Don't buy your ticket for the burnout train

How you manage stress on a day to day basis can save you a ticket on the burn out train, stated Dr. Ganz Ferrance, my guest on a recent webinar that I emceed for Economic Developers Alberta.

Dr. Ganz Ferrance holds a PhD in Psychology and has been helping individuals, families, couples and organizations reduce their stress, improve their relationships and enjoy more success for over 20 years.

The first step to dealing with stress is recognizing it, and according to Dr. Ganz, this requires us to actually step back, not react and assess the situation and recognize it's impact on us.  Managing stress requires people to be self aware. 

Dr. Ganz offered a few practical tips to manage stress:
1.  Journal- write down your stressors, a summary of the day, or simply vent.
2. Take mini vacations- sit in your car and take 10 breaths before going into the office, or into the house after a day at work.  This helps you detach.  Rituals such as this can be powerful stress reducers.
3. Avoid taking work home.
4. Take breaks during the day (lunch, coffee, get some fresh air). Take a technology break by unplugging, and avoid checking emails before bed.  Doing this will result in a more restful sleep.
5. Understand the law of diminishing factors- the longer you stay at an activity, the less productive or efficient you are. So, take a break every 30 minutes or so. You'll have more energy, increased focus and the results will be more favourable!

Here are some tips to improve team relations and productivity during stress and change in the workplace:
1.  Take breaks- this is a great way for you to connect with your colleagues.
2. Ensure that roles and responsibilities are clear, and understood in the team.
3. Change can be tiring. Build your team, nurture the team and resolve issues, to reduce change fatigue. 
4. Communicate effectively, respectfully and frequently.


To register for upcoming webinars with the Economic Developers Alberta, visit www.edalberta.ca

What is YOUR desk saying about you?

If your desk or office could talk…. What would it say about you?

That was one of the many questions that Elizabeth Hagen and I discussed on my Corporate Conversations with Charmaine Radio Show (you can listen here http://www.blogtalkradio.com/charmainehammond/2012/08/15/guest-elizabeth-hagen-and-ayesha-mathews-wadhwa


Would your desk say any of these messages?

• “You need to get organized!”

• “Wow. What’d you do? No more clutter.”

• “I am drowning in paper!”

• “Clean desk = great results!”

• “There is no more room for piles!”

• “Ah…. Freedom… I love this tidy desk!”

• “I can’t support all this junk”

• “How many times are you going to move that piece of paper?”

What would your desk or office say about you, if it could talk of course? Elizabeth is a certified professional organization, speaker and author and coaches business to achieve higher levels of success. Her passion is seeing people smile as they move away from a state of being overwhelmed to a state of organization. Elizabeth states that it is possible to have more focus, more prospects, more clients, and more business! She is the author of Organize with Confidence: Now is your time, and Growing your Business with Confidence.

Elizabeth stated that some of the biggest overwhelm culprits are: PAPER, Email and Time. Do any of these sound familiar to you? When people are overwhelmed, they often do nothing, instead of something or one thing. Being overwhelmed can actually paralyze us, whereas when you step in to action, you reduce anxiety, and bring about relief.

Here are a few tips from Elizabeth to reduce the overwhelm and increase action to organization:

• Increase Your Focus- be self disciplined, do what you said you will do

• To Do List Cards- use 3x5 index cards with one item per card- ten of your most important tasks/to do list actions (instead of a lengthy list or a bunch of sticky notes) then focus on the first few

• Deal with paper

o Ask “what is my next action?” with each piece of paper

o Then, implement Elizabeth’s F Plan

 Finished (recycle, shred, file)

 Fast (not finished but very fast to finish) and Get It Done!

 For Others (delegate for someone else to do

 Future Short Term (file the paper in a file with the date you need to respond or get this done)

Listen to the recording to learn more about the Other F.  http://www.blogtalkradio.com/charmainehammond/2012/08/15/guest-elizabeth-hagen-and-ayesha-mathews-wadhwa

What can you do today to tackle one of the piles or lists that is creating overwhelm? The index cards are GREAT for focus and decluttering. I also love using the Ticker File System (see below), and Elizabeth recommends these as well.  There are files for every day of the month, a yearly file and blank files. This is a great way to manage the Future Short Term process that Elizabeth talked about in her interview and the F System.


You can learn more about Elizabeth at: www.elizabethHagen.com


Check out Elizabeth’s awesome books. Do you know someone that could a little more organization and less overwhelm?

                           

Business Productivity At It’s Best

Do you ever find that the day can pass by and at the end of the work day you are scratching your head wondering” “what the heck did I get done? Where did this day go?” Sometimes we work hard but not necessarily smart.


What do you do to create productivity at its best in your work? Recently I was reading a newsletter from Mary Ellen Tribby, she puts out a great deal of information to help business owners and professionals who work from home. Hope her productivity tips are helpful to you when working from home:

1. Don’t work in your pajamas- people can tell by your voice.

2. Create your list for the work day the night before.

3. Use an alarm clock (I use a timer for a lot of my tasks, otherwise time flies by. I hear this all the time from professionals especially related to social media. I would highly recommend timing yourself when on social media.

4. Schedule meetings or calls in the afternoon so that you can do your most important tasks in the morning free of distraction and when your energy is high

5. Take breaks and a mid day break can really help improve performance and keep energy high.

6. Reconcile your To Do list at the end of the day. Tribby suggests if you got 75% done it was a good day, if not you will need to look at your habits actions and where you spend your day as your are not in control of your business or, you are setting extremely unrealistic priorities and plans



Find out more from: http://www.workingmomsonly.com/