We all know that there are some people out there who are addicted to stress — it’s what they choose to live and breathe and talk about everyday. I hope you’re not one of them. BUT…. if you are, I’ve created a list of ways for you to continue to add to your stress and overwhelm.
1. If you work at the office, spend all day at your desk without any breaks for meals, chats, or even breathing!
2. Check your work e-mails and respond to all of them during your evenings and weekends.
3. Stay up super late watching crappy TV and then force yourself to get up in the morning for work.
4. Spend your commutes to work thinking about all things you need to do that day that you don’t want to do.
5. Set the expectation that you’re going to complete all 50 items on your to-do list in one day (and get mad at yourself when you don’t!).
6. Never use your vacation days and lose them at the end of the year.
7. When someone offers to help you out or give you a break, say NO.
8. When someone asks you to do something that you know you don’t have time for, say YES.
9. Spend all your time inside at work or home and never get any fresh air or sunlight.
10. Never treat yourself to lunch or dinner out.
11. Don’t save any money — if an unexpected expense comes up, handle it by freaking out.
12. Spend your time with people who are always complaining about how busy and overwhelmed they are.
13. Eat lots of chocolate and fried food and drink lots of soda.
14. Listen to sad, depressing music on your commute or while you’re doing your work.
15. Never exercise (enough said!)
16. If you have kids, don’t spend any time doing fun activities with them — just yell at them when they try to get your attention or ask you something.
17. Don’t organize your home — let everything pile up so that you always feel crowded and uncomfortable. Keep all of your stress and worries bottled up inside of you.
18. NEVER smile (or laugh… or have fun)
19. Forget to breathe so that your body is tense all the time
20. Have your cell phone on you all the time and never
21. Tell everyone about how stressed and overwhelmed you are and how there is nothing that can help you.
Now of course I don’t actually want you to spend your time learning ways to stress more. Instead, I’d love it if you took a moment to think about your day. Which of these 21 items are you doing way more often than you should? It’s time to stop doing them — I know you can do this! Instead, you can do any of the stress less strategies found here.
Don’t forget to share which one of these 21 items causes you the most stress in the comments below!
Nice, Nicole. 🙂 I’m super guilty of #1, #2, and #3. Although #3 isn’t “crappy TV” for me – it’s actually interesting/educational stuff for the business I’m building…but still a problem when it keeps me up too late.
Hi Eleanore! Thanks for checking out my blog… I totally get you about the business building stuff.. that’s an even more deceptive way to stress because we tell ourselves it’s a helpful task (and it is helpful when you don’t over do it!).
Love the way this is written! I’m guilty of more then I want to admit, and am starting to wonder if I’m one of those stress loving people? (Though, I really do *hate* stress!) I suppose I just never realized all the little things I’d been doing to create it even more.
I’m going to hang this list in my home office. Maybe I’ll get out of my chair a little more often! Thanks!
Hi Shana! I’m so glad you found this helpful…. I think we really are just not aware of how things we do cause us to be stressed (and how we can control that!). It’s easier to think it just “happens” to us. Definitely check this out this list –http://swc.tmu.mybluehost.me/21-ways-stressless/ — so you know what activities to add to your day that will help you stress+less!