Feeling Exhausted? Ignoring Your Co-Workers Can Help Reduce Stress, Says Study!

All work and no chit chat with our work friend can make office life boring and monotonous. We all need those coffee breaks to release stress and start afresh right?

But science doesn’t agree with this.

Constant burnout and overstressing at work is a common repercussion of a fast-paced life. And to manage the stress at work, we often rely upon unwinding with friends. But psychologists suggest that if you are stressed, try avoiding co-workers instead to feel less tired at the end of the day.

According to health care psychologist Ulrika Leons, our day-to-day habits both in and outside of the office put us at serious risk of burning out. She went on explaining that to feel less stressed at the end of the day and be more productive, avoiding colleagues at work can prove effective.

Which is why Leons suggests to shut oneself off from colleagues if you want to focus.

“If someone distracts you, it can take somewhere between five and 25 minutes for you to fully focus your attention on your task again.”

“It takes energy to switch between tasks all the time. If this happens all day long, you’ll be exhausted by the time you go home. This can be done very easily, for example, by putting in headphones. You can then agree with colleagues, for example, that if someone is wearing headphones, you really can’t reasonably disturb them for a while.”

“There are other ways to ensure you’re not continuously distracted. For example, together with your employer, you could visually block work stations in your office from communal or social spaces, for example, so you don’t end up seeing everyone going for coffee. You can arrange for people to go into a meeting room if they want to make a phone call,” said Leons, “so they don’t disturb others.”

Keeping distance from colleagues at work can be a task in itself, but if these suggestions prove helpful for you, do tell us.

Cover image: unsplash