How to Unwind & Relax After a Stressful Day in the Office
Technology workers have their versions of stress. Whether it’s a deployment deadline or a troubling cybersecurity issue, IT teams today face challenges that create stress. For some IT teams, the transition to remote work over the past few months may have created its own stress. Developer teams working in collaborative environments before COVID-19 may feel anxiety and loneliness when working from home.
No matter the stress, how can IT teams relax after a stressful day? We have some tips, and it may not include spending more time in front of your device! Here’s what you need to know.
5 Tips for IT Teams to De-Stress
Let’s assume you’re still working from home when you read this blog. Sitting in front of the computer all day at home may not allow you to blow off steam throughout the day with your colleagues. This makes a bad day even harder to deal with. How can you de-stress.
- Write downtime into your schedule. One problem with working from home is there is no division between work and home. If you’re like a lot of IT workers, each day rolls into the next. You can create work/life balance by scheduling downtime. Even if it’s 10 minutes at lunch to close the laptop and take a walk or date night with your significant other. If you don’t set time aside to de-stress, you’ll be less likely to do it.
- Turn off your device every day for at least an hour. Most technology nerds live on their devices. Many of us sleep with our phones, and the first thing we do in the morning and the last thing at night is to connect. But turning off at least an hour before bed will help you sleep better. De-digitizing to get some exercise or do some other activity unrelated to your electronics isn’t a bad idea for anyone.
- Speaking of exercise, why not? Living in a chair in front of a screen is fine as long as it’s in moderation. Every developer can benefit from standing up, moving around, and breaking a sweat. This is particularly true if you’ve had a stressful day. According to science, exercise releases endorphins, so there is no better way to overcome the effects of a bad day than going to the gym or taking a bike ride.
- Leave the house. If you’re working from home and the day was long, stressful, or frustrating, sometimes a change of venue will shake you out of your bad mood. It’s easy for anyone to become absorbed in their work if they’re engaged in it and enjoy it. But right outside your screen frame is a whole world just waiting to be explored. If you had a stressful day, consider only leaving work for a bit.
- Try reading a good old-fashioned book. Decluttering your mind and shaking off a bad day could be as simple as reading a good book and relaxing. You could increase the odds that this technique will work if you throw in a bubble bath or reading at the park outside in nature. Our recommendation? Grab a paper book and not a digital device to give yourself a break!
Sometimes a very stressful job requires a change of careers to reduce the anxiety of the daily workload. That’s where The Custom Group of Companies can help. We have IT jobs available and can help you find the right role with just the right amount of stress. Contact us.
