Mindset affects how we approach high workload

It's World Mental Health Day - a day for raising awareness of mental health issues.

If you're at work, drowning under the various tasks you have to complete, you won't be surprised to learn that this is a common scenario in the workplace and a cause of unnecessary stress for many employees. But what can you do to deal with the increasing demands at work? Well, according to researchers Casper, Sonnetag and Tremmel, your mindset is the key. 

Their study found that employees differed in their approach to workload anticipation based on whether or not they believed stress to be harmful to their productivity and health (their stress mindset). Employees with a positive stress mindset (i.e. those who looked at work as a challenge) found coping strategies to deal with the high workloads. However, it's not just how we approach tasks that helps us improve our productivity, but also how we anticipate them. The research indicated that people respond differently to the anticipation of high workload and these differences also affect our performance. This could be because some people view a high workload as a challenge, whereas others see it as a hindrance or a threat, causing them to avoid it. 

So, what's best way of dealing with a high workload? Nurturing a positive mindset and using coping mechanisms for managing workload goes a long way according to the researchers. But most importantly, in order to maintain wellbeing and health, it's essential to have a manageable workload with time to rest and recover after each working day.

Further reading 

Casper, A, Sonnentag, S, and Tremmel, S (2017), Mindset matters: the role of employees’ stress mindset for day- specific reactions to workload anticipation, European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, 26, 798-810.