As a commuter I learned to destress by avoiding the worst of the traffic jams on my way to work. I did that by trial and error because before we had smartphones to tell us what the fastest route to work is we had to buy big map books and plot our routes. I found that driving through certain neighborhoods helped me relax. I think driving on streets where the speed limit is slower than the highway also makes the experience of driving slowly more relaxing. When you see a speed limit sign that says "65" and traffic is going 35 miles per hour, you feel like time is being stolen from you.
The first rule of managing stress is to avoid stressful situations. I wish I could always avoid stressful situations but life isn't that fair to me.
As an office worker I learned that some of the most stressful moments in my day were when I had to report progress to my bosses on current assignments or projects. Over time I learned to book about 20 minutes prior to a meeting to prepare my notes and get ready for these brief 1-on-1 meetings. I received compliments for my preparedness. It also helped me stay on top of my priorities. If I missed an important task I would know to commit to taking care of that as soon as the meeting was over.
When you're being that closely managed it's a great idea to lay out your action plan in advance. The boss may change it for his own reasons. That could be a great learning experience for you. But my bosses wanted to know that I understood the job and was doing it. I wish I had known that lesson when I got my first job.
If you have free Internet access at work then opening up an ambient video on YouTube can be a great relaxing process. It helps me tune out background noise and focus on what I am doing. I love listening to train videos and soft thunderstorm videos. In the winter I might put on a crackling fire video.
You do have to be careful in choosing your ambient sounds. Some videos are meant to help people sleep. I nod off quickly when I listen to ocean wave videos so I avoid them.
The first time I heard about ambient recordings one of my early bosses called it "Muzak for the Soul". Muzak was that awful music you used to hear in offices and stores all the time. I remember listening to it as a kid. It was like synthetic orchestrated music that almost sounded like real music. It was supposedly relaxing but everyone complained about it.
Something I learned recently about computer screens is that they emit blue light. Blue light keeps you awake at night and damages your eyes. This is a stressful light, too. My computer has a setting that reduces the amount of blue light the screen emits. It took a few days for me to become comfortable with the new light setting but I like the soft ambient glow of the screen, now.
I also turn on some background lights around me when I am working on a computer at home. This helps reduce the intensity of the light coming from the computer screen. The only time I look at my computer in the dark is when I am playing a game or watching a movie.
Managing time is also important for reducing stress. When you have deadlines you don't want to face, it's better to book your activity to leave you time to take care of things before the deadlines arrive. Having everything done in advance so that you can relax and destress before the deadline helps me get through life.
My wife keeps a few things ready in case we have to travel for emergencies. We both have small overnight bags that we repack once a month with fresh clothes and toiletries. We also keep some emergency water bottles filled for when we go on outdoor adventures over the weekend. Having those little things taken care of before we start planning a trip makes it easier to check off everything we need when we travel. And that makes travel less stressing.
As a father I make contingency plans for family activities. If the weather doesn't cooperate or if a social activity is cancelled at the last minute, I want to have something ready to do at the last minute. This keeps the kids from becoming too bored and frustrated.
I wish I could say I have solved all my stress-related problems. My wife and I go for walks nearly every day. We enjoy walking through our neighborhood. We are blessed with tree-lined streets. There are days when I wish I could just go for a long walk but I have to stay focused on some project that just came up.
And let me close by saying that money is one of the biggest causes of stress. Or maybe I should say "not having money". Every month I put money into a savings account even if I know I'll take it out in a few weeks to pay the mortgage. It's just nice to know it's there, earning some interest, in case I have an emergency.
