Think about how much time you spend at work. Many people are at their workplace at least 40 hours a week—and for quite a number of folks, the number is quite a bit higher.
And even if you have a flexible work schedule or work from home all of the time, the odds are good you are still spending many, many hours focused on your job—and that can lead to the same kinds of stress people often experience when they go into the office each day. As we wrote in a recent blog post, burnout can be a big problem and lead to (or exacerbate) mental health problems.
In that post, we wrote about a variety of ways to battle burnout in fairly general ways. We encouraged you to identify the causes of your burnout, prioritize self-care, seek steady support, reevaluate your work-life balance, and implement stress management techniques.
In this entry, we want to give more specific advice related to your work by pointing you toward three more previous posts. Let’s take a look at task paralysis, time management, and the importance of vacations.
Breaking Free of Task Paralysis
In a post titled “Tackle Task Paralysis—and Protest Your Mental Health—With These Tips,” we defined “task paralysis” and gave some advice for how to minimize its impact on your work and your mental wellbeing.
You have experienced task paralysis if you have ever tried to work through your to-do list only to find yourself overwhelmed and unable to get started on anything. This can, unsurprisingly, lead to symptoms of anxiety and depression—and it can be surprisingly difficult to get yourself unfrozen so you can get back to work.
But there are strategies you can try, including:
- Breaking big tasks into smaller pieces so that you can get a sense of accomplishment and momentum.
- Gamifying your to-do list so that you give yourself a specific reward—a quick walk, a healthy snack, a few minutes working a crossword puzzle, or what have you—after you complete X number of items on your list.
- Get comfortable with getting help from others—which might mean letting someone do something in a way that is quite different from how you might have done it.
Developing Effective Time Management
In an entry titled “You Say Tomato, We Say Pomodoro: Time Management Supports Mental Health,” we introduced a specific approach to managing your time as a way to introduce the more general idea that good time management skills can lead to less stress and better mental health.
The foundation of the Pomodoro Technique is “time boxing.” Specifically, that might mean giving your full attention to a task for 25 minutes and then taking a five-minute break. Do that four times and then take a longer break of up to 20 minutes.
As we noted in our Pomodoro-flavored blog, you need not adopt this particular approach to time management to realize some benefits of taking more intentional control of how you spend your time. Taking refreshing breaks—especially breaks that do not include scrolling social media or other online activities—can truly increase your productivity while also supporting good mental health.
Taking Some Sustained Time Off
In a post titled “Take a Vacation. No Really. You Should Take a Vacation,” we encouraged readers to actually take advantage of the time off that is part of their work arrangements. Far too many people fail to take a vacation for any number of reasons—including feeling too busy to be away or being worried that the boss or your coworkers will think you are lazy if you take time off.
Those concerns—and others like them—should not prevent you from planning and taking time off to relax and recharge. Doing so is good for your mental health and your physical health. A vacation can reduce the symptoms of a mental health disorder while also providing an opportunity to build relationships and make lasting memories with the people who are important to you.
And it turns out that your vacation can make you more productive and more creative at work. That means everyone wins—you and your employer, and your coworkers.
Peak View Behavioral Health Is Ready to Get to Work
The team at Peak View Behavioral Health comes together to work for one overarching goal: we help people improve their mental health and maintain those improvements over time. It is a big job, but an essential one, and we are proud to provide evidence-based care grounded in our high levels of expertise, years of experience, and spirit of empathy.
Located in Colorado Springs, Colorado, Peak View Behavioral Health provides a safe place for those we serve to restore the balance in their lives and build a foundation of hope for the future. We offer inpatient and outpatient care options and are equipped to address substance use disorders that may be entangled with your mental health challenges.
When you are ready to experience the power of compassionate care and ongoing support, we are ready to get to work on your behalf.
