Tips on how to stress less, because you don’t want to be a mess

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Last year was filled with buckets of stress for so many people. While 2021 hasn’t exactly been a walk in the park either, I want to try to start to change that because we deserve less stress and to live a happy life each and every day. If you want to lower your dress this year, follow these tips to help you get on your way:

Wake up 10 minutes earlier.

Most people have the same approach to the morning: Sleep as late as possible, hit snooze until you really, truly have to get your butt out of bed, and then scramble to get showered, dressed, fed, and out the door. All this rushing puts your body in a state of alarm, spiking your adrenaline and cortisol levels as soon as you get out the bed. If you wake up just 10 minutes earlier, it’ll take the edge off that rush and give you a more relaxed entry into the day. Don’t forget – if you’re waking up 10 minutes earlier, you should be hitting the sheets a little earlier at night, too. Sleep is very important when it comes to overall health and stress management. 

Wait to pick up your phone each morning

Checking your email or social media might tell you what’s new in the past 8 hours, but it will also cause your stress hormones to soar. Your recently resting brain suddenly has to process all this information, sending it into panic mode in order to wake up faster. Not only does checking your phone affect your biological chemistry, but it also takes up time and potentially floods your brain with upsetting information, like urgent requests from your boss or sad news on Facebook. Ignore your phone until you’re on your way out the door, when your mind is more awake and your morning tasks are taken care of. I recommend stepping out into the morning sun before you tackle anything else, to get your day started intentionally.

Develop a new healthy habit

Improving your health overall will help with the stress, but do it one habit at a time – don’t try to tackle everything at once or you will get very overwhelmed. Eat fruits and veggies for snacks. Floss every day. Quit smoking. Cook something healthy for dinner. Drink water instead of soda. Whatever it might be, work on developing a new habit every few weeks, one habit at a time.

Simplify your finances

Finances can be a drain on your energy and a major stressor. If that’s true with you, figure out ways to simplify things. Automate savings and bill payments and debt payments. Spend less by going shopping much less. Find ways to have fun that don’t involve spending money. If you need some help reducing high interest debt, figure out if there are things in your home that you can sell. Poshmark, Facebook marketplace, Ebay, Craigstlist, and Chapes-JPL are all great companies that can help you get cash quickly – and Chapes-JPL is especially cool because they are a local GA company where you can sell gold in Loganville, GA. Chapes-JPL is a buyer of gold, diamonds, jewelry and Rolex watches in Atlanta, GA. They also provide asset loans at the lowest rates possible and they provide discreet service (in private financial offices) + have amazing reviews and a great reputation.

Be early to everything

I will admit that it’s hard to be early when you have kids. But being late can be very stressful. Try to leave earlier by getting ready earlier, or by scheduling more space between events. Things always take longer than normal, so schedule some buffer time: extra time to get ready, to commute, to do errands before you need to be somewhere, to attend a meeting before another scheduled appointment. If you get somewhere early, it’s good to have some reading material.

Simplify your schedule

A hectic schedule is a major cause of high stress. Simplify by reducing the number of commitments in your life to just the essential ones. Learn to say no to the rest – and slowly get out of commitments that aren’t beneficial to you. Schedule only a few important things each day, and put space between them. Get out of meetings when they aren’t absolutely essential. Leave room for down time and fun.

Focus one thing at a time

This is the simplest and best way to start reducing your stress, and you can start today. Right now. Focus as much as possible on doing one thing at a time. Clear your desk of distractions. Pick something to work on. Need to write a report? Do only that. Remove distractions such as phones and email notifications while you’re working on that report. If you’re going to do email, do only that. This takes practice, and you’ll get urges to do other things. Just keep practicing and you’ll get better at it.