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Work is hard, especially when you're having a long day. Even when you love your job, sometimes your job doesn't love you. It's even harder when that stress gets in the way of your personal life and starts affecting the people around you. Have a look at these five things you can do to manage stress during a hard day's work:

1. Talk to someone

Most likely the obvious, yet hardest, choice is talk to someone before that stress starts turning into anger. If you feel comfortable and want to keep that stress within your workplace, talk to a manager or close colleague, see if there's a counselling service available for anonymity where you can talk through your emotions and get advice from people who may've been through or seen this stress before.

2. Be creative

If you feel like being alone and don't want to talk to anyone about what you're feeling, then be creative instead. This can come in the form of a novel, poem, song, a drawing, photo, film, any artform that could help you describe your feelings. It doesn't have to be great and no one has to see it, and this is something completely free using items you already have in your own home.

3. Partake in a hobby

Do you have time to do something you love? Maybe your hobby is chatting to people on a night out while having drinks in bar, doing something creative, having a spa day that's only for yourself, or maybe it's something else. Try not to ignore your feelings, instead, take out those feelings on your hobby. For example, if you like golfing, you don't need to go to a golf course if this isn't suitable, because you can buy a mini golf course for your backyard. When you're hitting the ball, think about your emotions. What does that hit mean? What are you stressed about?

4. Remember to breathe

Sometimes you just don't have time to take care of yourself, and while it might be your goal, you can work on it in little steps. Whether you're walking to the shops, driving home, spending time with your family and friends, or even before doing a hard task at work, breathe in and out as many times as you need before moving onto your next step, your next thought. Take in your surroundings and think about how lucky you are to have the things that you do. What can you see? What can you smell? What are you grateful for today?

5. Use an app

The power of technology is scary, but there's also something great about it too. Everyone has stress, but the majority don't know how to cope with it. You're not alone. People in your position have used technology to create apps to help you change and manage your thought process. Everything is a task, but try looking forward to it. For example, I use Mindset by Dive Studios, which is an app available on smartphones that helps you go through different scenarios to cover every thought, feeling and emotion you have, such as meditation videos, morning boosters, evening wind downs, familiar questions to answer, emojis and more. If this doesn't suit you, there are many other apps that not only support you, but track your mood so you can see how much you've progressed. You can even reflect back on specific things if you ever forget how to manage your stress.

Deanna (or "Nana Barratt") is an MA Creative and Media Enterprises graduate from the University of Warwick. She previously studied Popular Music, but decided to take a different career path into writing. She now writes about music, the TV and film industry, and East-Asian culture, and gives student advice and lifestyle tips.