How to successfully handle end-of-year work stress, from experts: ‘Embrace your inner toddler’
It’s not just difficult family dynamics or the prospect of stretching the budget to buy expensive gifts that make the holiday season stressful. Workplace concerns like not being able to meet all your goals, looming deadlines, and burnout may also surface at the end of the year.
According to Patricia Dixon, a licensed clinical psychologist If you’re an assistant professor at National Louis University in Tampa, it’s normal to feel a little overwhelmed by work stress during the holidays.
When we reflect on the past year, we can feel tempted to “focus too much on what we didn’t do,” Dixon tells CNBC Make It. “And then it makes us lose sight of what we have.”
Whether you’re having a hard time unplugging or struggling with the feeling that you’re not doing enough, here are some tips from Dixon and other psychologists to successfully navigate end-of-year stress.
Focus on your successes, not your shortcomings
“Reset your perspective for greater clarity and accuracy,” he says. “There may still be a lot of work that needs to be done, but look at all the things you’ve done, it gives you a feeling of accomplishment.”
For example, even if you didn’t get a promotion, your boss still gave you a raise because of your hard work and dedication to your team. And if you haven’t launched your business, at least you’ve solidified a plan and gotten your license or permit in preparation.
Dixon says wins, no matter how small or insignificant they seem, are still wins. “If we focus too much on the outcome and not the process, we miss the little celebrations that make the burden a little easier to carry.”
Listen to your mind and body
More than half (55%) of U.S. workers feel burned out, according to Eagle Hill Consulting Workforce Burnout QuestionnaireThe survey of more than 14,000 respondents was conducted in November.
These employees reported that burnout negatively affected their productivity, job performance, and creativity.
Instead of putting your health on the back burner in an effort to over-perform or maintain your reputation as a reliable team member, Judith Joseph psychiatrist and researcher Dr., who specializes in mental health and trauma, says it’s important to listen to your mind and body and set boundaries when necessary.
“Before you say ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to a task, take a break and ask yourself if you really want to do it,” Joseph wrote for CNBC Make It in April. “Often there is a little voice inside us that realizes we are too exhausted to work all weekend.”
Dixon adds that this is especially true at the end of the year, when you have a busy time with family or are trying to take a few days to yourself to recharge.
‘Embrace your inner toddler’
If you’re feeling overwhelmed by your job, Dixon suggests,Embrace Your Inner Child: A Blueprint for Living Joyfully,” says his best advice is to live like a three-year-old.
There are four basic tenets of life as a toddler: play time, snack time, bedtime, and “no sorry”—a way for a teenager to firmly put their foot down and have no intention of giving in to their parents’ wishes, Dixon explains.
In adulthood, this might look like taking a 15-minute break between work tasks to play Sudoku or Wordle, packing your favorite energizing snack for a mid-day boost, taking a few minutes for meditation or breathwork, and saying no to extra work for which you don’t have the bandwidth.
Of course, we want to take our career seriously and finish the year strong. But we can still find ways to enjoy our work without letting it consume us, Dixon says.
“There’s a way to take your career seriously without taking yourself too seriously,” he says. The race to climb the corporate ladder “can have detrimental effects on our mental, emotional and physical health. It’s about knowing when to rest and knowing what your limits are.”
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