Six Ways To Destress After Work

According to a recent study, nearly 40% of Americans say their stress has peaked in 2025. There are many potential reasons for this, from financial difficulties to workplace struggles. However, finding effective ways to manage stress moving forward is crucial. Otherwise, it can begin to have a long-term impact on your mental and physical health.

For example, a report from Harvard University found that “chronic stress contributes to high blood pressure, promotes the formation of artery-clogging deposits, and contributes to anxiety, depression, and addiction.” 
As such, you should make it a priority to find effective ways to manage stress and anxiety in all areas of your life. It is particularly important that you’re able to do so after a busy day at work, when your cortisol (stress hormone) levels are at their highest.

With that in mind, here are some top tips for destressing after work! 

Don’t bring work home with you. One of the easiest ways in which you can make sure that you’re properly destressing after work is to stop bringing it home with you. Clock out when you’re supposed to, and don’t check your emails or respond to calls after this time. Otherwise, you’re cultivating a poor work-life balance that will only lead to trouble in the future.

Play online games. While it may have been a little while since you last played a game online, you’d be surprised at just how useful they are when it comes to lowering your stress levels. This is because it provides you with a sense of escapism, while also distracting you from whatever is causing you to feel stressed in the first place. As such, playing games such as Minesweeper can be a real game changer (pardon the pun)! 

Read something interesting. Whether you prefer non-fiction or fiction, reading in the evening can also be a great way to destress. In fact, a recent study found that “reading as little as six minutes a day can reduce stress levels by 60% by reducing your heart rate, easing muscle tension and altering your state of mind.” Again, this can likely be attributed to the fact that it provides you with a sense of escapism. 

Furthermore, reading does not have to be an expensive hobby. You can join your local library to gain access to hundreds of books, and some libraries even allow you to download digital copies of books onto your Kindle, phone and tablet. 

Spend time in the kitchen. Spending some time in the kitchen, cooking or baking, can also help to lower your stress after work. This is because it gives you something else to focus your time and energy on, and it’s hard to worry about work when you’re trying to follow a recipe. This is also a great way to reduce your dependency on your local takeouts or fast food, especially if you challenge yourself to try out new recipes each week. 

This allows you to be more intentional in the way in which you fuel your body, which could also help when it comes to lowering stress and anxiety.

Go for a walk. If you’re finding it hard to shut off after a busy day at work, try going for a quick walk. This is because getting your body up and moving can be a great way to alleviate stress and anxiety, as it helps to slow down your body’s production of cortisol. It also gives you time to work through complicated feelings and emotions in a space where you will not feel too overwhelmed.

Finally, going for a walk each evening means that you’re able to get as much fresh air as possible, which can also do wonders for your mental health. 

Talk to someone you love. Talking to or spending time with people that you love can also prove to be incredibly useful when it comes to managing or lowering your stress. Again, there are many reasons for this. Firstly, it gives you the chance to talk about your feelings (or vent), which can leave you feeling much less alone. In some cases, the person you are speaking to will be able to provide you with a practical solution to your problem, meaning that you can leave that kind of stress behind for good. 

In additon to this, various studies have found that individuals who spend a lot of time with their friends and family tend to report lower levels of stress than those who do not make time in their routine for socializing. Remember, if you do not have time to meet in person, you’ll receive similar benefits from simply picking up the phone! 

If you’ve been dealing with chronic stress for some time now, then you may also want to consider opening up to a mental health professional who will be able to provide you with further guidance and support. While this may be the very last thing you want to do, especially if you find it hard to talk to those around you about how you are feeling, this is something that will benefit you in the long run. After all, not only will it provide you with a safe space to talk, but it also means that you can develop effective stress management strategies that you can use on a daily basis, both inside and outside of work. 

Final thoughts. If you feel as though your stress levels are constantly climbing, you aren’t alone. In fact, the majority of Americans agree that their stress has risen considerably over the past few years, with many finding it hard to wind down after work and enjoy their free time.

Fortunately, there are plenty of steps that you can take to destress after work, so that you return the next day feeling refreshed and recharged. This includes playing online games, talking candidly about how you are feeling, and going for a walk each evening.

Do you think we missed any important stress management strategies from this list? Leave them in the comments below!