist.

Workplace Wellness Tracker

We’ve created a complementary gift to help you manage your workplace wellness successfully. Print it out from the convenience of your desk job and tackle your week. This weekly planner includes a habit tracker, schedule, to-do list, water intake tracker, and break tracker to ensure you balance your self-care, productivity, and mental health. Download it below and show us how you utilize it on social!

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