How To Cut Down Your Work Stress In Half

I can confidently say that at least 50% of the stress and anxiety you experience at work comes from not having your basics in order. 

And the good news is that if you streamline the basic areas of your life, you can cut down your stress in half. 

Having worked with 100s of clients and colleagues over 18 years, this is a common characteristic I see in high performers and successful leaders again and again. They not only follow systems, schedules and SOPs at work but also in their personal life as well to keep things in order.

It is not about micromanaging your behaviours and schedule so that you can be perfect all the time. It is more about installing good habits and routines to your advantage so you can make the most of your resources to do what you need to do and want to do.

During my 9-5 life, I suffered from so much stress everyday too.

Dreading Manic Mondays.

Trying to distract myself with motivational videos and memes until Hump Day.

Frantically finishing up the workload and looking for the latest bar or restaurant to hang out on Fri-yayys.

Then catching up on sleep on the Saturday night to Sunday afternoon stretch.

Only to feel the Sunday Scaries looming around 2pm questioning the entire existence of my being. 

This crazy weekly cycle kept repeating with never finding enough time to work on my goals. Everyday I battled with crazy amounts of stress. I constantly calculated how much time I have to get things done and kept on relying on supplements and caffeine to jumpstart myself.

Then I’d go on a crazy reset trying to micromanage my life with complicated routines only to go back to the old cycle because YOLO and FOMO.

The only good thing I was doing at the time was hitting the gym at least 5 times a day. So I had an outlet to release the build-up of stress. But I was getting to a point where even the work-outs I used to enjoy so much started to feel like a chore due to the extreme stress and low energy.

However, I came to a point where I did not find the sensationalised, viral memes and the skits about being a hot mess 9to5er funny anymore. Once I removed myself from that toxic cycle it was pretty scary to see that people would accept being stuck in victimhood as normal and even cute!

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The point that got me to be brutally honest with myself was a major burnout.

I would stress on my way to work, at work, on my way home from work and then while at home. 

This stress was caused by not having my basic stuff together. It drained my energy eventually causing me to burn out. 

Yes, the beliefs which led me to the burn-out came from social conditioning and as trauma responses to certain challenging experiences. But I am the one who once accepted the conditioning and decided on the responses as the ideal way to deal with those experiences back then.  

So, I realised that I am solely responsible for taking control of my life.

I was not fully ready to do the Core Work addressing my beliefs.  Intuitively I knew that as I was running on a low energy budget at the time, the best place to start working on myself is to get these stupid simple basics in order.

All I had to do was create simple systems and follow a schedule to streamline the day today tasks and manage my precious resources; time, energy and money.

This project to me was a way of making space and creating a conducive environment to work on myself and my goals. I also wanted to bring my best self to and deliver my best at work.

I reflected on what I was stressing over on the daily and draining my resources.

I stressed over figuring out what to eat, planning my travels (I say travels to cover both commutes and travelling to other personal events), deciding on what to wear to work, getting the chores done, my messy home, my finances being all over the place, not finding time to work on my goals, worried over my low energy levels and feeling guilty about always rushing through my self-care tasks.

All of the above distilled down to 8 basic areas to focus on: 

Meals, travels, wardrobe, health, hygiene, home, finances and time.

I know, pretty groundbreaking. Makes you think of all the cliche sayings like, the hardest thing to do is the easiest thing to do and my favourite; how you do one thing is how you do everything!

So, I made a decision to dedicate 3 months to getting my basics in order. Now looking back, 3 months feel like 3 days compared to my life-long dedication to self-growth. 

While getting things in order, there were days I failed. Some days I did the bare minimum. But bit by bit I got better. I kept finetuning the systems and schedules as I moved through the weeks.

Once I got the hang of things, for the first time in my life being proactive felt really good. I didn’t realise how addicted I was to the temporary high that I got from feeling relieved coming out of my own careless mess. 

-It felt so good to wake up in the morning and not run around like a headless chook. 

-Having my outfit ready when I woke up felt good. Arriving early at work felt good. Not spending 45 mins figuring out what to order for lunch felt good. 

-I no longer felt like time was slipping away. I found freedom in routines and systems. 

-They freed up time for me to sleep, rest, replenish, work, and be spontaneous too.

-I got good at making time for what matters. I also enjoyed being home when plans got cancelled! 

-I no longer said yes to every social invite just to escape the stress and the mess.

-When I couldn’t go out, I chilled at home or worked on my goals, because home became a soothing and stimulating space. 

-Following a budget gave me so much more freedom to prioritise what’s important. I noticed how much I stress-shopped.

-Also how I spent on activities I didn’t really enjoy with people I don’t even align with just to get a temporary relief from my stress.

Now, after many years of following my ever evolving systems and schedule to maintain the basics, it not only helps me make room to work on my goals but also get through challenging times. 

The truth is that life will challenge you and you will feel stressed. 

But you do not have to suffer unnecessarily everyday. 

Since I have hardwired my brain and impressed my subconscious mind to follow systems I know if and when I get off track I can easily get back on track. 

I created a detailed guide with condensed information and step-by-step instructions explaining how you can create systems and a schedule for all the 8 basic areas. I know everyone is at a different capacity to access information so it is offered at a very affordable price. I suggest you have a look at it here.

However, here's what I suggest that you do to get your basics in order so that you can cut down your daily stress in half.

• Make a decision right NOW to get your stuff together. No one can fix your life but YOU.

• If you do not have any serious commitments (dad in hospital or medical appointments etc) I challenge you to cancel all your social commitments this weekend.

• Why? To sit down with pen and paper. Then get brutally honest with yourself to get your basics in order.

• Go through each category, meals, travels, wardrobe, health, hygiene, home, finances and time. Do not skip a single one.

• Create a weekly meal plan, list of meal options and lists of groceries to make shopping and meal prepping easier.

• For travels, review your current travel time and routes so you can aim to get to work 15 mins early.

• Put together a basic wardrobe so you can pick an outfit in 5 minutes.

• Write down a list of your health concerns and book an appointment with your GP ASAP.

• Create AM and PM routines to cover all your basic hygiene needs. Yes, there are people who don’t shower or brush their teeth daily!

• Create a chores checklist to follow to make sure you have clean laundry and a peaceful home to come to from work.

  Start following a budget. I suggest the popular 50-30-20 rule for beginners.

• As for time, dedicate 15 mins daily to plan the next day and 30 mins weekly to get your basics ready for the week. 

• Pick days of the week to block out time to get the relevant tasks and planning done. Set reminders so you won’t forget.

• Dedicate another 30 mins weekly to review your week. Answer these 2 questions in your journal, where have I improved and where can I improve more?

I suggest as I do in my guide, to not plan a reward for completing this project. 

Let the rewards be the delightful order that you create in your life and the many insights you receive in the process.

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