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How To Reduce Stress and Find Work Life Balance

Hernaldo Turrillo — Sun, 22 May 2022 19:39:37 +0000

In the new-normal workplace, many businesses, teams, and entrepreneurs are seeking ways to reduce stress while improving work-life balance. Whether you are in a leadership position, part of a team, or working solo, taking control of your mental and physical health is key to your well-being.

Wondering about the three top tips for a well-balanced work life? You can use these three tips to get started on your path to working with less stress.

Get Curious

Every employee or entrepreneur is experiencing stress and work-life balance a little differently. A common problem is that people often feel critical of their own experiences. Many professionals try to keep a positive attitude, but don’t take time to investigate what is causing stress. This can work to conceal the problems which could be solved.

For instance, some people feel that mental health is not a matter to speak about with others. This can contribute to hiding feelings of isolation, depression, or not feeling included while working remotely.

By getting curious, you can discover what feelings, emotions, and moods are affecting you. Very often, other people in your team or organization are feeling the same thing. By bringing issues out into the open, you can start to find solutions.

Leaders who are in charge of remote teams or hybrid groups can make a special effort to get curious. Explore issues of mental health for yourself and your staff. By taking the lead on this, you can break down barriers and foster a sense of connection and camaraderie.

Get Active

While working in our new environments may be radically different from working full time in a corporate setting, we can develop personal habits to stay healthy. Health experts advise staying physically active as one of the best positive actions for mental and physical well-being.

If you’re used to sitting in your chair or staring at a computer screen for hours on end, start to get into an exercise habit. You can pick-and-choose different activities such as:

Walk or bike to work
Take stretch breaks
Use the stairs rather than the elevator
Meet up with a friend for a walk or jog
Relieve work tension with pilates or yoga

Look for different ways to get active, stay active, and stay motivated. Making a date with a co-worker or friend is a great way to ensure you stay moving and stay socially active.

Get Support

When it comes to health and well-being, it’s easy to see that there are some great experts and resources. We go to the doctor when we’re feeling poorly. We check in with a physical therapist when we want to recover from an injury. We got to the dentist to help with oral health.

But when we deal with certain issues at work, we can forget to reach out to experts. It doesn’t have to stay like this.

We are working with more technology and often this means working with partners to handle logistics, fulfillment, and shipping. The only thing is…this kind of work can be incredibly stressful if you aren’t familiar with all the contracts, negotiations, and accountability issues.

Ready to unlock enormous opportunities in your business? One of the most powerful methods is to get expert help with third-party logistics (3PL). This is often put in the category of 3PL contract optimization.

Reaching out to experts makes sense because this territory is complicated. You’re looking at thousands of providers for logistics or fulfillment partners (3PF). You’re trying to choose between thousands of providers—each with variable pricing options, different contract requirements, and diverse locations.

To get peace of mind, select a reputable company that specializes in helping businesses reach efficiency in your logistics operations. This can help save headaches, hours sifting through contracts, and weekends spent at the office.

Are you ready to save headaches, boost efficiency, and leave the worries to the experts? If so, you have just unlocked a new standard of efficiency in your supply chain and logistics processes.

If you’re looking for ways to reduce stress and support well-being, start with these three tips. Get curious about your feelings, stressors, and experience. Get active with physical activity at home and work. Get support for your health, workflow, and logistics. With these tips, there’s no doubt you will move forward to a healthy and successful year!

Hernaldo Turrillo

Hernaldo Turrillo is a writer and author specialised in innovation, AI, DLT, SMEs, trading, investing and new trends in technology and business. He has been working for ztudium group since 2017. He is the editor of openbusinesscouncil.org, tradersdna.com, hedgethink.com, and writes regularly for intelligenthq.com, socialmediacouncil.eu. Hernaldo was born in Spain and finally settled in London, United Kingdom, after a few years of personal growth. Hernaldo finished his Journalism bachelor degree in the University of Seville, Spain, and began working as reporter in the newspaper, Europa Sur, writing about Politics and Society. He also worked as community manager and marketing advisor in Los Barrios, Spain. Innovation, technology, politics and economy are his main interests, with special focus on new trends and ethical projects. He enjoys finding himself getting lost in words, explaining what he understands from the world and helping others. Besides a journalist, he is also a thinker and proactive in digital transformation strategies. Knowledge and ideas have no limits.

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How You Can Start To Take The Stress Out Of Your Business

Hernaldo Turrillo — Thu, 05 Aug 2021 10:40:53 +0000

To describe the last eighteen months as stressful would be the kind of understatement that makes people think you’re delivering some kind of tasteless joke. Since March 2020, business owners have been subjected to the kind of stress that raises blood pressure levels to dangerous heights and made a good night’s sleep a distant memory. We are all reaching the point of burnout, if we’re not there already. Things are getting a little easier as the news gets a little better, but it is fair to say that we all need to find some ways to reduce the stress levels when it comes to running our businesses.

But it’s also true that many business owners set themselves up for stress, and this was true long before the pandemic. When you have that much responsibility, when you are managing employees, monitoring workflows, fulfilling customer and client demands and looking for windows of opportunity, you are going to find that you are pushed to your limits. Sometimes it takes a voice from outside of your organization to tell you that there are ways that you can make things easier. If you are looking for ways to cut down on that stress then using supplements can really help. Vitamin B1 or thiamine is commonly known as the anti-stress vitamin! TheNutritionInsider.com has some supplement reviews and recommendations that could be useful. In the meantime here are a few more ideas for cutting back on stress.

Take A Step Back And Take A Look Back

One of the biggest contributing factors to stress is that relentless drive to keep pushing forward. It is only natural that business owners have that shark-like mentality to never stop, but it is also true that if you don’t look at your business’ performance with an objective, detached perspective, then you are going to miss opportunities for improvement. Look for processes that are more convoluted than they need to be. Identify tasks that can be delegated or assigned to specific teams. Is there an area in which bringing in another person could make a huge difference? Is there a part of your business that has not been producing results for a while now and is overdue a cut? Don’t wait for a worst-case scenario to audit your performance. This process is as healthy, productive and stress-relieving as it is necessary.

Embrace Creative Solutions

There’s nothing more stressful than the knowledge that you are stuck with something that is not quite right. Maybe it’s that supplier who always needs a follow-up phone call to get what you actually asked for. Maybe it’s the digital marketing campaign that didn’t go the way you wanted it to. Maybe you are getting complaints from customers and clients about the packaging for your deliveries that are not easily packaged. If you want to reduce your stress levels, it’s time to take positive action and look for creative solutions. Take that packaging issue, for example. Industrial packaging machines can be commissioned that are designed to your specifications, to ensure that there is as little waste as possible. Find out more about automated packing machines from Blue Print Automation and embrace a more efficient personalized solution.

Don’t Neglect Your Own Health

As we mentioned, managing a business during the pandemic has not been something that you can simply put down at the end of the day. But if you don’t take care of your own health, your business will suffer too. So, make sure that you are finding time to step away from your responsibilities for some down time. Make some adjustments to your diet to make sure that you are eating healthily and try to avoid too much caffeine and sugar throughout the day. Try not to rely on alcohol in the evening, as it can affect your sleep and have an impact on your mood. Adults need between seven to nine hours of sleep a night. Don’t skimp on your sleep. Remember to keep talking to your friends and family about how you are doing and how you are coping with the responsibilities you are carrying.

Hernaldo Turrillo

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Top Tips for Managing ‘Back-to-Office Anxiety’ after Working from Home

Hernaldo Turrillo — Thu, 06 May 2021 15:28:56 +0000

As lockdown restrictions begin to lift, a wave of new concerns of back-to-office anxiety has risen. According to recent research, 60% of Brits say they would only feel comfortable returning to the office once everyone has been vaccinated.

With people starting to head back to the office, the team at Instant Offices gives an insight into why it more important than ever for businesses to retain talent, reduce presenteeism and maintain employee morale.

According to a recent survey by HSE, the top concerns about returning to work in-office include:

Social distancing: 60%
Workplace safety: 56%
Workplace cleanliness: 55%
Spreading illness to family or friends: 45%
Being away from family: 16%

The most-requested workplace changes among UK employees can provide a guideline for businesses looking to provide better support and ease post-lockdown concerns:

Flexible hours: 59%
A 4-day working week: 45%
Fewer people in the office: 37%
Fewer meetings: 33%
Mental health days: 32%

How Businesses Can Support Employee Mental Health Right Now

Break the Culture of Silence
There is still a stigma around mental illness that makes employees more likely to suffer in silence than share information with their managers or bosses.

Now is an ideal time for leaders within businesses to talk more openly about mental health and create a culture that encourages conversations around these issues. Taking a mental health day or asking for support should never impact an employee’s reputation or how they are perceived.

Keep Socialising With Your Teams
Remote working has its perks, but a lot of people are feeling isolated right now. British workers are missing the days of office banter and face-to-face meetings.

Environmental Psychologist & Wellbeing Trainer Lee Chambers says dealing with a lack of social connections during the outbreak has been a massive challenge for many people.

“In these turbulent times, social connection is vital to our wellbeing. Without the ability to go out and socialise in the way we usually would, we have to be more creative and have more intention in our connection with others during this lockdown scenario. In some ways, the enforcement of rules around movement has caused us to slow down. This actually gives us the chance to connect on a deeper level.”

Lead By Example
With many employees working remotely, managers need to be more conscious of the challenges different households face. Encouraging flexibility, self-care and regular check-ins is key to reducing presenteeism and stress, and ensuring employees facing any issues can be identified and supported. Encourage transparent conversations and put action plans in place for team members who need help.

Introduce (or Keep Up) Team Activity and Training Sessions
With employees using tools like Zoom to connect with the office remotely, now is a great time for businesses to encourage morning catch-ups, remote Friday drinks, yoga sessions or even company training sessions. Encourage team members to take a class they’ve always wanted to try or to attend industry-related Webinars. This is a great way to support employees looking to upskill themselves and stay busy.

Four Things Employees Can Do to Manage Stress

Get a Better Night’s Sleep:‘Coronasomnia’ (corona insomnia) is causing a rise in sleepless nights across the UK. The number of Brits struggling with sleep problems has risen from one in six to one in four.

Some of the best ways to create a better sleep pattern include reducing caffeine intake, turning off screens, going to bed and getting up at the same time every day, and ensuring our bedrooms are as dark as possible. Additionally, some people also find that using supplements like kratom can make living with insomnia a little easier. You can learn more about some of the different uses for Kratom by doing some research on websites such as Kratom.org

Take a Digital Detox:With little control over the situation and our social feeds jam-packed with COVID-19 related news and uncertainty, now is a good time to limit the amount of media we consume. The goal is to ensure you are informed enough to make decisions but not so overloaded with news headlines that it induces anxiety. A good idea is to choose a few authoritative resources and check in with them daily while muting channels that disrupt your sense of wellbeing or using a tool to manage screen time.
Be Strict Around Work-Life Balance:Lee says it’s important to schedule the day into bite-size chunks and work in waves. “Honour your ultradian rhythms, which run between 60 to 90 minutes, and then take 15 to disconnect and take a break. By working in waves, we become energised and find it easy to switch off from work when the end of the days comes.

If we can’t disconnect from work, we face the real possibility of burnout and making mistakes. I have my clients have a digital sunset, where they tidy their workspace ready for the following day and put everything work-related in that space. They visualise shutting down from work, and then walk around the block again, this time leaving work, and returning home. It’s crucial also to schedule enjoyable things in the evening. Do a Zoom call with family and friends, or partake in hobbies and interests that are not work-related.”

Create a Calm Workspace:It’s not always easy to find an ideal space to work from at home. When deciding which space to work from, look for an area with natural light and temperate, fresh air, and minimal distractions. The space must be free of clutter and have comfortable furniture.

With the whole world facing unprecedented challenges around COVID-19, now is an ideal time for businesses to place a sharper focus on talking about employee mental health, whether teams are working onsite or remotely.

Hernaldo Turrillo

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Stressed in the City: How London Business Owners Can Reduce Worry and Workloads

Hernaldo Turrillo — Fri, 19 Mar 2021 08:49:41 +0000

If you are anything like us, you may have felt like the last year’s events have felt like something out of a film. We’re facing unprecedented event following unprecedented event, what was once customary to us is long gone, and this new normal that we find ourselves adjusting to is sure to be around for some time to come.

With businesses transitioning to the online world – where applicable – and with Londoners moving out of the city to be with their families throughout lockdown, it certainly seems like a different place than what we are used to, that is for sure.

As we begin to emerge ever so gradually from the most recent lockdown, businesses may well be in the process of considering what they can do moving forward to prepare for the transition from home working to being back in the familiar office environment.

Naturally, with a decision such as this comes many mixed emotions, both from yourself as a business owner, trickling down to the more junior members of staff. Trust us; we have all been there! It is an entirely normal and warranted response when in a situation like this.

With this in mind, we have created this helpful blog post detailing some of the ways you can help reduce the worry that your employees might be experiencing and their workloads. No matter where in London you are based and your company’s size, we are confident there is something of value here.

Read on for more, and feel ready as a business owner to tackle these issues head-on!

How to Reduce Worry and Anxiety in Your Employees

On paper, this is something that seems easier said than done, particularly when attempting to establish and differentiate what exactly is causing these feelings in your employees. However, you must remain the level-headed business owner, for there are ways of doing just this, and that is where we are here to help!

Before attempting to reduce the feelings of anxiety and worry that your employees have, you will need to go to square one to determine the cause of their emotions and whether there is anything you can do from the ground up to help.

Within any industry, there are internal and external factors that could cause heightened worry levels, and these should certainly be considered when wanting to reduce and alleviate the ongoing feelings of worry.

Some of the most common causes of worry, stress, and anxiety within the workplace include the likes of workplace tension, heavy workloads, long working hours, and job insecurity. As a business owner, there are things that you could implement within your company to assist in reassuring the employee concerning these causes.

What’s more, once you have addressed any heavy workloads, you would, in a roundabout way, be making proactive decisions in reducing the worry that your employees are feeling as well.

So, on that note, let’s jump right into what you could do as a business owner to help reduce worry over these things.

Reducing Workloads

Another thing that seems easier said than done is an element of the working world that can be done with some strategic planning and implementation. While you may not possess the resources within your business to ease the heavy workloads that an employee might be experiencing, there are services and resources available from external companies that are worth considering when in this position.

There are various options to consider when aiming to reduce the heavy workloads that your employees might be facing. Heavy workloads are not necessarily the fault of one specific person within a business and could result from various factors. This is something that needs to be remembered at all times. None more so than if you have discovered an employee is struggling with their workload.

While bearing this in mind, one way that you could reduce the workload that someone in your company is struggling to manage is by implementing the use of external IT support in London, provided by companies such as ourselves and many others.

By outsourcing some of the jobs that you have within your business to professionals within their industries, you can alleviate the pressures of the workload for not only your employees but for yourself as well. Not to mention, it could even save you money in certain situations.

Specifically, by ensuring that you have adequate and secure IT networks within your business, you are minimising the risks of anything happening to documents and information that is crucial to your company’s everyday workings.

Different ways that you can work to reduce the workload of an employee can include such things as the following:

High Levels of Communication: It goes without saying, but to get to the bottom of any emotion, there needs to be some sort of communication ongoing between involved parties. As much as we would like to be, we are not mind readers! By ensuring that you are engaging in regular contact with your employees, you can differentiate how they manage their workloads and other related aspects of their jobs. Doing something proactive like this will not only build up a level of rapport between you and your employee but will enable you to spot signs of burnout and overwhelmingness from workloads before they become too much to handle. Furthermore, engaging in conversation regularly will give you an idea of whether you will need to outsource any of the work that your employee might have. Once you have distinguished where your employee is struggling, you will be able to create a plan of action together to help them through this period. This leads us to the following point.

Prioritise Projects as a Team: By making a list of the work that you have to complete as a team and distributing this based on strengths and weaknesses, you would not only be alleviating the feelings of stress that an employee may be experiencing but could also discover another way of working as a business. Listing projects based on their priority level and eliminating the prospect of multitasking to focus entirely on what is in front of you will further contribute to easing the worries your employee might face both generally and concerning their workload. While prioritising projects is essential when considering the ones you already have to hand, it can also be considered when onboarding new projects. One thing to note here is that you do not take on too much at once, more so if you have discovered that your employees are already struggling with emotions or workloads. As a business owner, you do not want to be adding to the emotions that your employees are feeling. After all, they are the ones who are crucial to the everyday workings of your business, so you want to make sure that they are looked after.

While this is but a short insight into the things that you could do as a business owner when wanting to alleviate the stresses and worries that your employees might be experiencing, we hope that it has sparked some inspiration within you and that you can go forward knowing what you will be changing and adapting to help.

We are confident that whatever you choose will make a difference to your workforce overall; we have faith in you!

Hernaldo Turrillo

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“Stressed Out”: Human Resources Is The Most Stressful Career To Work For

Hernaldo Turrillo — Tue, 28 Jan 2020 15:58:43 +0000

A survey on stress levels across the UK revealed that Human Resources (HR) is the most stressful career

According to a study by UK Youth, young adults spend more than six hours a day “stressed out”, but 1 in 10 feel they have no one to discuss their concerns with. And now, a new survey on stress levels across the UK has revealed that Human Resources (HR) is the most stressful career.

Today’s adults are concerned by a culmination of factors spanning from social-life and education to finances and work-life. Unsurprisingly research reveals that the most stressed age group is those falling into the “university age” bracket of 18-24-year olds. However, while millennials have been dubbed the “burnout generation”, 18-35-year-olds are most likely to be concerned about money and work.

Ahead of Time to Talk Day 2020 (6th February), Fresh Student Living has delved into the factors causing stress among young people, including the most stressful careers.

The Most Stressful Professions

Once entering the world of work, graduates who can finally enjoy freedom outside of academic studies are faced with a secondary layer of difficulty – finding a job. YouGov revealed 81% of students feel pressure to find a job within six months of graduating. To add to this, Perkbox revealed that work is the most common cause of stress, with over half of adults (59%) experiencing this, while two-thirds have sleepless nights because of it.

A survey on stress levels across the UK revealed the top 10 stressful professions, which would mean the most anxious students would face further challenges around mental health going forward:

1. HR: 79%
2. Legal: 63%
3. Retail, Catering & Leisure: 54%
4. IT & Telecoms: 53%
5. Healthcare: 52%
6. Education: 51%
7. Sales, Media & Marketing: 48%
8. Architecture, Engineering & Building: 47%
9. Finance: 46%
10. Arts & Culture: 44%

Women are more stressed than men

According to a recent wellbeing survey, 79% of UK women are stressed compared to two thirds of men, with 10% admitting their stress is ‘unmanageable’. Of the two sexes, women are more likely to stress about finances, as the gender pay gap causes women to retire on pensions that are a fraction of men’s.

Money remains a crucial factor causing worry

25-34 year olds cite money as the leading cause of stress, however research reveals that 1 in 5 adults are drowning in debt, while searches or ‘how to get out of debt’ has increased by 80%. In today’s Briton, 77% of people are stressed about money, while almost three-quarters have been so stressed they’ve felt overwhelmed and unable to cope.

Top Causes of Stress Among Young People

· Work/Careers
· Academic pressure
· Uncertainty about the future
· Loneliness
· Social media
· Finances

Combating Stress and Focusing on Mental Health

Poor mental health leads to burnout, fatigue, and can also result in irregular moods, feelings of anxiety and reduced focus; eventually taking its toll on relationships and physical health as well. While people turn to short term methods of coping, such as taking a day to rest and recharge, a more sustainable and healthy strategy can help deal with long-term effects.

Exercising, focusing on the present and talking about how you’re feeling, are all just a few ways to help with the effects of anxiety and concern. You can even gather more ideas from www.rollingpaper.com. However, there is still a stigma around mental health that employees need to address. Offering flexible working solutions and encouraging the conversation on mental health can help encourage employees to open up when they need a mental health day.

Hernaldo Turrillo

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