1 in 4 will suffer from a mental illness over the next year.*1 Suicide, burnout, depression, addiction, and overall misery is up across the boards.*2 And young professionals still making their way into their career bear the brunt of the mental health crisis now sweeping developing countries. And while stress can throttle mental health, it can also can throw wrenches into careers. Outbursts of anger can get you fired or, worse, imprisoned. Burnout can turn a startup into a disaster. And, at my own company, many employees have had to take weeks off to recover from the stress they’re under. Some couldn’t take it anymore and quit.

What follows is a list of 3 easy, effective steps to reduce stress at work, but that’s with one big caveat. If you’re in a soul-crushing job and working long hours with people you despise, these remedies will not be a panacea for your woes. It might be best to actually leave rather than throwing a bunch of band-aids on and trying to keep going. It’s not worth it. If you’re not in a horrific working situation or need to make the best of a soon-to-be ex-job, though, these tips will boost on-the-job satisfaction and success.

#1: Eat Lunch

Please, please, please eat your lunch. No, don’t skip it for coffee and a few croissant. Don’t tell yourself you’ll make up for it with a big dinner later. Don’t imagine yourself as an ambitious ascetic for success. It’s not worth it.

There’s a big presentation in the offing. Sales are down. That feedback I promised is already two days late. My schedule’s packed. “It’s just this one time,” I reassure myself. “It won’t happen again.” Sometimes I skip the song-and-dance and just go without. To my stubborn self, stop.

Although it can seem like an obstacle, lunch offers big benefits for both mood and health. First, it provides glucose, a key ingredient for brain function and mood regulation. Hangry is a thing. So too is being wiped out and moody by 3pm after a day of heavy intellectual lifting and stress. To add to that, a skipped lunch usually leads to overeating at night as it’s harder to say no when exhausted and famished.

Lunch also offers a chance to unwind. Eating is both sensuous and grounding. Instead of seeing it as a chore to rush through, look at it as a chance to enjoy the most fundamental aspect of our humanness: food and drink. Savor the flavors, scents, and textures, even if it’s just a ham-and-cheese sandwich. Let go of all of the thoughts racing through the mind. Be present. It might sound unappealing when eating another bland bagged lunch, but attention brings beauty wherever it shines. Bagged lunches are no exception.

Finally, that noon-time break is a chance to reconnect with friends and colleagues. But as one human to another, don’t talk about work. I already spend 80%+ of my time talking and thinking about work at work. Don’t make that 95%. Instead, crack jokes and talk about philosophy, fighting, nature, or whatever shared interests there are. It’s these topics, more-so-than the latest report or griping about some new change in policy, that strengthens bonds and uplifts spirits.

Here are a few simple lunch rules to get the most of it:

1. Don’t talk about work.
2. Don’t eat at your desk.
3. Don’t do work.
4. Don’t think about work.
5. Unplug.
6. Enjoy your meal.
7. Be with friends.

There are two caveats here. First, it’s ok to skip lunch every once in a while. Shit happens. But if shit is happening every week for months in a row, that’s not shit happening. That’s on me. Second, these rules are not set in stone. If I can only meet over lunch with a client to discuss an upcoming project and there’s no work-around, it’s ok. Just don’t make it a habit.

#2: Work Pacing

Work is a marathon, not a sprint. I know it’s cliche, but it needs saying. Most high-achievers can parrot these words , but few live by them. Their work life is in sprint mode almost all the time. And while it might look cool and tough, it doesn’t work in the long run.

Whatever break you get, take it and use it well. Some companies only offer a lousy 10 minutes per shift. Some, even less. Some give employees a lot o flexibility and freedom. For those with micromanaged schedules, I’m sorry. What you can do, if you can’t find wiggle room, is to maximize breaks. For those with more freedom, welcome to work pacing.

About 85% of my work time’s spent sitting down doing heavy intellectual lifting. Writing up courses. Planning meeting agendas. Reviewing old work. Meeting with colleagues and clients. Thus, I’m sedentary and my mind’s racing. When deadlines loom or tasks pile up, it’s tempting to just push through and go for hours without a break. The problem is this knee-jerk reaction to pressure’s ineffective. The result is often that the mind wearies and the body grows restless. Distraction follows. Twitter. Checking emails and messages. Blowing hours away on minutiae. These are signs that the mind’s screaming “give me a break” but I’m too stubborn to listen. In desperation, the mind tricks me into giving it what it needs. Worse, these are bad breaks, the equivalent of eating a can of Pringles instead of having a proper lunch. Giving time for proper, nourishing breaks leads to less time sucked away on unhealthy distractions.

The other unwanted knock-on effect is short-term and long-term burnout. Short-term burnout is that feeling of crashing on the couch after a long day, the mind still buzzing with anxiousness. Burnout is that feeling of being imploded by pressure. It’s that feeling of desperation to turn the switch off. Often, that switch comes in the form of alcohol, drugs, or binge-watching vapid series. Not good.

Long-term burnout is the accumulated effect of short-term burnouts. It’s felt as a dread that slowly builds to a pitch from wake-up until clock-in. It’s that soulless sigh after sitting down at the desk and looking at the to do list. It’s the mental collapse after months or years of inner rot.

Reasons for burnout are many, but one big driver is bad pacing at work. A job is a marathon, not a sprint. Unfortunately, most companies don’t make their employees feel that way. Instead, it’s more like a relay, except instead of passing the baton to another person, they just keep sprinting only now towards a different location. The result of this is burnout. The solution is pacing. Slow down and find a sustainable work pace. For me, I try to keep a pace of an hour of focused work followed by a 10 minute break. Others find longer sessions with longer breaks manageable. Thus, it takes some experimentation to find what’s right.

How we use break time, though, is as important as pacing. Spending time scrolling through Twitter or TikTok is not a break. It keeps the body still and the mind stimulated. Effective breaks should do the opposite: move the body, still the mind. Go for a walk. Do 30 pushups and an 100 squats. Clean. Stretch. Most importantly, don’t think about work or anything else. Get out of our head and boost energy and mood.

Here are some guidelines for an effective break:

1. Unplug.
2. Move.
3. Feel your body.
4. Let all thoughts go.

As with #1, moderation is key. It’s ok to sometimes scroll through IG, text a friend, or clear emails. It’s also true that sometimes breaks just aren’t possible, but if most days are like that, it’s a recipe for burnout and/or distraction. Instead, rethink your workload and have a chat with management.

#3: Give Time to Take Time

It wasn’t until I moved to Thailand that I realized I lived with a rush mindset. My attitude was maximum efficiency in all things. Clean the dishes under 5. Find the fastest way to-and-from work. Optimize my schedule. No convos over 20 minutes unless absolutely necessary. No distractions in my workspace. And while I got a lot done, I paid for it in sloppiness and stress.

Rushing usually leads to worse results. Whether it’s setting up my PowerPoint for a lecture, creating a worksheet, or running a meeting, rushed work is sloppier. And sloppiness costs time. I have to go back to fix errors, some of which take two or three times as long as doing the thing the first time around. Plus, if a I organize a project poorly or give vague objectives, work drags, the work of one person takes two, and a lot of time’s squandered clearing up misunderstandings.

Rushing also stresses. Most hate that feeling of doing something they’re not proud of, something that’s being turned in because that’s all they could do in the time given rather than it being their best. This feeling is all too common in the modern work place. Now, many companies’ cultures emphasize work done over doing work well. There’s no need to cave to this culture. If what someone’s doing is important, it’s important enough to be done well.

The other stress is that nagging sense of “let’s get this over with already.” There are a million things to do and so little time to do it. Let’s get on with it. A meeting drags. Traffic crawls. I have to spend hours filing a bunch of documents. A pitching deck still needs finishing but it’s already an hour over clock out time. That guy’s calling again. This “let’s get this over with already” attitude is a recipe for misery and inattentiveness.

The solution: give time to take time. Instead of trying to cram as much stuff into a day as possible, slow down and do less better. Schedule less. Plan less. Micromanage less. Give important tasks time to be done well. Leave time for mistakes or the unexpected. Know that it’s better to do a small task in 7 minutes with attention rather than in 5 minutes in a hurry. Saying no to more can be hard in a culture that idolizes getting stuff done, but it’s even harder to live life at full-sprint.

Here are some basic guidelines for breaks and work pacing:

1. Schedule only 80% of your day. Leave the rest for chaos.
2. Don’t micromanage time.
3. Slow down a bit and do things well.
4. Be aware and let go of that felt sense of rushing.

As a note, pacing doesn’t mean working at a snails pace. As in a marathon, still run, hustle, have deadlines, be ambitious, but temper it with an eye for the next ten years, not the next deadline. Strong, informed pacing is how marathons are won, not reckless sprints.

References

1. “Mental Health Disorder Statistics,” John’s Hopkins Medicine, January 6, 2023, https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/wellness-and-prevention/mental-health-disorder-statistics.
2. Curtin, Sally; Matthew Garnett; Farida Ahmad. “Vital Statistics Rapid Release Report №24 September 2022,” CDC, January 6, 2023, https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/vsrr/vsrr024.pdf.