Among the most common feelings felt in the workplace, stress is surely a star player. In the high-pressure environment EAs work in, it's unlikely to be something that can be eliminated. After all, the fight-or-flight response that stress represents is actually beneficial in the right doses. 

Here are four tips for managing your response to stress in the workplace

Eat and sleep well

A big part of being able to manage stress is having your body running at its best. When you don't get enough sleep and you're not eating a healthy diet, your ability to function, let alone deal with the pressures of stress, is greatly diminished.

Think of it how an athlete has to prepare - for them to perform at their best, they need to take care of their bodies. It's no different for high-performing EAs.

Take a moment to step back

Whenever you feel the stress building, take a moment to step back and try to distance yourself from the feeling. Stress becomes unmanageable when it gets to the point where it feels overwhelming. But you should always remember that however much stress comes from the outside, you're always in control of how you respond to it. Taking a moment to step back from your stress, and evaluate it in a clearer light can help.

What is stress telling you?

Your response to stress doesn't always have to be some method for coping with it better. Sometimes excessive stress can be pointing out something in your job that needs to change. Does the same thing stress you out every time you do it? Perhaps the way it's done has to change. Maybe you need to delegate more, or find better processes to manage your workload.

Talk it out

Stress and pressure are concepts that are highly correlated - the more pressure you feel under, the more stressed you can be. But pressure is something that can be vented, to some extent. Sharing your stressors with a colleague or friend can be a great way to reduce the airtime they get in your own head. As they say, a problem shared is a problem halved.

Stress is something that's ineliminable from the workplace; if it never stressed you out, there's a good chance something is amiss. That said, there are good and bad ways to respond to the inevitable stress that comes.