Stress is a thief. Stress steals your energy, time, and ultimately stress steals from you that which you wish to become. Stress has become a big problem that is facing us today. Stress often sneaks its way into our lives, into our work, our relationships, and our family. Eliminating stress as much as possible is the single best way to take your personal and professional life to the next level. If you take the following four actions, you’ll be able to eliminate most of the stress in your life:
1. Don’t Check Your Phone In The Morning
I have to confess, I’m constantly guilty of this one. The sheer force of will it takes to abandon your smartphone, your link to the grand outer internet world, can seem impossible at first. However, I assure you it’s quite possible. If you choose to leave your phone alone for the first hour of the day, you’re claiming that extremely important time for your own personal development. Checking your phone first thing in the morning is basically admitting to yourself that other people’s priorities are more important than your own. You procrastinate on your most important tasks and your productivity suffers. Check your phone after you finished with your most important responsibilities for the day.
2. Check Email Only Once Per Day
This is a tough one and it is very much related to the first point. If you restrict the amount of time you check email, you approach your inbox with a specific intention. We check our email too often, and the end result is that we don’t achieve much throughout the day. Limiting email to what is absolutely necessary is crucial to make the most out of your productivity and time. Try checking your email only once or twice per day and you will notice a huge difference.
3. Engage In Daily Cardio
Probably the fastest and most immediate way to eliminate stress is cardiovascular activity. Even a quick 20 mins will do the trick. This form of exercise will get your blood pumping and result in a better mood. Not only is any type of aerobic activity a great workout, but there are also huge, proven psychological benefits. Make sure you do your cardiovascular activity outside for the best results, in the woods if you. The benefits of any activity that is done outside are multiplied, so take advantage of this great hack!
4. Write Down What Is Causing Your Stress
This is probably the most important one. As the saying goes, the only way you can begin to deal with a problem is to admit there is one. Far too often we go about our day-to-day lives in extreme amounts of stress without realizing that we are stressing about nothing or something that can be fixed right away. Stress is so often caused by something we don’t wish to admit. The most common stressors tend to be close relationships. Remember the Pareto principle- usually 80% of our stress is caused by 20% of the things in our life. Yet rather than addressing the issue at hand, it’s far too easy to simply take out your frustration and anger in an unhealthy way. The best way to prevent this from happening is to write down on a piece of paper what is causing you stress, and deal with it.
The Bottom Line
Stress doesn’t have to be your day-to-day reality. It can be dealt with, minimized, and ultimately eliminated. Take the above actions and I assure you, you’ll notice the difference that will change your life.
Do you have any lifehacks that help you reduce stress? Please share it in the comments!