I'm not in IT, but molecular biology is a field where experiments constantly go wrong on a regular basis and you feel like nothing you're doing is any good (well, you do if you're an insecure perfectionist like me...). So what I do is this:
1) Go home. Go straight to home. Do not "just finish something off". Do collect $200, if available, but hell, if that happens, you won't really need stress-relief...
2) Do not think about work. You'll only wind yourself up again.
3) Drink at least one bottle of wine (sweet or medium white, not red), eat some good food and watch a movie/comedy show you know makes you laugh.
4) Turn in early (ensure you aren't going to be hungover from the wine) and get a good night's sleep.
Now, if you successfully avoided thinking about work, you should wake up feeling much better in the morning (unless you're highly weight-conscious, 'cos that wine'll blow your diet!). The sugar in the wine always leaves me feeling bouncy the next day and the emotional release from the booze/laughing at the video will have relieved some tension. Also, the alcohol should have relaxed any tenseness between the shoulders (that's where stress gets me, all the time - of course, if you have a partner - backrubs!!).
Obviously, don't do this too often or you'll end up with a drink problem but I find it does relax me. Use the energy and buzz from the wine as you head to work the next morning to plan your day. I've found I generally create more problems than I solve if I make plans whilst still panicked about something. I've run completely pointless experiments to check out the one that just failed when I should have just set the thing up again with a different control.
So, basically, if you get stressed because the glass always seems half-empty, top it back up with something cheerful and mildly alcoholic!
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