Here's how to go into the new year stress-free

Do you experience a lot of stress during your work week? And are you ready to finally actively address it in 2022? Stress is a culprit for everyone; a long-term imbalance between exertion and relaxation is unhealthy. But there are handles. When you practice these, you can reduce your stress tremendously and go into the new year stress-free!

In this article, we share 10 tips that you can put into daily use to work on your handling of stress. It may be difficult to implement them all at once in your daily life. Therefore, make sure you keep at least 1 focal point as your focus each month.

1. Become active during working hours

Physical activity is a good method to stay balanced and combat stress. You can take an exercise break when you feel frustration rising, but to avoid it, it is smart to schedule it every few hours anyway. Best are short moments of exercise throughout the day. Find something you enjoy doing, then you'll also keep it up easier. Do some stretching exercises, go for a walk or start Tai Chi.

2. Schedule a cleanup day

With chaos around you, it also becomes chaos in your head faster. Working in a clean and open space has been proven to promote calmness. Digital tidying is also important. For structure, it's smart to work with clear sub-folders. Put away all documents from a past year to keep an overview. Sometimes this can still take quite some time. So plan a tidying day, but don't put it off too long!

3. Listen to music

Did you know that music is stress-reducing? You can actively influence your heart rate and inner peace by listening to quiet music. This is because at some point your breathing automatically moves with the rhythm of the music you are listening to. Slow music calms you down and your body produces oxytocin which relaxes you. So are you at work and don't have any meetings? Put on some music!

Listen to slow music while working to calm your body.

4. Do relaxation exercises

When stressed, the muscles tense without useful effect. It even becomes disturbing and annoying, especially if worries and anxieties persist. The existence of prolonged unnecessary muscle tension leads to physical complaints. You can do exercises for this by adhering to 3 phases with each muscle group:

• Tightening: you tighten a particular muscle group progressively stronger to the level of maximum tightening avoiding pain and cramping.
• Holding: you hold the tightening for 5 seconds, counting helps.
• Relax: This phase begins after the countdown, by saying the word "relax" to yourself. Then relax completely. Take 1 to 2 minutes to observe what you are feeling.

5. Stop complaining

It sounds harsh, but if you remain stuck in a negative spiral, working to deal with your stressors will become difficult. Complaining is a waste of time. Some things just happen. If it is out of your hands, or if something cannot be reversed, there is no point in continuing to complain about it. Try to recognize these moments in yourself.

6. Turn off your notifications

The endless stream of emails and messages from social media create a continuous concert of distracting sounds from your phone. Prevent the tendency to look at your phone at every sound by turning off notifications from certain apps during working hours in your phone settings. Want to focus fully on a task? Let your co-workers know that you will be unavailable for several hours, and also set your email notifications and phone to silent.

7. Take up a hobby

It doesn't sound work-related, but a very important part of the work process is recharging. In addition to your work, you need something that energizes you. Many people give the excuse that they are too busy for this, but consider how you spend your time besides work? Do you scroll through your phone or sit and Netflix? Use this time to try new hobbies and discover what energizes you. Learn to play a new instrument, take up painting or take dance lessons with your partner.

In our online learning platform you will find the e-learning "relaxation exercises. Here you will learn how to deal with physical as well as mental relaxation.

8. A fixed day and night rhythm

Establish a good work/rest rhythm. Schedule regular work hours and agree that, for example, you won't do any work after 6 p.m. and leave your computer off. This way you give your brain some rest. A good night's sleep is also important to maintain this rhythm. Set a bedtime on your smartphone so you have a hold on it and can't receive any notifications after this time. That way you can start fresh the next morning.

9. Work on your time management

A strong sense of time management is implementing effective time management and this ensures that you get to appointments on time, achieve results, and have time to enjoy the goals achieved. In short, less stress. Who wouldn't want that? A few things you can already start working on:

• Keep track of your tasks and determine which ones have the highest priority. This can be done with the 'Eisenhower Model'. You can find this on our online learning platform in the time management scan.
• Each person has their own rhythm, plan the tasks that require the most concentration at the time when your energy peak is there. Save less complicated tasks for other times.
• Do you say "yes" to every project? This keeps you chronically busy and busy with things you may not even like. Saying "no" is the only way to regain control.

10. Inform your boss

Managers often notice too late that their employees are suffering from work stress because they have made too much of a mess. Be sure to pull the emergency brake in time as soon as you feel the pressure is getting too much and explain your situation during an informal conversation with your supervisor.

Learn to handle stressors even better?

Would you like to dive deeper to learn how to deal with stressors? In our online learning platform, we have a wide range of online training courses focused on stress. No matter how you want to help yourself or your organization in this area, there are always trainings to match.

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