Why You’re Feeling Less Productive: The Stress Slump

Why stress saps your focus and motivation, and practical ways to feel more in control.

We’ve grown accustomed to looking at the future and what we’ll do when this pandemic ends. But now that we’re almost there, how can we keep motivation and spirits high in the final hurdle.

If you find yourself less enthused about work, easily distracted, and can’t make decisions – it usually comes down to stress.

Right now, we’re being pulled from many different angles. Juggling between working from home, caring for our families, and keeping ourselves healthy is no easy task. On top of this, we have to deal with the state of the world, the constant doom scrolling, and the hard-hitting daily news.

It all gets a bit much. But there are ways to help you cope.

How stress affects focus and productivity

When you’re under stress, your body stays geared up for a “fight or flight” response even though there’s no physical threat to run from — and that emotional intensity clouds clear thinking, according to NHS guidance. Feeling like you have no control over a situation makes this worse, which is exactly the stuck, unproductive feeling many people experience under sustained pressure.

Signs stress is behind your productivity slump

The Health and Safety Executive highlights several changes worth noticing in yourself or others, including:

Loss of motivation, commitment or confidence
Decreased performance, or work taking noticeably longer than usual
Increased emotional reactions — feeling more irritable, tearful or on edge than usual
Changes in habits, such as arriving late, taking more time off, or withdrawing from colleagues
Keep a consistent wind-down routine, even on days when motivation is low
Build in short, regular breaks away from screens throughout the day
Protect a fixed amount of personal time each week for something you enjoy, not just chores

See HSE guidance on the signs of work-related stress for the fuller list.

1. Stop blaming yourself

While we all have our own roles and responsibilities in life, there is only so much we can do right now.

If you find you’re less productive, give yourself some slack. When this pandemic started, most people believed things would get back to normal in a handful of weeks. Now that it’s been a year, mentally, it’s taking a toll.

You’re probably dealing with a lot more than you think right now. This is why you should feel comfortable with taking a break and switching off. Whether that be booking a day of annual leave or asking for help with a task you’ve struggled with – make sure you’re being kind to yourself.

Practical ways to manage workload-related stress

Alongside being kinder to yourself, a few small changes to how you work can take real pressure off. The NHS recommends:

Prioritise: put your energy into the few tasks that matter most, rather than spreading it thinly across everything at once
Break tasks down: a large, vague task feels more overwhelming than a series of small, specific steps
Take real breaks: stepping away, even briefly, helps you return with a clearer head rather than pushing through fatigue
Talk to someone: sharing what’s on your plate with a manager, colleague or friend often surfaces options you can’t see on your own

2. Accept what’s out of your control

One of the biggest causes of stress and anxiety is worrying about things we can’t control. When things feel out of control in our minds, it’s hard to stop worrying about them. This is a natural, biological response to stress – it’s our bodies trying to protect us by figuring out the best way to cope.

While it was useful back in the stone age, our fight and flight mode just means we struggle to concentrate on the facts.

Try reframing your thinking. Is this worry or concern something I can control? Why does this cause me to feel this way? Is there credible evidence behind my negative thoughts? Is there evidence against the worst happening?

You can try acknowledging negative or anxious thoughts by writing them down. It can help you view your concerns from another perspective.

3. Check-in with your body

Exercising at home is difficult. There’s no denying that. Especially for those who don’t have space to move around or are confined to their rooms. Motivation to exercise can go out the window when you are doing it alone.

But the more you move, the better you feel. And sometimes, it’s about the little things we do with our bodies throughout the day to help us feel better.

If you’re struggling to exercise, try simple things like deep stretches, and deep belly breathing. Deep breathing exercises can help bring your heart rate down and put you in a state of calm. Perfect to slow things down when you’re feeling overwhelmed.

Building a sustainable daily routine

Movement and rest work together: alongside gentle exercise, protecting your sleep and giving yourself proper downtime away from screens both help your body recover from stress rather than stay switched on. If sleep itself is part of the problem, our sleep top tips guide covers building a consistent routine, winding down before bed and when disrupted sleep is worth raising with a GP.

4. Know when to get help

It’s okay to ask for professional help. If you’re stuck in thought patterns that you can’t get out of, feeling stressed and anxious for no particular reason – reach out to someone.

If low motivation, exhaustion and feeling detached from your work have been building for a while rather than just a bad week, it may be worth thinking about burnout — the World Health Organization describes this as resulting from chronic workplace stress that hasn’t been successfully managed, and defines it by three features: feeling drained of energy, growing mental distance from your work, and reduced effectiveness. Read more from the WHO. A GP or one of our Advanced Clinical Practitioners can help you work out what’s driving it and what support fits, including talking therapies.

DCA has many different options for people worried about health issues or struggling with how they’re feeling. We have tools to help you manage all aspects of your health and wellbeing in the best way possible. You can book an appointment with one of our GPs or Mental Health Practitioners (MHPs) - 34/7, 365 days a year.

For a fuller look at stress — its causes, symptoms and the full range of management options — see our stress hub.

Step away from your desk for a few minutes, breathe slowly and deliberately, and pick one small, specific next task rather than trying to tackle everything at once. Small resets like this, repeated through the day, often help more than pushing through in one long stretch.

A persistent lack of motivation or focus is very often a stress response rather than a character flaw — sustained stress keeps your body geared up for “fight or flight”, which makes clear thinking and sustained concentration genuinely harder. See the sections above on how stress affects focus and the signs it may be behind your slump.

Yes. Stress narrows and speeds up your thinking towards short-term threats, which is unhelpful for the sustained, calm attention that focused work needs — this is why concentration, memory and decision-making often suffer first when stress builds up.

It varies — a slump tied to a specific stressful period often eases once the pressure lifts or you put some of the coping strategies above into practice, typically within a few weeks. If it’s lasted more than two or three months, or is affecting your sleep, mood or relationships, it’s worth speaking to a GP.

Yes — catching a mild viral illness every month or two over winter is common, especially if you’re around young children, in a shared household, or in a busy workplace. It’s worth seeing a GP if you’re unwell for a large part of most months, if the same symptoms keep lingering beyond the usual week or two, or if you develop new red-flag symptoms — see “When to seek in person Medical Advice” above.

Why You’re Feeling Less Productive: The Stress Slump

How stress affects focus and productivity