Is Your Workload Stressing You Out?

Most people would agree that at some point in their careers, they feel stressed because of their job. In fact, multiple studies agree that workplace stress has dramatically increased over the last decade.

Lots of Work + Close Deadlines = Stress

Every job has its own level of built-in stress, but there are specific causes for workplace stress. Those include a lack of control over work activities and a high workload volume with unrealistic deadlines.

When workflow and job responsibilities aren’t defined, it becomes hard to know where you are in the overall lifecycle of your work processes. Not knowing adds to stress. In fact, 46% of employees surveyed indicated that workload was the main cause of workplace stress. And when you feel like all if it is on your plate, and not prioritized properly, you lose track of where you are or even where to start.

Per our biology, humans have two responses to an event - alarm and adaptation. Alarm occurs during the first unusual event. If the event repeats over time, we learn and adapt to it. Stress results when an event occurs that interferes with that system. Adding an urgent task to an already full workload triggers alarm, but rather than adapt and work to get the job done, stress freezes us in place. This is further compounded when work roles are unclear or priorities aren't well defined.

Getting Organized Means Less Stress

With stressors abound, we're all seeking answers on how to reduce our load, starting with our workplace.

There are three main ways you can help reduce your stress levels at work. It’s important to prioritize your issues, break issues into smaller tasks, and delegate responsibility.

SEE: 6 Ways Issuetrak Can Boost Your Team's Productivity 

How can software help your stress levels? Let’s start with prioritization. You could put all your issues in a spreadsheet and assign them a priority, but what happens if you get busy and aren’t constantly referring to your spreadsheet. A good software package can send you emails if a deadline passes, or if a high priority issue is idle for too long.

Spreadsheets aren’t flexible when it comes down to breaking a issue into smaller steps. You could create multiple rows with the same issue column, but what happens when you have 15 issues and each one has at least 10 steps? You have 150 unmanageable lines on a spreadsheet. Something invariably gets lost. However, a tracking software will let you put each step in the process right on the issue. You have everything in a central location, easily viewable.

You have to maintain ownership of your issue. But do you need to do each step in the process, or can you pass those along to others? A good Issue Tracking system will let you give steps in your process out to anyone you designate. Each person responsible marks their step as completed so you can know where you are in the process at all times.

If you’re ready to see how Issuetrak can help you organize your workload and reduce your stress, talk to one of our product experts today!