Oct. 22, 2023, Post by Curtis
The best technique for reducing the stress of a Help Desk job is to get really good at the job. Doing something that you are good at is actually fun and learning the skills that will make you a better Help Desk Technician will also help you move into a better position. There are a few other key techniques to reduce your stress and learning these skills will make you healthier and more capable.
Take notes about everything. At the Help Desk you see a wide variety of problems. You might see a problem today and then not see it again for months. Don't think that you are just going to remember how you solved it the first time.
Having a checklist of general problem-solving procedures will help you keep the ball rolling when you get stuck. It will also help you make sure that you haven't forgotten to check all of the basics (did you reboot?).
Keep a list of not only who on your team has expertise in which area, but try to get to know what everyone in the IT Department's specialties are.
Knowing when to ask for help and asking just the right person will help you close tickets quickly.
Keep quick references on paper, on the wall, or a corkboard next to your desk. Put on it things that you refer to often like phone numbers and your list of what your teammate's specialized knowledge is. This will make your life easier by not having to open windows on your computer for these. I'm sure you have too many windows open already.
The best way to gain technical knowledge is to lab. Learning by doing is the most effective way to learn. Use either GNS3 or EVE-NG and build a virtual network with an Active Directory domain. You can practice pretty much anything in this environment like group policy, DHCP, DNS, routing and switching, and pretty much anything else.
It's one thing to be good at solving problems, but even better is solving problems under pressure. Learning techniques that help you get comfortable in stressful situations will make you a much more valuable team member.
While it's great to learn all the skills that make you good under pressure, the fact is that lots of stress is just bad for your health. It is great to put yourself in uncomfortable situations for the sake of personal growth, but you need to learn to face challenges without getting stressed out. If you find that you are stressed out all the time, you need to focus on ways to bring your stress down.
There is a physical component to stress and anxiety. An unhealthy body creates stress and anxiety and a healthy body diminishes it.
Being healthy just makes everything you do so much easier. If you take your career seriously but neglect your health, you are missing out on an easy way to make gains in your career.
Let the fact that your job is hard be the excuse you need to prioritize your health, instead of an excuse to ignore it.
Just think about how hard your days are when you don't get enough sleep. That should show you just how precious sleep is and that it is vital to good health.
We are all strapped for time, and we try to get more time by cutting into our sleep time. You are better off increasing the quality of your time by being well-rested than having more time when you are tired and miserable.
Exercise brings anxiety down. It also helps with mental clarity and improves your sleep.
When I'm having trouble finding the motivation to start my workout in the morning before going to work, I tell myself that this will make the rest of my day easier, which it does.
Eating junk food will diminish your mental clarity, make your energy crash, and increase your anxiety. Most all food is delirious so look for ways to enjoy healthy foods.
I know it's hard to change bad habits, but if it wasn't hard, it wouldn't be so rewarding when you do it. Discipline is the single greatest skill in life, and these are opportunities to develop it.
Staring at a computer screen for 8 hours straight will decrease your effectiveness. Taking breaks will make you more productive overall and is also much healthier.
Taking shorter breaks more often works best for me. A long break makes it hard for me to get back into work mode and I think it is good to look away from the screen as often as possible. I try to take a 5-minute break every hour.
The Pomodoro Technique for taking breaks is very popular.
With the right attitude, Help Desk really is an easy job. The trouble is, when work starts piling up, it's easy to forget. You need to remind yourself of these things when you find yourself taking your job too seriously.
This article may sound like it was written by a motivational speaker, but I really struggled at my first Help Desk job for over a year. I started with 0 experience and very little technical skill and was in way over my head. There were more than a few times that I wanted to crawl under my desk and cry.
These are the things that I did and still do in my current Jr. Network Admin role. I still have hard days, but I am now quick to put my work problems in perspective and not let them bring me down (for the most part), and now am more likely to see myself as being fortunate to have challenges.