Productivity Takes a Turn for the Worst
How much is stress really effecting the workplace?
In the article, “Pressure Doesn’t Always Create Diamonds: Stress Management in the Workplace”, by the blogger Evernote, the opening statement takes a stab at how much stress has effected production sales. American employers that experience stress have “an estimated $200 billion per year in decreased productivity”. That is 200$ billion dollars PER YEAR that employees are losing all due to the fact that they have not found a productive way to handle their stress. I have read many articles that say that stress can be a positive thing for some people, and can actually help you to be more productive. But this is only proven to be true when people can handle their stress in a positive way.
If we don’t find ways to deal with our stress, we don’t only put our quality of work at risk, but we also threaten our mental state. Increased levels of stress can lead to things like anxiety, depression, and high blood pressure, all of which clearly would explain why productivity decreases. If you’re dealing with anxiety and depression, you’re not in the right mental state to be able to give the 110% that you need to be able to give when you’re at work.
This applies to anything in life. Specifically for me I experience this stress and anixety when it comes to taking tests. I stress myself out so much because I want to get good grades and do good, that I develop so much anxiety and I can’t think straight once I sit down and the test is infront of me. It’s like all the information I felt confident about, slips out of my brain and is replaced with anxiety and fear. I end up psyching myself out, and doing worse do to the high amounts of stress I put on myself. This is the same thing that happens in the work place, and why productivity shows such a large decrease.
One of the best techniques that Evernote puts in their blog is, “focus on one task at a time”. When we try to constantly overload ourselves, we often go frantic thinking about all that needs to be done, instead of just taking it one thing at a time. Stressing about all we have to do, isn’t going to make any of it get done. By making a list of everything we have to do, and then going one by one, checking off things as we accomplish them, we get rid of this frantic stress about how much we have to do in such a short amount of time.
Do one thing at a time, and do it well. Don’t try to switch back and forth between assignments, it only wastes time. Taking it one thing at a time is the only way to see the best results. Currently I have two homework assignments due tomorrow and a test that I need to study for tuesday. This morning I woke up and I began to stress because I thought about everything that I needed to get done, and I wondered how I’d find the time to do it all. I made a list of everything I need to do today and I am going to focus on one thing at a time, and see how this changes my stress levels, and the quality of my work.
Citations:
Everstone. (2017, July 3). “Pressure Doesn’t Always Create Diamonds: Stress Management in the Workplace.” Retrieved September 24, 2017 from https://medium.com/taking-note/pressure-doesnt-always-create-diamonds-stress-management-in-the-workplace-145938a392a8.
