PR professionals play a pivotal role in shaping the image of brands and helping them grow. As such, the demands placed on you as a public relations specialist can often be overwhelming, leading to excessive stress, mental health issues, burnout, and an overall neglect of your personal well-being.
In this article, we will explore how you can enhance your personal and professional life as a PR specialist by adopting a more mindful approach to self-improvement.
Combating burnout and reducing stress at work starts with setting healthy boundaries. When working in PR, it can feel like your work is never done, but you have to learn to say “no” sometimes to give yourself a break.
Unfortunately, in a lot of media and marketing jobs, there is often this notion that you always have to push yourself and take as many opportunities as you can to have a successful career. When in reality, that is a sure way to burn out hard and fast.
So, if you are feeling stretched thin, it might be time to start thinking about yourself for once and turn down some projects if you need to so you can catch your breath, rest, and recharge.
There is no reason why you need to do everything yourself. It is likely that there is room for you to delegate some of the work you are doing to someone else. Working with a team rather than handling everything on your own can actually improve productivity. If that isn’t an option, consider automating some of your more repetitive work tasks to alleviate your workload and reduce stress.
Even if you are great at remembering everything you need to do, keeping all of this information in your head all the time can increase your chances of getting burnt out as a PR professional. To reduce overwhelm and give your brain a respite, start your day by making a to-do list of everything that needs to get done. This can significantly help lighten the load you feel and help you stay more organised and on task, which can help reduce stress.
Taking an online course or training class might seem counterintuitive to reducing your stress and workload, but it can help. With the ever-changing digital landscape, the realm of PR is constantly changing, so taking a course to learn new digital skills can help you feel more confident in your abilities.
In fact, many companies today are supporting their workforce with continued learning as it can help improve work outcomes. You can also fill in your skill gaps, and learn more about innovations and changes in your industry. Ongoing training and education can also teach you how to work smarter, not harder, which can help increase job satisfaction and decrease job stress.
The reason self-care is being pushed so hard these days is because it works and is critical to your physical and mental well-being. If you are not taking care of your personal needs then you will not be able to show up and work as effectively to take care of your professional needs.
This ties in with the first point about setting boundaries and saying “no.” You must start finding more time to address your personal needs or at least find a better balance between your work life and your personal life. Take some time off, go on a vacation, or even just do more things for yourself like taking up a fun hobby, spending more time with friends and family, and getting better sleep and eating healthier.
Working long hours has proven to have negative effects on physical and mental health. Spending too much time working can increase stress and lead to neglectful behaviors, which can impact your diet, cause anxiety and depression, and result in a more sedentary life.
Working long hours can even affect your oral health. As stress impacts your immune system, it can impact your body’s ability to fight off infections and disease, which can lead to an increased risk of developing gum disease, among other things. Work-related stress has also been shown to lead to teeth grinding, which can damage your teeth and cause sensitivity and pain.
So it’s worth considering finding a way to reduce the hours you work each week. Perhaps you can work a hybrid schedule or even go fully remote to allow yourself more freedom to take care of your personal needs and take more breaks.
Another negative side effect of working too much as a PR specialist is losing out on social connectivity. Just because you are interacting with people at work doesn’t mean you are getting the meaningful social interactions you need to help you feel engaged and happy. Social connections outside of work are crucial to helping combat work stress and burnout.
Understandably, you might want to simply curl up at home on the couch and watch TV after a long day of work, but it’s important that you find time to reach out and connect with friends and family. Even if it’s just a quick catch-up over coffee or dinner, every little social interaction can help lift your mood and keep you sane while working a stressful, high-demand job.
As a PR specialist, you likely spend a significant amount of your time trying to figure out how to help and support other organisations. While this is vital to your role and the success of your career, it should not mean that your own personal needs get neglected. To truly be successful, you must find a healthy balance between your professional and personal life by setting more boundaries, improving your skills, and taking more time for yourself.
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