The Art of Staying Focused Under Pressure

Most people feel a lot of workplace stress and pressure these days. It’s a common thing among professionals in all levels of responsibility and hierarchy.

It’s also the reason why a some employees make mistakes along the way. This is especially the case with salespeople and other occupations where employees have to act quickly and maintain good relationships with a lot of prospects or clients on a daily basis.

But if you want to keep the high level of productivity, and avoid any unnecessary mistakes, you need to master the art of staying focused under pressure.

In this article, I’ll unpack the 7 tricks to staying focused under pressure.

7 Tricks to Master the Art of Staying Focused Under Pressure

Although many people think that handling stress comes as a natural talent for some professionals, it is actually something that everyone can learn with just a little bit of practice.

Gordon Garza, COO at Resumes Planet, noted:

“Staying focused under pressure is a matter of good will and practice. There are many ways to improve your efficiency in stressful situations and you just need to choose methods that suit your character the most.”

Following this suggestion, here are 7 simple tricks that can help you to relax and work better under pressure. Let’s take a closer look.

1. Focus on one thing at the time

Multitasking is one of the leading causes of stress at work.

Sometimes it’s inevitable. But most of the time it’s easy to make a focused schedule and solve one thing after another. This way, you allow yourself to stay focused no matter how many smaller tasks you have to complete.

Don’t look at your duties as a huge pile of work—but rather as a set of phases that you should deal with one by one. You will take a big burden off your back this way.

Need help creating a targeted schedule? Click here to get started building out a time blocking system.

2. Take breaks

Taking your job seriously is the only way to improve and advance in your career. However, this doesn’t mean that you should overload yourself with work and never take any breaks.

A study proved that unhappy workers are 10% less productive. The key here is that you have to make sure that you avoid burnout by taking occasional breaks to re-focus and manage your emotions.

When faced with a stressful problem or challenge, take a breather for a moment. Approach the problem from a relaxed, rational perspective and don't be afraid to ask for help.

3. Exercise

People who are physically fit have a greater intellectual endurance.

I highly recommend that you dedicate some time to training and keep yourself in a good shape. It doesn’t have to be too demanding – yoga classes or jogging three times a week will do you well, too. Besides that, avoid cars or public transport and try to walk whenever you have a chance.

4. Don’t take mistakes too seriously

Nobody’s perfect and we all make mistakes. You can’t give the best of you all the time and it’s natural to fall under pressure occasionally.

You must learn not to take mistakes too seriously. It’s all about what you learn from that mistake.

Professional omissions and inaccuracy should only help you to improve your knowledge and learn from your own experience. Additionally, keep in mind that other colleagues also make mistakes – and they are still alive and kicking after all.

5. Work hard to improve

You shouldn’t wait for mistakes to happen in order to begin working on your professional skills.

Instead, make sure you learn everything about the products you sell, and watch more experienced colleagues solve difficult situations with customers.

You can take these and many other small steps to perfect your professional capabilities and prepare to react quickly in stressful situations..

6. Ask for support

There are times when you just can’t handle pressure on your own.

According to a survey by Stress.org, more than 80% of workers feel stress at work and almost half of them claim they need help in learning how to control it.

If you feel like you belong to this group, asking for support is the best way to move beyond it. Ask a colleague, mentor, supervisor, or friend for help. It’s better to find help than to make a really serious mistake working on your own while under pressure.

7. Enjoy the process

According to World Health Organization, the pressure at the workplace is unavoidable due to the demands of the contemporary work environment. This means that you simply cannot avoid stress in everyday business, so you might as well learn how to manage stress but accept that it can (and will) happen!

Learn to accept and analyze both your wins and losses–it will make you a better worker but also a more satisfied professional in the long run.

Navigating Pressure Moving Forward

Working under pressure is never an easy thing, no matter how tough or well-experienced you might be. But if you master the art of staying focused under pressure, it will help you to go through difficult situations. Keep these tips in mind to improve your efficiency in stressful situations. And feel free to leave a comment if you have more suggestions to share with other readers!

About the Author:

Michael Gilmore is a blogger and entrepreneur from Dallas, TX. He specializes in building high-performance teams and delivering great products. Michael is also a passionate career advisor.  You can catch Michael on Twitter.