Could writing exercises help fight stress?

A new study suggests that stressed workers could improve their problem-solving skills by writing a note about something important to them at the start of each day. Researchers found that taking time out to write a brief essay on the importance of friends and family, for example, can offset the harmful effects of chronic stress on our ability to finish tasks. The study found that highly stressed individuals performed nearly 50 percent worse on a problem-solving test than low-stressed people – however, their scores caught up after completing a writing exercise. The simple task could help consistently stressed workers improve their creativity and insight, British newspaper The Daily Telegraph reports. Researchers added that writing could also boost the performance of underachieving students in school. Writing in the Public Library of Science ONE journal, the psychologists from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh said the activity could "buffer the negative effects of chronic stress on task performance".