6 Easy Ways to Reduce Stress

According to the American Psychological Association, stress can result in headache, muscle tension, muscle pain, chest pain, fatigue, upset stomach, insomnia, anxiety, restlessness, lack of motivation, lack of focus, irritability, depression, eating problems, addiction ... and social withdrawal. Here are six techniques that I've picked up over theyears and now use on a daily basis.

1. Create an Oasis: In the past, people worked 9 to 5; in today's business environments, there's pressure to work (or at least be available) 24/7. Needless to say, that pressure generates oodles of stress.
An absurdly easy way to get reduce that stress is to shut down your computer and your cell–not just while you sleep, but also an hour before and after you sleep.

2. Find the Sweet Spots: Having a overlong to-do list can a huge source of stress, because it feels like you can never get them those tasks completed. Here's a thought: Why bother?
Instead, categorize each task by difficulty (e.g. easy, medium, hard) and then by potential impact (e.g. large, medium, small).  You'll probably find there are about 10 tasks that are both easy and will have a large impact. Hit those "sweet spots" first.

3. Renegotiate Your Workload: Unreasonable expectations of what you're capable of accomplishing are a huge source of stress–regardless of whether those expectations come from yourself, from your boss, or from your customers.

4. Turn Off the News: The news media, like every other form of entertainment, makes money by producing strong emotions in its audience.  Outside business news, those emotions are almost exclusively negative: anger, fear, anxiety, dread, and frustration.

5. Disconnect from the Uncontrollable: There are always events that you simply can't control: the economy, traffic, politics, other people's emotions, customer decisions, and so forth.

6. Avoid Stressed Peopel: may not realize it, but your physiology is programmed to mirror the physiology of the people around you. (This is a neurological phenomenon resulting from the"mirror neurons" in your brain.) In other words, you can "catch" stress from other people.

So although it may not be possible to avoid stressed people all the time, you should try, as far as possible, to limit your contact with such people–at least until you've conquered your own stress. At that point, the opposite effect kicks in, because the calmness you will have achieved is also contagious–provided you've made it into a strong enough habit.