For a lot of people, some measure of stress is needed to sharpen their focus and help them deliver their best at work just like some heat helps in purifying gold ore to get the real thing. Remember how you would stay in your pajamas, without bothering with a bath or grooming, on a day you have absolutely nothing planned and no particular goal to achieve? Having no demands made on you at work will make you nothing short of a mediocre worker since there is nothing to prove.

But while a little stress may spur you into giving your best, excessive stress will affect your productivity and job performance. It may also take a toll on your personal life, physical health, and emotional wellbeing. Once you start dreading the bleeping of your alarm in the morning or wishing your train ride to work would extend some more, the stress is probably becoming too much for you.

According to the US National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, job stress is the ''harmful physical and emotional responses that occur when the requirements of a job do not match the capabilities, resources, or needs of the worker''.

While you may not have the luxury of leaving a job that stresses you for another, you can take steps to reduce your stress levels.

More from this book:

-Ways to deal with negative people

-Pressure management techniques in the workplace

-How to work less and boost productivity

-Managing workplace induced stress

-Productive stress management techniques