Chronic, unmanaged stress makes it harder to concentrate, remember things and make good decisions. The evidence doesn't back the old claim that a stressful day lowers your IQ, but it does show that sustained stress wears down working memory and focus over time. Feeling busy is not the same as being productive, and pushing through a fight-or-flight state for weeks on end tends to end in burnout rather than results. Here are three tips for finding calm and staying focused through your working day.
Three Tips for Finding Calm
Tip 1: Externalise Your Thoughts
Your brain isn't built to store a vast amount of information at once. Short-term memory is generally reckoned to hold around seven to nine items at a time, and most people are trying to track far more than that before the day has even started. This overloading is a common source of stress and that overwhelmed feeling, and it's a pattern that neuroscientist and behaviour-change expert Tali Sharot covers in her PepTalk sessions on how the brain handles overload and uncertainty. The fix is simple in principle: get the thoughts out of your head and onto paper. Build to-do lists, use a calendar to schedule the work, and create a system you trust, so your brain can relax knowing everything is tracked somewhere other than your memory.
Tip 2: Cultivate Calm
Calm is a skill, not a personality trait, and it takes deliberate practice to build. Experiment to find what actually settles your mind: meditation, yoga, breath work, or something more physical like pottery, tai chi, cooking or gardening. GP and author Dr Rangan Chatterjee, host of the Feel Better, Live More podcast, has built much of his work around exactly this idea, that small, repeatable daily habits do more for long-term calm than any single big gesture. Find the practice that works for you and stick with it, rather than chasing whatever's trending this month.
Tip 3: Take Time Out
When you notice yourself getting overwhelmed, stop and deal with the stress rather than pushing through it. Working while stretched thin doesn't make you more productive, it just makes the work take longer and the mistakes more likely. Find what genuinely calms your nervous system: a walk, a conversation with someone you trust, breathing exercises, EFT tapping, or simply moving your body. Exercise is a good option if you have time for it, and time outdoors helps most people reset faster than staying at a desk trying to power through.
Once you're feeling calmer, look at what's actually causing the stress and look for a practical fix. Do you need to ask for help? Should you get the thoughts out of your head and onto paper? Does a deadline need to move? Sometimes the real fix is a structural one, a process or a decision, rather than a habit, and that's where strategists like Rita McGrath, who studies how leaders make decisions under uncertainty, tend to add the most value in a team session. Naming the cause and addressing it directly stops stress from building further, and the more you practise staying calm and focused, the more that becomes your default rather than the exception.
Bringing This Into Your Team's Calendar
These ideas work best when they're more than a one-off read. PepTalk's stress management speakers cover this territory in a range of formats: a conference keynote to open a wider wellbeing conversation, a hands-on workshop where teams build their own calm-and-focus systems together, or a shorter PepTalk Live session for a single team. Chatterjee, Sharot and McGrath each bring a different angle, practical health habits, the neuroscience of overload, and decision-making under pressure, so the right fit depends on what your team actually needs.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I book a speaker on stress and calm for my team?
Get in touch with the PepTalk team with your event date, audience size and the outcome you want, and we'll shortlist speakers and formats to match, then handle the booking end to end.
What's the difference between a keynote and a workshop on this topic?
A keynote sets the tone and gets a room thinking differently in 30 to 45 minutes. A workshop runs longer and asks the audience to actually build something, a system, a habit, a plan, before they leave the room.
How much does it cost to book a wellbeing speaker?
Fees vary by speaker and format. In-person sessions with PepTalk typically start from $2,000, and we'll always confirm an exact quote once we know the brief.
At PepTalk, we harness the power of human intelligence to inspire and transform your people, insights, and events. Whether you're looking for expert speakers, tailored learning experiences, or unforgettable corporate events, our team is here to help. Get in touch with us today to find out more.
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