How to regain energy and overcome work fatigue: tips to stay productive and manage anxiety
Do you end each workday feeling completely drained? If at the end of the working day you don't feel a rush of dopamine, but can barely get up from your chair, something is going wrong. Everyone gets tired, but if this feeling seems to have taken over your whole life - both work and personal - then something needs to change. And these changes must first come from you.
This article is about how to recovery your energy. It offers tips to stay energized at work. By the end of the day, you should feel ready for walking, fitness, and life.
We’ll also explore the causes of anxiety attacks at work and how to deal with them. Anxiety directly affects stress levels, making it harder to focus, stay productive, and feel motivated. Grasping its effects and mastering effective coping techniques can assist you in reclaiming your well-being.
Fatigue can be a symptom of a condition such as burnout at work. If you feel like you can't do what you used to, or if you don't value anything, it might be burnout. We discussed more bout burned out at work.
Importance of rational use of energy at work
Imagine that every day you have a certain amount of energy reserve. Let's assume like a 100% battery charge. However, if you don't get enough sleep, your morning battery charge is only 60%.
Skipped breakfast - another -10. In such a state, you don't want to start the working day because your body tells you that it needs to recharge in the morning. If your battery is around 20 percent, your body enters energy-saving mode. This may lead to anxiety attacks as your brain identifies it as a stressor.
Unhealthy food, a disrupted daily routine, lack of physical activity, and other negative factors take away our energy. If you have them in your life, you have a substantial reserve of resources. These resources will come back when you return to a good routine.
Many people think they can handle any load. And when it turns out to be the maximum, they feel work anxiety or job depression. This is a wrong approach. The truth is that trying to do the impossible leads to failure.
What to do in such situations? You need to either automate some of the tasks or delegate.
Great leaders in history knew that doing everything alone leads to failure. From kings to business leaders, the best managers focused on the most important tasks and gave smaller tasks to others. Think about how many tasks you can do yourself and don’t take on too much. By choosing what matters most and sharing the rest, you can work better and succeed.
How task management boosts energy levels and control anxiety at work.
Without good task management, people often feel overwhelmed by daily demands. This can lead to more stress and tiredness.
Effective task management requires you to organize, prioritize, and track tasks to ensure that you handle responsibilities efficiently. When this process is ignored, it can create chaos. Deadlines may be missed, important tasks can be forgotten, and control can slip away.
Stress often comes from feeling unable to keep up with different obligations. You can relate these to work, personal life, or other commitments. Without a clear plan to manage these tasks, people may find it hard to use their time and energy well.
This can create a cycle of procrastination. Tasks can pile up and feel more overwhelming. This can increase feelings of anxiety and tiredness. And then anxiety affecting work, and this repeat again and again.
Managing tasks to reduce anxiety and improve productivity: step-by-step guide
Step 1: Collect all your current tasks in one place.
Imagine you are a hotel receptionist, and your main duty is to check in guests. Suddenly, a guest asks you to print out documents, but the printer refuses to work. Meanwhile, a queue of five people is slowly forming, and stress starts building up.
In this situation, the best solution is to call a sysadmin. Knowing that fixing the printer is not your job helps you focus on your main tasks. This can reduce stress and keep your job performance strong. If you have no idea how the printer works, trying to fix it will only waste time and add to your frustration.
A clear list of your daily tasks helps you delegate non-essential work. This reduces pressure and manages anxiety at work. Recognizing which responsibilities are truly yours helps you stay productive and handle anxiety at work more effectively.
Step 2: Set a priority for each task
In life, there are moments when we demonstrate a keen ability to prioritize. We understand the significance of certain tasks at specific times.
For instance, picture yourself preparing to depart for a crucial meeting. A coworker urgently requests you to review a document. Even though the request seems urgent, you know that going to your meeting is more important. You can review the document later.
In the same way, if an accountant keeps asking for something, you may see that it is not urgent. You can get it from the right person a week later. In that moment, you realize that other tasks need your attention. It is best to handle them first.
This skill helps you judge what is urgent and important. It can reduce workplace anxiety and improve job performance. This way, you can focus on what really matters and avoid unnecessary stress.
Step 3: Plan tasks across the week.
Many people fall into the trap of overestimating their abilities and poorly planning their future tasks. This often happens because they lack a clear, organized view of their workload. Without seeing the big picture, it’s easy to assume that everything can be done quickly. However, after just a few days, this unrealistic approach leads to workplace anxiety, constant stress, and a feeling of being overwhelmed.
This is why Step 1—gathering all your tasks in one place—is so important. Having a complete overview allows you to plan more effectively and avoid unnecessary pressure.
At this stage, a powerful tool like Voiset becomes indispensable. With its auto scheduling features and the ability to visualize your workload over a week or month, you get a clear picture of your schedule in one place. This helps you distribute tasks more evenly, ensuring a balanced workload based on priority rather than guesswork.
Step 4: Boost Your Energy
Here’s the answer to the question, “How does task management boost energy?”—it does so many times over. When you have a clear and achievable plan, you feel calmer and more in control. Instead of stressing over impossible deadlines and feeling anxious, you can enjoy a balanced schedule. This lets you finish everything efficiently.
Our brain releases dopamine—the “feel-good” chemical—when we complete tasks. The more small tasks you finish, the more dopamine boosts you get, making you feel motivated and energized.
Structuring your day with small, achievable tasks is easy. You will make progress toward your goals step by step. For example, you might think you can finish a set of tasks in three days. With good planning, you see that a more realistic timeframe is five days. This helps ensure better quality and less stress. The truth is, you likely wouldn’t have finished everything in three days anyway—or if you did, it would have come at the cost of exhaustion and anxious.
By breaking work into manageable steps and completing tasks consistently, you overcome job anxiety and stay in a constant state of achievement. The feeling of progress will keep you motivated and prevent burnout, making your work feel much more rewarding.
Prioritizing tasks to stop work anxiety
There are 3 benefits of effective task prioritization:
1. Fewer distractions from non-priority tasks – Prioritization helps you stay focused, even when tempted to check messages or respond to unexpected requests that aren’t truly important. It also helps when something you don't consider important suddenly comes up;
2. Timely completion of urgent tasks – With a structured approach, you ensure that all urgent and high-impact tasks are completed on time and with high quality. This prevents last-minute stress and rushed work.
3. Increase productivity. You no longer need to perform the entire volume of diverse tasks: you do exactly those that are necessary today. For tomorrow - new urgent tasks, etc.
To understand that a task is a high priority, assess the importance of its completion as well as the deadlines. The best way to do this is with the Eisenhower Matrix, which we described in this article (Time Management: Basic Strategies and Tools to Increase Productivity). The most urgent and important things need your immediate attention, all others can wait.
Optimization of breaks and downtimes
Many new employees believe that skipping breaks will help them get more work done. However, this habit often leads to burnout, reduced focus, and lower productivity.
Anxiety builds up when the brain doesn't get a chance to reset, making even simple tasks feel overwhelming. Understanding how anxiety affects work performance is key to avoiding this trap.
Our bodies and minds are not designed to function without rest, and ignoring this fact only increases secondary anxiety about work, making it harder to stay efficient.
Taking regular breaks is not a sign of laziness—it’s a sign of professionalism and self-awareness. Those who know how to manage their energy levels perform better and experience less stress.
How to manage forced downtime effectively
What about unexpected gaps in your schedule when you have no urgent tasks? These periods, if used correctly, can help reduce anxiety at work and prevent the feeling of wasted time. Forced downtime is the perfect opportunity to complete tasks that are not urgent but still important.
For example:
- Freelancers can organize invoices or complete tax returns.
- Designers can update their portfolios.
- Managers can review reports or refine internal workflows.
By using planned breaks and downtime wisely, you can combat anxiety at work, prevent burnout, and stay productive without overwhelming yourself.
Choosing the best AI task management tool to reduce anxiety
There are many planners available, but one stands out—Voiset, an AI-powered task manager designed to help you stay organized and stress-free.
Why is Voiset the task management tool you've been looking for?
1. Manage both personal and work tasks in one place
Create a balanced schedule that includes both personal and professional responsibilities, ensuring you never miss anything important.
2. Collaborate easily with Colleagues and Clients
Share workspaces effortlessly by sending a link and password (if needed) to grant access.
3. Get a clear overview of your workload
The calendar displays tasks from different workspaces in parallel, helping you visualize your schedule and distribute tasks efficiently.
4. Hold meetings within the app
Seamless integration with Zoom and Google Meet allows you to schedule and join meetings directly from Voiset.
5. Unsure which task to do next? Voiset will helps You
The AI analyzes your schedule and suggests the most logical order for completing tasks, ensuring efficiency and smooth workflow.
6. Prefer speaking over typing? Voiset listens
Instead of just recording a voice message, Voiset transcribes it into text, creates a note, and even asks if you’d like to turn it into a task. If so, it automatically selects the best day and time for it in your schedule.
7. Taking on too much? Voiset has your back
If your day is already packed, Voiset will warn you and suggest moving new tasks to a better-suited time slot, ensuring a balanced workload.
With Voiset, you don’t just manage tasks—you optimize your time, reduce stress, and stay in control
