The past months of lockdown and the pandemic have caused a high state of stress for many people in Italy and around the world. It is a state of mind that, although by now internalized, unites everyone.

Smartworking, a not entirely correct definition of the current working situation for many people, has spread, we have had to manage work in a completely different way, staying away from the people we work with and the people we care about, managing complex family situations. For many this is still the case and it is possible that it will be for a few more months.

We call it the “new normal”, it is not yet clear how long it will last, but now more than before the work-life balance has become a predominant theme and we need to pay attention to our level of stress to better manage both work and rest. Coping with the stress, anxieties and fears of Covid 19 is therefore essential to managing your working life in the best way.

To do this, we also need to put into practice small positive actions during our days, which we may not have done before. Which?

Maintain our social and work relationships

The distancing that has been imposed on us is physical, but not social. Human relationships are very important for us human beings, so it is necessary to take the time to call our family members, our friends, and see them in compliance with the imposed rules. The same is also true in the world of work. To be able to manage our working relationships, with our colleagues or the sales teams we manage, we can take the time for informal conversations before we start talking about work, to know how they are and how they are coping with this change, to maintain the mutual trust even at a distance, showing empathy towards each other. In general, it is good to rely on our support system to share the weaknesses and difficulties we are facing in these months. The role of managers is fundamental in this situation to set a more empathic approach within the work teams.

Let’s find our new routine

In this new normal we need to find a new routine, because having a routine allows us to reduce stress. We can do this starting from things that seem to us to be familiar in our daily life, but which have much more importance than they seem, such as going to sleep and waking up at the same time, having main meals at the same time, making sure to always give some time for some essential activities during our days and devote precise hours to work to allow us to concentrate during those hours, dedicate to our team pre-established moments during the week, such as weekly or daily meetings, depending on what are the needs in the work we are doing.

We change our expectations during the working day

Working from home makes us think that we could do many more things, as we do not have to use our time on commuting from home to work, but in reality we are not always able to do everything we plan : Organizing activities around the home can be complex, especially if you have family members to take care of. Furthermore, working alone can lead to a decrease in our productivity and motivation, and the same is true, for example in the world of sales, for the sales people we are following.

The risk is therefore to set higher expectations on ourselves and on our team than what we can actually carry out, inevitably causing further stress. In a situation of uncertainty, it is important to be flexible and aware of what we can really do and our team can do and be ready to change our daily expectations.

We are ready to change our long-term goals

Being ready to change expectations about our daily productivity goes well with being ready to change the long-term goals we had planned at the beginning of the year or at the beginning of the quarter, taking into account the consequences of the current situation we live in and the changes that have taken place in the sector in which we work.

What are the positive aspects that we can take with us?

Let’s try to ask ourselves what the positive aspects that are emerging during this period of change and what positive aspects we would like to bring with us when things return to being more similar to what we know. What things have we been able to experience during this period that are also worth pursuing in the management of work?

We Practice Gratitude

Even in these complex times being grateful for what you have is important and helps us see things more positively, we can do this by writing a list of things we are grateful for on a daily basis. There are also apps, which remind us at the end of the day to mark the things we are grateful for.

Gratitude also passes through our working relationships and helps us to nurture that mutual trust we need in long-distance working relationships.

Anxiety also deserves its space

We give space to anxiety, but in a contingent way. We must not avoid listening to some important emotions, but give them a limited space, which allows us to feel our anxiety, our worries, our stress, but dedicate a specific time to them. Even in this case, writing can be useful to us, as the moment we have written and read our list of concerns related to family life and work life, we can continue on another thought.

Let’s make time for the things that make us feel good

If in the pre-covid life, lived between the office and the meetings with our potential customers, it was difficult to carve out time for oneself and to deal with stress, even now paradoxically it is, because it is more difficult to separate the moments of the day by staying mostly at home. For this reason it is good to choose to dedicate time to something that makes us feel good with awareness: sport, which undoubtedly remains one of the best things for our psycho-physical health, but also to read, study, watch an inspirational film, which gives us positivity, like playing an instrument, learning to sew, but above all finding our moments to laugh.

Take away

• When there are moments that involve high levels of stress like the one we are experiencing in this period, let us not forget that there are several small daily actions and choices that help us to better deal with these moments.
• Work life balance is even more important in this period of change, working well is strictly connected to our well-being
• Leading a team in a period of collective stress also means finding the right methods and practices to meet the needs of both the company and the team. Are there any positive daily practices you do?