How often do you open your eyes in the morning, remember what your working day has in store and start to feel anxious? Anxiety before work is common.

It’s almost like that blissful calm of sleep has been entirely shattered and your racing thoughts have thrown you headfirst into panic mode. 

It’s unpleasant, uncomfortable and unwanted.

What is Workplace Stress?

According to Champion Health’s Stress Statistics report in 2022, the most common cause of stress is work-related with 79% of people in the UK saying they frequently felt it.

Similarly, a whopping 13.7 million working days are lost each year in the UK because of work-related stress, anxiety and depression. This is thought to cost employers £28.3 billion every year – clearly a problem that cannot be ignored.

There can be a number of reasons why we feel stressed or anxious before going to work – the anticipation of meeting deadlines, having a high workload, giving a presentation, matching expectations and getting along in a team are among the many.

Morning Anxiety

For those of us who experience anxiety, morning time can be particularly difficult as sufferers frequently wake up with feelings of stress and worry. 

A resource by Wake Forest University claims: “Morning anxiety has a biological cause: Cortisol, often called the ‘stress hormone,’ is higher during the first hour after waking for people experiencing stress. This process is called the Cortisol Awakening Response (CAR).”

Alongside this, another contributing factor can be that blood sugar levels in our bodies are lower after a night’s sleep, which can also trigger anxiety until we refuel and top them up. This is a perfect recipe for our worries and concerns getting on top of us as the physiological meets the psychological effects.

Here are our five ways to combat anxiety and make work seem more manageable before you even get there.

Establish a Morning Routine 

Waking up at a set time, eating a healthy breakfast high in magnesium-rich foods like oatmeal, avoiding caffeine, preventing having to rush and getting active can all help you first thing in the morning. 

Rushing to work, getting stuck in traffic, ironing clothes last-minute and having other family members to attend to can stress us out in the mornings but having more time on our hands really helps.

Be Organised

Knowing what your priorities are and working through those first sounds obvious, but we all know how distracting it is to get side-tracked and derailed by last minute jobs. 

Try to start your day with the most important tasks so that whatever course it takes, your main bulk of work is complete and you have achieved something.

Regular Breaks

When your to-do list mounts, it feels impossible to take a break and escape your desk. Yet when we do, it can hold the answer to returning refreshed, motivated and with a different perspective. 

Whether you take ten minutes out every hour or so, or an hour for lunch, it’s really important to get a change of scenery and do something completely different to reset your mind before getting back into the swing of work.

Celebrate Your Achievements

We all know how good it feels when something you’ve been working on is finally finished. Taking time out to reward yourself with things you enjoy is a great way to acknowledge how well you’re doing and to motivate your mental health.

Talk to Someone

If you are feeling signs of stress at work, it is important to talk to someone, for example your manager. If you outline the problem to them as soon as possible, it will give them the chance to help and stop the situation spiralling and getting worse.

If the pressure is due to your managers actions, find out what policies are in place to deal with this. You can also talk to your trade union representative, HR department, worker assistance programme/counselling service if your organisation has these or your GP.

See our other resources on anxiety or contact us on how Headclear can help your workforce and their wellbeing.