6 Sensible Tips to Handle New Job Anxiety
Like any new venture, a new job comes with a certain level of anxiety. How you handle stress determines how successful you’ll be in your new position. Granted, some people are better at managing anxiety than others.
New-job-related anxiety and stress can be reduced by putting your corporate wellness and health first. Sleep well, exercise, create time for your hobbies and family. To combat anxiety, start the day on a good note and walk into the office feeling healthy and productive. Learn from your errors, set achievable goals and train your mind to think positive. Steer clear of office drama, avoid unnecessary negative interaction with colleagues and wisely manage your time at work.
The following are six tips on how to handle new job anxiety like a boss. These practical tips, when implemented, will help you thrive like a boss at your new assignment.
1. Get Ample Sleep
Positive first impressions are essential in a new job. You need to have a ready-to-go attitude if you’re going to be successful. Various studies indicate that it takes an adult seven to eight hours of restful sleep for them to operate at an optimum level. You need ample rest to do your best work. Adequate quality sleep combats new job anxiety and helps put your mind in the frame of giving quality output, even in a new environment.
Do whatever it takes to have an adequate sleep. For this, you can download sleep pattern apps, use earplugs, sleep masks, use blackout curtains or apply essential oils to help you to sleep. Bad moods and increased stress levels are a direct result of inadequate sleep. Don’t allow yourself to be a subject of questionable hires among your co-workers.
2. Exercise Regularly
Exercise comes with great benefits to the mind and the body. Anxiety is known to drain one’s energy and focus. This negatively impacts your mental health. As you exercise, endorphins are released into your brain, which in turn makes you tranquil.
You don’t have to join a gym to achieve a daily workout routine that will ease tension and boost your confidence. Besides walking or going up and down the stairs rather than use an elevator, dancing before a mirror ahead of taking a shower could be all the gym routine you need to keep your endorphins up while at home.
You can also commit yourself to fitness at work by taking intermittent breaks and walking around the building, doing squats in the washroom. Do whatever it takes to get your muscles stretched, and your heart pumping. This will go a long way in alleviating new job anxiety.
3. Manage your Time
A new job is an exciting adventure. The pressure to invest in it as much time as possible is real. However, don’t forget to block time for non-work related passions; otherwise, you’re headed for a burnout. Disconnecting yourself mentally from the job and focusing on yourself, hobbies and family combats job-related stress and allows you to go back to the office rejuvenated.
Avoid being overly wrapped up in your new work, which can increase your amount of new job anxiety. Make weekly advance schedules that block out personal time for your hobbies and a chance to unwind with family and friends.
4. Honestly Communicate How You Feel
Although one may be apprehensive about communicating their true feelings and asking for help at a new job, it helps in combating anxiety. Honest communication, in the long run, makes your work experience healthy and fruitful. Maintain a degree of transparency.
If you have a chronic anxiety disorder, see a therapist. Otherwise, acute anxiety bouts brought about by a new job can be alleviated by openly communicating your concerns and grievances to co-workers, bosses, family or friends willing to listen and help.
5. Avoid Office Drama
Keep a mental note to the effect that satisfactorily completing your work assignments is of greater importance than establishing arbitrary office relationships or feeding into colleagues meddling, gossip and negative vibes. Online social networking has blurred work and personal life boundaries.
It has also enhanced anonymous preying on people, which has increased stress and drummed up turmoil. Psychological effects of work-related stress are hazardous to your health. As much as it depends on you, avoid office drama and focus on maintaining a positive attitude.
6. Set Realistic Expectations and Stay Positive
A new job comes with new challenges and anxiety. Even the most experienced worker falls short of their goals once in a while. Give yourself a transitional period to learn the ropes. Train your mind to view failures and missteps as learning experiences and opportunities to become a more knowledgeable and efficient employee.
Do not clutter your daily to-do-list with too many tasks. Set a few top priorities and get to each of them one at a time. Once you complete a task, celebrate the achievement. This will give you the momentum to clear your daily to-do list and eventually alleviate anxiety and stress while settling in at your new job.
