The world sucks sometimes. Here’s how to make it a tiny bit better.
I’ve been feeling a bit stressed lately.
Work, the news, scheduling, news, being a parent, news, social media, news… oh, and did I mention the the news?
If you feel the same way, you’re not alone.
Over the last six months, our most popular programs have been on two topics: improving communication and how to deal with stress. It was also the #3 most requested topic in our recent reader survey.
It’s no surprise, considering 43% of adults reported feeling more anxious in 2024 that they did in 2023 (and who knows what 2025 will bring).
Just look at the general state of things around you and it makes sense that The American Institute of Stress estimates that stress costs U.S. employers more than $300 billion annually due to absenteeism, turnover, decreased productivity and direct medical, legal and insurance costs.
(I am curious what legal costs come from someone being stressed. Maybe lawsuits related to an overworked employee snapping at a rude customer?)
While we can’t control the amount of stressors we experience in life, we can figure out ways to handle them better. No, I’m not talking about drugs and alcohol… I’m talking about humor.
For all the negative effects of work stress—high blood pressure, muscle tension, irritable mood swings—humor is one of the best ways to cope with the overwhelm. Humor lowers blood pressure, relaxes muscles, and helps you laugh instead of cry. Or laugh after you’ve cried. Or laugh while crying… which is terrifying to witness.
So how do you maintain resilience in the current environment? Here are four simple steps to managing stress at work:
1. Reject stressful situations.
The simplest (but often hardest) way to combat stress is to simply avoid it. Reject the activities or environments that cause stress by choosing not to do them or delegating them to someone else.
For example, reading the news stresses me out: it’s full of doom, gloom, and things that boomed. So, I stopped listening to news stories first thing in the morning and replaced it with a crossword puzzle or jumping into creative work.
Now, if I could just get Pretzel (my wife) to do the same thing for both of our sakes, that would be great (hi, mi amor!). But she “claims” that staying up-to-date on worldly events is “important for her job.” I mean it’s not like she works at the UN or something… wait, no, she does work at the UN, so she may have a point.
For the rest of us, think about what you can stop doing by creating a to-don’t list of the things on your to-do list that you no longer need to do. Be ruthless. If it’s not something you have to do and it doesn’t bring you joy (now or in the future), cut it or give it to someone else.
2. Reframe work stress.
The second humor strategy for coping with stress is to reframe the situations that cause you stress.
When faced with stress at work, there are two ways to react to it. The first is to let it get to you, to succumb to the negativity and allow it to consume your mental and physical energy.
The second (more effective) reaction is to find a way to laugh at the stress, to see it as a challenge to overcome, not a way of being.
Simply reframing a stressful situation into a humorous one can help reduce the tension of stress. Rather than dwelling on why a situation is so terrible, find a way to find the humor in it. Why lament over traffic when you can use it as an opportunity for an epic sing-along to the Hamilton soundtrack?
Changing the way you think about a stressful activity or event can help you stop feeling stressed in the first place.
3. Relieve stressful experiences.
It would be naive to believe that you could reframe everything you have to do into something fun. If you’ve just been fired or lost a loved one, it can be difficult to find the fun in the situation.
Forcing a smile on your face can sometimes be worse than accepting the reality as it is. But that doesn’t mean the stress has to stay.
The third way to build resilience is to relieve stress after you be stressed. Yes, exercise and meditation are great ways to do this, but so is finding an excuse to laugh.
When we laugh, we increase blood flow through the body, relax muscles, and burn calories. Not a lot of calories, but it’s definitely healthier to laugh than to eat a Snickers.
The good news: this is basically a prescription for watching cat videos after a stressful meeting. The important thing is that when something causes you stress, you do something to relieve it.
4. Recharge from stress at work.
No matter how good your sense of humor or how adept you are at the previous strategies, you’re still going to face periods of prolonged stressed (such as when working against an important deadline or spending the holidays with family).
The fourth way to handle stress at work is by recharging your human batteries, to take a break to recombobulate every now and then. Studies have found that when you take a vacation, you come back with increased feelings of productivity, ability to sleep, positive attitudes toward your job, and way too many Instagram selfies.
But taking a break shouldn’t just be a weekly or monthly activity. It shouldn’t even just be daily; there is strong evidence that points to the value of managing your stress at an hourly level.
Research by chronobiologists (perhaps one of the coolest job titles) have found that most people’s minds and bodies need recovery every 90 to 120 minutes. That’s why planned breaks, aka strategic disengagement, is so important.
Create a Plan Now for Stress Later
There’s nothing revolutionary about these steps (although a lot of people like the idea of to-don’t list). They make sense on paper (or on screen), the trick is implementing them, especially when you’re already stressin’.
One of the best things you can do in a period of “no stress” is to create a plan for when you’re feeling “yes, lots of stress.” Rather than wait until you’re completely overwhelmed, start managing your stress now.
- Reject: Create a list of things you’ll put off during periods of massive stress. Can you order groceries instead of going to the store, or say it’s okay to NOT finish every single NYT game just so you don’t lose your streak.
- Reframe: Start a humor notebook or journal now so that you already have an outlet for reframing your stressful experiences when they occur, rather than waiting until they happen to create an outlet.
- Relieve: Create a playlist on YouTube or save a bunch of Instagram reels that always make you laugh. Then, when you’ve had a stressful event, you already know where to go to get some levity into your body. Need some suggestions? I created a playlist of some of my favorite stand-up clips.
- Recharge: Put breaks into your calendar at the beginning of each week. Schedule meetings with yourself to go for a walk, meet a friend, or do something that recharges your body and mind.
You can’t control the amount of stress that will come your way, but you can better manage it with these simple steps. It’s time to put the superpower of humor to work for you so you can be more productive, less stress, and happier.
(an)drew
To learn more about stress, go to stress.org
OP-
