Stress in the workplace often comes as a need for everything to be done immediately.  For instance, your boss has given you a dozen things to do and they are all important.  The problem arises when the workload exceeds the time available.  In addition to the workload, someone is always asking for something you completed days ago or your boss is coming to you with more to do.  It looks like it will never end but you can manage it.

The first step in avoiding the stress is to focus on one task at a time.  Don’t try to multi-task as that will lead to failure impacting your system.  Changing focus between projects takes its toll on your brain as it takes time to change your thoughts from one project to the next.  Maintaining focus on one project until completion conserves your energy and thoughts instead of spreading them among various tasks.

One of the biggest distractions is your coworkers.  Someone is invariably asking for your opinion or time to help them with their projects.  If possible, fend off these time wasters to prevent loss of focus.  Learning to say “no” can prevent distractions.  “No” can be highly effective though it may be better to say “No, not right now”, or “After I am done with this”.  This will give you time to complete what you are doing.  And by the time you finish, the coworker may have found a solution of their own, but if not, then you can easily help them.

At times, your concentration may just run out and this can cause all types of difficulties.  You may find yourself rereading the same paragraph several times or staring at the same thing on the computer and still not know what you are reading.  This means you are not being effective, your brain is shutting down yet the deadline is coming closer and closer and you must complete the project.  At this point it is time to disengage.  Get a drink, go to the bathroom, take a short walk, anything to clear your mind.  When you do this, you are making sure you are working effectively and reducing stress to low levels.

Learn some desk exercises to reduce stress.  Pick up a spongy ball and squeeze it or do some stretches while at your desk.  Working your muscles improves circulation and helps keep you alert and aware.  Of course, you aren’t going to do a full body workout while sitting at your desk, but a little exercise can help to keep your mind focused.

Finally, take a look at your office to ensure it is comfortable for you.  Are there a lot of distractions?  Too much noise?  Is your desk the correct height?  Is everything ergonomically proper?  Are you comfortable?  In order to work effectively, you must be comfortable in order to avoid more stress.  So, your office must be set up correctly for you.  Addressing the little things in your office allows you to work more effectively, consistently and confidently.

Stress in the workplace cannot be avoided.  But, proper management can minimize the stress.  When the stress is managed properly, work becomes more enjoyable and you end up being more productive.  Taking care of yourself and your work environment first prevents stress from controlling you.

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Since dealing with stressful situations also has an affect on the way your body utilizes what you have recently eaten it is important to know what may be affected most.  Some vitamins like Vitamin C are required to maintain your energy level and prevent you from becoming listless and tired.  Stress also weakens your immune system to some extent.

Because stress causes the body to go into the fight or flight mode, blood is routed away from functions not necessary to assist in fight or flight.  Your heart rate also increases during these times.  This causes your blood pressure to rise as more blood is pumped around your body to provide oxygen to the muscles.

What are some foods/substances that may not help in dealing with stress?  Anything containing caffeine or large amounts of sugar may give an immediate boost but over the long term they have a negative affect.  During stressful times it may be better to take vitamins and minerals and drink non-caffeinated beverages instead of eating sweets or drinking high-caloric drinks.

Some of the best sources of beneficial minerals and vitamins are fruits and raw vegetables.  These can be kept handy with very little preparation and eaten when life becomes hectic.  Many fruits such as oranges, apples and melons are high in Vitamin C and some vegetables with high amounts of Vitamin C are spinach, green peppers, and tomatoes for example.  Of course carrots and leafy green vegetables are good sources of other nutrients.

If you want to lower your blood pressure during stressful times, some foods that will thin your blood are garlic, onion, cinnamon and peppermint.

Avoiding coffee and sweets will help deal with stress as these do not contain vital nutrients and may give a false impression they are helping to deal with the situation.

By eating healthy you can keep up your energy level for dealing with stress and fatigue.  Once you are eating properly, your energy level will increase and you will maintain the ability to deal with stress more effectively.

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We may be eating the wrong foods to be losing weight, or we may be eating too much to lose the weight we want to.  Once again, if we are stressing over our diet then we must begin to make choices about what is important.  After we decide what is important then we must act on our decision.

If we decide that we will no longer allow our lack of weight loss to control our life then we can figure out the cause of our distress.

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Make a list of what you are grateful for and read through it every day. Sometimes more than once. YOu will be amazed at how this changes your outlook on life. A list of gratitudes goes a long way in this life where it seems there is always something popping up to distract us.

Oh, don’t forget that no-one is perfect all the time so don’t beat yourself up if you neglect to do something you could have that might have made your life a little better. There is always tomorrow and if you beat yourself up over something you didn’t do today then you will just build more negative vibrations into your psyche.

Take time for yourself because you are all you have. Nobody else can take care of you like you must. The chores will still be there when you get back to them and it isn’t necessary to have everything just so even if your mother-in-law is coming to visit.

I just read that we should remember that we are human beings, not human doings which means we are in the process of being and can take time to rest and go fishing with our spouses or family. Constant doing is not good for the soul.

Thoughts rule our lives

Negative thinking is counterproductive, burning up a large amount of our time, slowing forward momentum, and draining our energy in the process. This is why we should all focus on positive outcomes with optimistic realism.

Successful people spend time thinking positive thoughts. You can too!

Visualize what your success would look like when that enormously challenging project is completed. Take a little time to visualze reaching each milestone and derive satisfaction from a job well done.

Each morning take a few minutes to visualize positive outcomes. You will be thrilled at the change in your thinking and behavior through the day.

Be grateful for how well you feel. Practice visualization and positive thoughts to enhance your results.

Pick Energizing Environments to stimulate yourself

Find an environment that supports your process. I have been told that successful people surround themselves with successful people and that my net worth is the average of the net worth of the five people with which I surround myself.

Stay away from those people and places that draw your energy down. Enhance your contact with people and places that uplift you and give you energy.

Allow yourself to re-charge in settings that energize you. Natural locations that relax and sooth you can help you re-charge your internal batteries.

Spend some time having fun with family, friends and colleagues. Some of these activities may seem silly but actually letting go can stimulate your energy and return your balance.

So don’t forget to be thankful, think positive thoughts and stimulate your batteries.

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Actually, there has been a lot of this going around recently and anyone who quits their job in this day and time had better have an oil well to sit under because jobs are scarcer than hens teeth.

Two people I know have been laid off this week and I’m sure it isn’t going to stop any time soon as the economy slows down even more.  The “work related stress” now becomes a different kind of stress - “finding work” stress.

I know, I’ve been there and it isn’t fun to be out looking for work wondering when you will be called for an interview and then after you go to the interview, wondering if you will be offered a position and at what salary.  Or once you find out about the position, having to tell the interviewer, no, you aren’t interested in their offer because you would have to drive too far or you really wouldn’t fit in the organization.  These kinds of decisions are painful to make as it really must be made clear as soon as recognized that there isn’t a fit.  Just don’t waste too much of your time or the interviewer’s time in these situations.

It may appear that taking any offer would be prudent, but consider the situation and decide if it would be better to hold off and look for a better offer from some other company.  Here you are playing the waiting game hoping to get a better offer with (possibly) none in sight.

Of course the alternative is to accept any offer fully intending to continue to seek other employment while working at the new position.  This could jeopardize your chances of getting an interview as many companies frown on job hopping so might not call you for an interview when they see you have only been employed at the new company for a short time.  The choice is yours to make…

During this time of unemployment the stress that has to be dealt with is different as now there are bills to be paid with no income.  This is stressful in itself and this stress must be managed properly.

There are more stress relieving techniques you can use if you happen to be laid off here.

I have a couple of different virus checking programs on various computers, some paid and some free but one never knows what each will find so sometimes it is a good idea to check each of them out.

As one of the free anti-virus programs keeps telling me that it was not going to be updated after a certain date in the near future, I decided to replace it with another free program.  While installing the new program on one computer I noticed that it did a real thorough scan for trojans and worms which my paid for anti-virus program apparently doesn’t catch.

I thought, if this program searches for trojans and worms maybe I should install it on all my computers in addition to what may already be there.  Let me tell you, there are various configurations or combinations of anti-virus programs you do not want to install on one computer.

This did not work out well for me as my computer completely locked up after installation and scanning, and I was not able to do anything short of power cycling the computer to regain control.  Needless to say, I immediately uninstalled the new program and spent the rest of the day trying to get everything cleared up on my other computers as well.

My point is that sometimes things beyond our control conspire to stress us out by making it impossible to do anything productive.  Who said computers would make our lives simpler?  I think in many cases they have led to more stress than anyone ever imagined.  Yes, they are time savers - when everything works, but they can also lead to a lot of wasted time.

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Once we become entranced, it is difficult to shake off and it often requires external feedback or some event to shake us up before we realize we have become entranced.  It may even take years before we believe we have been living in a trance because our internal thought process is such that once it makes a choice, it won’t go back and make a change to what it knows as truth.  Our inner psyche automatically accepted what it thought as truth and to reconsider that truth requires a risk.

While common thinking says that everyone has worries it may be an incorrect filter.  And fortunately this belief can be changed.  But first it must be challenged as worry is usually the easiest thing to do so it is painless to stay on that path.

I’ll present some methods, alternatives, and experiences to get us off that merry-go-round.

Listen to emotional music. The kind that makes your soul sing, brings out the warm fuzzies, returns a fond memory, or warms your spirit.

Use muscle relaxation. Start with one muscle group and progressively move to the next, and continue. Doing muscle relaxation for 10 to 15 minutes daily can remove stress, and worry.

Do abdominal breathing exercises which increase oxygen to the brain and muscles.  This in turn stimulates the nervous system, and promotes positive energy  Breath the way a baby breathes, deeply from the abdomen rather than merely using the chest.

Get some physical exercise. Indoors or outdoors is not important, just get some exercise.

Watch TV, go to a movie, play a video game, research on the Internet, read an inspiration poetry or story, anything to distract you from worrying.

Do something with your hands. Take up a hobby, gardening, sewing, even doing Sudoku.

Do something to distract yourself - play a mind game, jigsaw, or crossword puzzle.

Get into verbal discussion with someone about the worry. You’re not looking for solutions just compassion.

Put this list on the fridge so you have it easily at hand when worry arises.

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Grandma is on the way to recovery and that is good because another set of grands shows up as well.  Now all twelve grandchildren are in the same city and even in the same house for dinner Thursday.  Unfortunately that nite the father of the three sisters goes to the ER for vomiting and stays there while they give him a bag of fluids.  He gets home around six in the morning.  Nobody is feeling very well but these children are chomping at the bit, bored to tears that the adults won’t take them anywhere interesting to entertain them.  We send them to their old school to bother their prior teachers (they aren’t on spring break until the following week) and look for something to do to entertain twelve children under the age of thirteen.

Things are looking up, aren’t they???? aren’t they?  whoops, Friday night the youngest of the sisters ends up in the ER for vomiting.  She didn’t vomit while she was there and they didn’t give her any fluids as she hadn’t been throwing up enough to become dehydrated.  She and her father get home about five am.  What is it with emergency rooms that they have to keep you until it is almost daylight before releasing you?  Guess they have to keep you a certain length of time to be able to charge their outrageous fees.

Yesterday we got the bill from the hospital for my wife.  She spent less than five hours being taken care of and the bill is for almost three thousand dollars.  For giving her two liters of fluids, taking some blood and doing the blood work, being seen by a doctor for less than ten minutes and getting a shot in the IV for the vomiting.  I know I’m in the wrong business…

To tell the truth the whole trip wasn’t that stressful for me as I didn’t let events get the better of me and influence my self talk or thinking.  If I hadn’t been writing about stress in this blog I wouldn’t have learned as much about managing stress as I have and I might have really been pulling my hair out about the situation.  But having all this learning experience allowed me to put it to good use in a pratical situation.  I’m glad I had the opportunity to learn and also to apply that learning.

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Since three of our granddaughters were out of school and supposed to spend the week with their father, my wife volunteered us to take them to see him and spend the week with them.  An eight hour trip if you don’t stop to make too many potty breaks.  Oh, wait, it gets better…
Two other grandchildren were also out of school and had not seen these cousins in several months so the next volunteerism was that we pick them up and take them along with us for the week.  Sounds like fun so far, doesn’t it?  Oh, by the way, an uncle of these children is moving, can I loan him my 18 foot flatbed trailer.  And take it along on the trip to leave with him?
Even more fun…
Friday night my wife picks some of the grands up and brings them to the house and the three sisters are delivered by their mother.  In the middle of the night my wife wakes up with diarrhea and vomiting and every hour she is in the bathroom with this mess.  She finally gets to sleep about five am and we were scheduled to leave around eight am.  Needless to say, we didn’t leave then and grandpa got to serve breakfast to five hungry grandchildren who wanted to know “when are we going to leave?”  As soon as grandma gets up and feels like it is my response.

We finally get on the road around eleven am and have to make a couple of stops along the way but nothing major.  Feed the children pb&j sammiches and grapes and juice.  Grandma doesn’t eat anything cuz she is afraid she won’t be able to keep it down.

We finally get to our destination about ten pm.  Grandma is still not feeling well.

We go to bed about eleven-thirty and grandma is up three times during the night going at both ends.

Sunday is a little better for grandma but she isn’t feeling too hot.  We get over-the-counter advice from a pharmacist and try to cure this problem ourselves.  To make a long story short, Tuesday night we end up at the emergency room where they give my wife two liters of fluids because she is so dehydrated and a shot to stop the vomiting and finally send us home at five am.  Grandma is on her way to recovery.  yay!!!

oops, we still have a few more days to go before spring break is over.  More to follow tomorrow!

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If there are unpleasant tasks then apportion them out fairly.  And let everyone know what is happening and why.  Don’t try to snowball your employees - they won’t appreciate it when they figure out what you have done to them.

Policies that apply to the least paid employee should apply to the highest paid employee as well.  The CEO may feel like it is his privilege to fly first class, and it is, but if he is seen to be riding in the cattle car along with the peons it will do more to raise morale than he could ever dream.  And if employees on the production floor are expected to put in eight hours on the clock that should also be the policy for upper management.  Likewise if an employee stays after hours to complete a project that employee should not be penalized for coming in a few minutes late.

Put in place a fair and acceptable conflict resolution system.  Issues brought to the attention of management should not always be resolved in favor of management if it is not in the best interest of the company.

If it is necessary for empolyees to work long hours or to travel away from home then make allowances for that and implement family stress control strategies.  A parent can never regain a child’s lost youth.  If an employee must travel for an extended time period then on return provide time for them to be with their families.  While the time lost can never be regained, the company can make it easier on the parent to spend more time with their family on their return.

Show concern for employee welfare by making sure they have the tools they need to do the job properly.

Do away with intolerable conditions or situations.  The company should not expect employees to short their families in order to remain employed.  While some within the company may not feel expecting employees to put the company ahead of their family is intolerable that is not a situation that is coducive to productivity.

It may be difficult to remove some of these causes of stress from the workplace but an attack of one or more will pay off in happier employees and an improved bottom line.

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