photo credit: Ana Santos

Stress is usually caused by many different problems that a person has to deal with in everyday life. Sometimes a lot of stress also leads to depression. This feeling of anxiety causes people to focus more on their problems. This tends to make one unproductive.

People who are under a lot of stress often forget that there are other things in life aside from their responsibilities. It would be good to rest and disengage from work regularly. Taking breaks would give time for the mind and body to recover from constant stress brought about by work.

Here are some ways to cope and live better.

Have confidence in yourself and try not to worry too much. Some tasks might be too tedious and some problems might be too overwhelming to overcome. Just keep in mind that everyone’s got their share of problems, and anything is possible with a little determination and perseverance.

Get some exercise is to take your mind off work and lift your mood. This also helps the body by changing its response to stress. Starting on an exercise program is not too difficult. A few minutes of exercise walking around everyday can improve health significantly.

Aside from exercise, getting enough sleep is a very important tool in fighting stress and depression. The body needs time to regenerate itself and if it does not have the chance to do so, it would very much affect the way it deals with stress.

Keep in touch with friends and relatives. Interacting with other people outside the working sphere in helps lift moods and builds social awareness. There are a lot of other people out there that are interesting to learn from and can help take your mind off your problems and stress at work.

Put more effort into organizing. A lot of problems can be avoided by writing down important dates and tasks. Create a schedule for doing chores, work, and rest so it is easy to get used to.

Eat healthy foods. The body should get the nourishment it needs to function in every day tasks. Stress and depression could arise from frustration of not being able to work due to sickness. People who are physically weaker are more vulnerable to more stress and depression.

Get rid of bad habits. Stress and depression can be made worse by excessive drinking, smoking, and lack of rest. Living a healthy lifestyle helps protect against the effects of stress and depression.

A great way to avoid stress and depression would be to help other people. Helping other people could bring contentment and happiness that could help fight the stress or depression from problems in life.

Stress and depression are not diseases, but rather conditions, and these can be avoided. There are a lot of things that people can do about it. It would be wise for a person to know what actions they could do to prevent being overcome by their problems at work and in life.

Tweet This Post

photo credit: huzzahvintage

It’s the in thing in freelancing today. You have a home office. You work at home. You work from your bedroom. You telecommute.

If you have a day job, and you have to rush to the office before 8 a.m., and you need to run through the crowds downtown in a suit or high heels, chances are you envy those folks who can earn as much as you can (or even more) while in their shorts or nighties at the comfort of their living room.

But the moment you experience telecommuting, then you start shedding the formal workwear. You can now work in your pajamas, and you can still get things done. For all your client cares, you’re probably in your underwear, making those business calls, coding, designing or writing.

You try to tell yourself it’s a good thing you can run your business without having to think of your appearance. Or can you?

Do clothes make the man?

Sometimes, clothes do make the man (or woman). Even if you’re running a business from home, it doesn’t necessarily mean you don’t have to dress up. For some people, dressing up involves pysching oneself for doing work. Even better, dressing up can mean psyching oneself for success.

I mean, have you ever felt sleepy or lazy during your telecommute workday because you’re in your sleepwear? Have you felt shy talking to clients on the phone or via email because you haven’t showered yet?

Working in your pajamas doesn’t necessarily make you less professional. But in some cases, it might make you feel less professional. You’re doing real work, after all. Why not try looking and feeling nice for the job.

You don’t necessarily have to wear a coat and tie at home. But wouldn’t it be nice to start your workday by showering, dressing in smart casuals, and grabbing a quick breakfast (or lunch or dinner, depending on your work schedule) before starting your work routine? It might get you in a more productive mood. It might get you into a more aggressive selling mood. It might help you close deals.

That’s unless you’re Hugh Hefner, which I seriously doubt.

Tweet This Post

I worked with government for three years before starting a career in IT. My work then mostly involved managing meetings among officials of different agencies. And we technical staff regularly met among ourselves.

What can I say about meetings? Most of the time, they are utterly useless. In most cases, people bickered. People pointed fingers at who should be doing what. People were grandstanding with what they knew, and with what they wanted.

In short, most of the time we did not get to resolve anything. And if we ever did, we ended up too tired to properly record any agreements and resolutions for future action. It’s all talk, and no action.

Most big groups have a designated secretary or secretariat who would prepare meeting agenda, prepare schedules, arrange for the actual meeting, and prepare the record or minutes of the proceedings so nobody would forget what happened.

These days, I’m part of several organizations that hold regular meetings. Most of these still don’t get the essence of a meeting, and still use meetings as an excuse to spend useless time bickering over small things.

My idea of a productive meeting is one that lasts only 30 minutes, and one in which the parties involve actually get to act on something. Meetings should be kept short, simple and straight-to-the-point.

Each party involved should come on time, to avoid wasting the other peoples’ time and to prevent others from dilly-dallying. If you can’t come on time for a meeting, then you might as well re-schedule, or if the delay is really unavoidable (and reasonably short, anyway), then please call or text ahead.

Have an agenda, and stick to it. Meetings should have a purpose, and this should be in the agenda. It’s usually best to have only a few items, to make sure you get to focus on what really needs to be discussed or done.

Summarize the results of a meeting at the end, to make sure everyone understands the important points discussed.

Take notes and send it to everyone ASAP. To make sure no one forgets any agreements, instructions or further things to be discussed, a meeting’s minutes or notes should be sent to everyone involved as soon as possible.

Meetings can be productive, but only if used as a means to an end, rather than the end-all, be-all of an organization. Make each minute count. If you can avoid holding a meeting, and just start doing what needs to be done, then you save precious minutes (or hours) of your life doing things and being more productive.

Tweet This Post

Len Babauta of Zen Habits has an excellent on Unclutterer on how to create a minimalist workspace. In essence, the best minimalist workspace actually involves using no tools at all, with only yourself and mind as your work “space.” However, since that is not possible for most folks, Len has a few tips on how to maximize space with minimum clutter.

1. Have one inbox.
2. Clear your desktop.
3. Get rid of knick knacks.
4. Clear the walls.
5. Clear your computer desktop.
6. Re-examine your paper needs.
7. Eliminate unnecessary tools.
8. Simplify your filing.
9. Go through each drawer.
10. Use a minimalist desk.
11. Clear the floor.

While most of these tips are most appropriate to folks who actually use desks for work, it can also apply to those of us who don’t. For instance, writers, bloggers or online entrepreneurs might be accustomed to bringing their laptops anywhere they go. So the trick here is to keep a clean, streamlined computer desktop with no clutter. I know I usually fall victim to a cluttered desktop, cluttered task bar and browser windows cluttered with tabs. And these are a few things I’d like to be able to fix so I can be more productive.

[via Unclutterer]

Tweet This Post

In the creative world, you don’t have to confine yourself to costly enterprise-level applications. Free (or really affordable) opportunities are available. In this article, I discuss my favorite tools to manage my clients and time online, and I invite you to share your favorite tools of the trade too.

These include Google Docs, Google Calendar, Gmail, invoicing software, time tracking software, and even IM clients. If you’re an online professional like me, or if you run a small business based at home or a small office, then these could be very helpful.

Tweet This Post