There are a number of ways to minimize stress, but if you're deep in an ambitious career, building a company, or just trying to keep up with a workload that never quite empties, the honest truth is this: you probably needed these strategies a while ago.
At Girlboss, we hear from ambitious women about burnout more than almost any other topic — and the data backs it up. Employee burnout mentions are up 44% from pre-pandemic levels. Nearly half of workers report being often or always exhausted due to work.
Time is the one thing you can't get back, so however you start to reduce stress, it has to be quick, effective, and impactful. Here are three strategies you can implement today.
Stop Glorifying the Hustle, Then Go Deeper Than That
We've been saying "stop glorifying the hustle" for years now. The culture has largely heard it. And yet burnout rates keep rising. Which means the problem was never just a mindset issue; it's structural.
Employer expectations, always-on technology, economic pressure, and the absence of federal protections around overwork all play a role that no amount of individual attitude adjustment can fully fix.
But here's what is in your control: what you tell yourself, and what you tell your team. If you're using "it's just the hustle" as a socially acceptable justification for unhealthy working habits — the crazy hours, the lack of downtime, the complete absence of self-care — let that stop today. Hustle is focused, meaningful, and mission-driven. It comes with balance and care, not imbalance and disregard.
The more we glorify these elements by throwing "it's just the hustle" at warning signs of fatigue, the worse we make it for ourselves, our teams, and our industry.
Look at what you tell yourself. Are you using hustle to justify unhealthy habits? Ask your team, and if you get responses you don't like, do something about it. Set healthy boundaries that encourage balance, downtime, and actual time off. This honest piece on whether constantly talking about burnout is making us more burned out is worth reading alongside this one — it names the systemic piece that individual strategies alone can't solve.
Feel, You're Allowed To
This is a big one. You are allowed to feel. Feelings are not good or bad; they just are. Just like data, it's not the data that is good or bad; it's what is done with it that characterizes its traits. The biggest cause of self-doubt, uncertainty, and stress comes when we deny how we feel, because we believe we shouldn't feel that way.
We shame ourselves in an internal conversation no one else can hear. We tell ourselves those emotions are stupid or foolish. We make ourselves a failure in a false test where there is no grade.
Here's what to actually do with that: name it. Research by neuroscientist Lisa Feldman Barrett and others consistently shows that labeling an emotion — even just saying to yourself "this is anxiety" or "I feel overwhelmed" — reduces its intensity. You're not indulging the feeling; you're processing it so it doesn't process you. Emotions are tunnels: if you go all the way through them, you get to the other side. If you stuff them, they compound.
Practically: when stress spikes, pause for 60 seconds. Name what you're feeling. Ask whether the source is something within your control right now. If it's not, note it and return to the task at hand. If it is, decide on one small action. That's it. You don't need a therapy session every time, just a moment of honest acknowledgment.
And if the feelings are consistent and hard to manage alone, this guide on talking to your boss about burnout gives you the specific language to make that conversation productive rather than terrifying.
Move, Sleep, Eat, Repeat
This is going to sound basic, but getting enough exercise, sleep, and eating well all significantly decrease stress and increase productivity and overall health. Here's why each one matters.
Moving More
Increasing oxygen to the brain via movement and exercise helps with executive functioning and emotional regulation, making it easier to manage stress responses. Walking — and any exercise — also releases endorphins, which improve the brain's prioritizing functions.
After exercise, even a light walk, you are more focused, less distracted, and more productive. Regular movement ends up saving you time in the long run. Three sessions of 30 minutes per week is the minimum threshold where research consistently shows meaningful stress reduction.
Sleeping More
Seven to nine hours of sleep a night is non-negotiable for a healthy mind and body. Sleep is restorative, processing, and repairing time for your brain, and your brain is incredibly active during this time, sometimes more than when you're awake.
Sleep is not the absence of work. It is the work that makes tomorrow's work possible. Investing in more sleep is investing in tomorrow's output. If you're consistently sacrificing sleep to get more done, the math doesn't work; cognitive function degrades significantly after six hours, and the productivity you think you're gaining evaporates.
Eating Well
Eating whole foods with a low Glycemic Index (GI) — wholegrains, proteins, and low-fat dairy — helps combat stress and keeps you more even-tempered throughout the day. High-GI foods including sugar, alcohol, caffeine, chocolate, foods with additives, and foods high in saturated fat actively increase the feeling of stress, even when the external stressor hasn't changed.
Avoiding these in high-pressure periods and replacing them with low-GI options is a quick, practical lever. Food is the fuel that allows you to perform.
If you don't have your health, you don't have anything. Seriously — nothing works if your body and mind break down. Chronic stress can have serious long-term health consequences regardless of age. So it's best to start preventing it before you're in crisis. And if you're already there, these early warning signs of burnout are worth reading to understand where on the spectrum you actually are.
Your four-week commitment:
- Get 30 minutes of any exercise three times a week
- Sleep for seven to nine hours a night
- Eat more whole foods that are low-GI and reduce your intake of high-GI foods
If you can do even one of these three things consistently, you will feel more energized and less stressed. We're never going to eliminate all the stress of working ambitiously — nor should we.
Managed well, stress brings focus, commitment, and motivation. What we need is a healthier, more sustainable approach to talking about it and dealing with it. And if the structural piece — the workload, the hours, the expectations — feels like the real problem rather than your individual habits, this HBR research on why teams overwork explains why individual fixes have limits and what organizations need to do differently.
Stop glorifying the hustle. Start glorifying your health, the one thing you actually can't do any of this without. If you're thinking about structural changes to how you work, one woman's story of negotiating a four-day workweek is a useful read on what's actually possible.
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