#1 Mind Your Own Business

Keep your nose out of other people’s business. Stay focused on your own work.

#2 Don’t Be the Office Gossip

Are you office gossip? I hope not. Office gossip circulates at a very rapid rate. And usually lands back on your doorstep with unpleasant consequences.

#3 Get to Work on Time

Don’t stress yourself out by rushing to work and arriving late. Get up 15 minutes earlier – it’s not that painful or hard.

#4 Be Fresh, Alert and NOT Hungover

Have you seen the movie The Hangover (it grossed US$33million this weekend). Interesting! Your boss should not have to pay for your hangovers or your tiredness or your unfitness. Ensure when you go to work that you are fresh, alert, and ready to contribute when you arrive at work – and you should stay that way all day.

#5 Prepare Well for Your Work Responsibilities

Unfortunately, some people coast on their jobs and add to their stress and everyone else’s stress. You were hired because of your talent, competence, and energy. Don’t let yourself down. Be prepared. Do good work.

#6 Space Work Time with Short Breaks

Stress builds up in your mind and your body when you are working hard – especially if you work for long hours without a break. Try to build in something different – physically and cognitively – every 25-30 minutes. Walk around, stretch, do a simple job to reduce stress.

#7 Planning Your Day and Your Workload Reduces Stress

Poor planning, unexpected visitors, trying to catch up – are all stressors. Lack of planning increases stress and is a workplace stress trap. Plan your day well. Don’t be rigid but set goals to achieve each day. Don’t take on more work than you can handle but ensure you carry your load.

There are many simple ways to reduce stress. People often think that they need therapy or time off to reduce stress when the reality is that simple strategies and thoughtful planning can do a great deal to circumvent, not only relieve, stress.

Why let work stress cause domestic stress? When tired from work, we too often express our irritability at home – to the detriment of our relationships. For great products and advice check out my stress website: www.stressrelief-drjeffbailey.com.

Best wishes

Dr Jeff

For The Team at Mighty Digital Downloads.com

‘Transforming Lives One Person at a Time’

Contact: theteam@mightydigitaldownloads.com

Dr. Jeff, a psychologist, writes about personal and workplace stress, and how to manage and reduce stress. He works hard to make his advice practical and helpful and his articles are based on sound research evidence and extensive clinical experience. Dr. Jeff would be very happy to have you join his growing list of newsletter subscribers. Please enter your name and email in our sign-up section on the left of this blog:FREE Health and Happiness Mag. For a free report on managing stress, please go to www.drjeffbailey.com

The dangers of this type of driven behavior are ruined relationships, constant dissatisfaction, potential cardiac disease, and excessive levels of stress. Sure, many Type A people are highly successful in their careers and achieve many of their material and career goals. But at what cost?

How To Beat the Stress Trap of Type A Behavior

Simple:

1. Work out what it is you want to achieve in your life.

2. Set time aside for relaxation and pleasure.

3. Maintain a healthy life-work balance.

4. Enjoy your family and loved ones.

You can have a rich and successful life without high stress and you can avoid the workplace stress trap of being a driven Type A person.

Best wishes

Dr Jeff

For The Team at Mighty Digital Downloads.com

‘Transforming Lives One Person at a Time’

Contact: theteam@mightydigitaldownloads.com

Dr. Jeff, a psychologist, writes about personal and workplace stress, and how to manage and reduce stress. He works hard to make his advice practical and helpful and his articles are based on sound research evidence and extensive clinical experience. Dr. Jeff would be very happy to have you join his growing list of newsletter subscribers. Please enter your name and email in our sign-up section on the left of this blog: FREE Health and Happiness Mag. For a free report on managing stress, please go to www.drjeffbailey.com For a laugh, look at my Youtube video below.

Click here to view the embedded video.

For a series of articles on Workplace Stress Traps go to my Ezine home page (http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Dr_Jeff_Bailey ) or my website (www.drjeffbailey.com ). There are many workplace traps that cause us to feel stress at work and we have to develop strategies to deal with the traps AND the stress.

One of the 10 traps I am writing about is NOT BEING ABLE TO SAY NO at work. Saying YES is not necessarily bad; in fact, willingness to step up to the plate is admirable. But there are problems with being too willing to say no – you will get into some ‘turrible fixes’.

If you do say yes, you are indicating that you are socially responsive, respect the needs of the organization, are willing to go the extra mile, are committed to the organization’s goals, and are sufficiently flexible and energetic to help out when things get tough.

You do have to think about the negative side of saying YES all the time. Perhaps you already have a full plate, you would be squeezing corners to do the extra work, the quality of your work will drop, your colleagues might not be impressed with your zeal, and your loved ones might get tired of waiting for you to spend time with them.

I often write about work-life balance; keeping the two parts of your life in harmony so that neither the workplace nor your family and loved ones miss out. If you are unable to manage workplace stress traps and workplace stress there will be a negative effect on those you most care about. They will feel left out, ignored, second class citizens. You have to learn how to manage your stress, keep workplace stress and personal stress under control, so that you have time to enjoy your life. So, go ahead, say ‘No’ occasionally – it might be liberating.
Warm regards

For the team at Mighty Digital Downloads

Dr Jeff, a psychologist, writes about workplace stress, personal stress, interpersonal stress, and how to manage stress. On his blog,http://www.drjeffbailey.com, he answers questions from readers. He works hard to make his articles practical and helpful and all of his articles are based on sound research evidence and extensive clinical experience. Please go to his Dr Jeff blog to get your free report on stress.

Reply: “You know we don’t have time to do this. We don’t have enough money. We both have too much on our plates at work to stop and smell the roses. Our work is far too important at present. You know there is a big promotion coming up. I think our relationship is OK – it’s not like we are newlyweds. We’ve been married 12 years now – you can’t expect us to feel the same excitement. Besides, we both agreed work and our careers are very important right now. No, let’s wait another year.” 

Three months later – Judge Jacobs: “Mr. and Mrs. Jones, in the matter of your joint application for a legal separation, I hereby grant and approve that legal status. As your attorney has advised, in the state of Colorado, six months from today’s filing, either party may seek a final dissolution of the marriage. In preparation for that possible filing, I advise you to amicably determine a property settlement and agree to thoughtful custody arrangements for your two children so their lives are not damaged by this divorce. Thank you. Court adjourned.” 

OK so I am being melodramatic but there is a message there. One study I read demonstrated that a vacation did not moderate the effects of workplace stress and domestic stress. The vacation showed that people had fewer physical complaints post-vacation, and they ‘recuperated’ (recharged their physical and emotional batteries) but there was no long lasting positive effect. Getting away from your problems is not always a solution to these problems. 

If work stress is high, deal with that stress.  Re-arrange your job description. Say ‘NO’. Work smarter not harder or longer. Prioritize. In your personal relationship, do two things. Communicate clearly and effectively with your partner to reduce domestic stress. Explain, set priorities, re-ignite the passion. Secondly, look to yourself to see how healthy and complete you are. Your complaints about your partner might be concerns about yourself. Perhaps you need fixing. Perhaps you need to reshape your values. Perhaps you are too mean-spirited and self-focused. Remember, it takes two whole people to make a successful marriage partnership – not two halves. 

Anyway, back to the vacation. If entered into with the right spirit, vacations can be marvelous stress buffers. I love vacations. I love the freedom. I like the frenzy of getting as much of my work finished as I can and then leaving all (most) of my work behind. I like spending time alone with my wife. I like the notion that I can lie in bed late or lie on the beach and do nothing. I like the lack of purpose and pressure. I enjoy recharging my Vitamin D levels. I pay back my sleep bank depleted by long hours of work (for details of the sleep bank see my Ezine article http://ezinearticles.com/?Job-Worries,-Sleeplessness,-and-Work-Stress&id=2004284). 

I reconstruct my life goals – or do what Kubler-Ross called (in another context – death) a life review. For me, vacations are an opportunity to manage and reduce my stress levels dramatically. They should be for you. Don’t end up like the couple above because you fail to take time out to reduce stress and build your relationship. Stop, smell the roses and go online to find a vacation special. After all, haven’t you both worked hard and earned a restful break?

Warm regards

Dr Jeff

For the team at Mighty Digital Downloads

Dr Jeff, a psychologist, writes about workplace stress, personal stress, interpersonal stress, and how to manage stress. On his blog,http://www.drjeffbailey.com, he answers questions from readers. He works hard to make his articles practical and helpful and all of his articles are based on sound research evidence and extensive clinical experience. Please go to his Dr Jeff blog to get your free report on stress.

For the 2003 pandemic Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) there were 8096 cases with a total of 774 deaths, a fatality ratio of 9.6%. Latest mortality figures for swine fever are around 160 deaths in Mexico but only a handful outside that country. 

So what should one do to manage the stress and reduce anxiety? We decided on four courses of action. We are not visiting any pig farms in the foreseeable future. We’re certainly not going to Mexico as the chances of being shot in the drug war or catching swine fever seem to be monumentally high. We will buy face masks even though medical experts say for the person in the street they are ineffective. Just buying the masks made us feel better (and yesterday when mowing the lawn full of volcanic ash the masks were indeed very helpful). We will certainly make sure that we wash our hands frequently; especially with an alcohol-based hand cleanser (no we will wash with the hand cleanser – not drink it). And we will try to avoid passing any infections to our mouth, nose or eyes. 

More than any of this, we will relax, manage our anxiety and stress, and get on with our lives. We have seen a range of exotic and potentially lethal viruses in the last few years including avian flu, SARS, and now swine fever. I wonder what’s next?

For more strategies on stress relief refer to some of my other articles: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Dr_Jeff_Bailey

Warm regards

Dr Jeff

For the team at mightydigitaldownloads.com 

Dr Jeff Bailey, psychologist, helps stressed patients. Why put up with stress? Learn stress management skills now.  Click here for the free What is Stress by Dr Jeff. Don’t waste another minute stressed and burnt out. Act now – learn how to relieve stress. 

I went to one of my favorite information sources, Wikipedia, where I learned that there are two major types of Vitamin D – D₂ and D₃. It is D₃ that we commonly refer to when talking about sunshine deprivation as D₃ is the prohormone produced when we get ultraviolet B radiation from sunlight on our skin. Vitamin D helps our immune system by helping with immune regulation and by promoting anti-tumor activity. Lack of Vitamin D causes all sorts of problems especially bone, liver, and kidney problems. Then I found some recent research from The International Journal of Cancer which suggests that intake of Vitamin D can be helpful in protecting prostrate cells from cancer.

Sometimes it’s a mistake to read too much. My simple aim was to talk about the positive benefits in terms of emotional health and psychological well-being of exposure to warm, friendly sunshine. We all know that vitamin D intake is important to our health. I think a positive outlook and a lovely climate does a lot to reduce stress. My problem now is that I have to worry about prostate cells, too much Vitamin D, and the possibility of skin cancer. I think my stress levels have risen dramatically from my newfound information.

For more strategies on stress relief refer to some of my other articles: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Dr_Jeff_Bailey

Warm regards

Dr Jeff

For the team at mightydigitaldownloads.com

Dr Jeff Bailey, psychologist, helps stressed patients. Why put up with stress? Learn stress management skills now.  Click here for the free What is Stress by Dr Jeff. Don’t waste another minute stressed and burnt out. Act now – learn how to relieve stress.

Many of us work in teams that are very productive; some of us work in teams that are hostile and interfere with productivity and satisfaction. Some of the key characteristics that I will describe briefly about emotional and group intelligence include the following: social responsibility versus irresponsibility; impulse control versus uncontrolled outbursts; and stress tolerance versus stress in tolerance.

Social Responsibility

At work, as in relationships, you have certain choices you can make. You can act like a mature, thoughtful, empathic, and responsible person or you can indulge what Freud called in his personality theory the id. This nasty little piece of who we are was described by Freud as blind, instinctual, irrational strivings. If you give in to your id responses, you will show very little social responsibility and you will become an aggravating and difficult colleague. Being prepared to give and take, to understand the other person’s point of view, to maintain perspective and keep a larger view, and be generous in your relationships with others will increase harmony and decrease workplace stress for you and your colleagues.

Impulse Control

One of my research areas is ADHD and a key characteristic of some people with ADHD is a diminished capacity for impulse control and self-regulatory management. Unfortunately, there are too many people in the workplace who show a reckless disregard for even a small amount of impulse control. They seem to believe that they have an incontestable right to vent their emotional eruptions whenever they feel like it and without regard to others. The converse of this is the responsible person who doesn’t elevate other people’s stress levels but carefully and effectively deals with the pressures and stress that they are experiencing.

Stress Tolerance

Everyone has a different capacity to deal with stress and anxiety. Some people have, as they say, a short fuse and are unable to tolerate even the smallest amount of stress. This is a pain and misery to everyone around them who has to put up with their limited capacity to manage stress. We can improve our capacity to deal proactively and effectively with stress; we can increase our stress tolerance mechanisms. This requires us to be mature and thoughtful and not indulge ourselves in juvenile expressions of frustration and impatience.

My message is fairly simple – if you want to manage personal stress and reduce workplace stress you have a responsibility to behave in a mature, emotionally intelligent way. I agree with the Harvard research that highly skilled work teams do reflect high group emotional intelligence and are much more productive. I’m also certain that people lucky enough be working in groups with high emotional intelligence and strong interpersonal responsibility have much lower personal stress levels and cope much more effectively with workplace stress.

For more strategies on stress relief refer to some of my other articles:http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Dr_Jeff_Bailey

Warm regards

Dr Jeff

For the team at mightydigitaldownloads.com 

Dr Jeff Bailey, psychologist, helps stressed patients. Why put up with stress? Learn stress management skills now.  Click here for the free What is Stress by Dr Jeff. Don’t waste another minute stressed and burnt out. Act now – learn how to relieve stress. 

The answer is, of course, (d). We have become a community of armchair voyeurs peeking into the lives and behaviors of normal, everyday people. Wait – to be truthful I would have to say that it is a BIG stretch to describe some of the people on reality shows as normal, everyday people. I don’t want to do a personality appraisal but the behavior of many of the reality contestants, inflamed by producers’ desire for high ratings, are outlandish and often disgusting. But that is not the theme of this blog.

I was amused on a recent Project Runway episode to see the amount of attention paid to the attitude of one of the finalists. The episode had more to do with attitude than design. This designer had a serious ‘attitude’ problem and was attracting a lot of negative criticism – not for her design work but for her attitude. She was constantly critical of her peers; put them and their work down at every opportunity; did and said things that made them dislike her; and upset the judges.

One of the obvious characteristics of people who stand out from the workplace crowd for their hostile attitudes is a serious lack of self-awareness. They use a style of defense called external attribution. It is always someone else’s fault that things go wrong; someone else failed to pull their weight; someone else didn’t meet the deadlines’ someone else failed to tell her what was required and when. I’m sure you get the point.

Self-awareness is one element of emotional intelligence, the father of which was Dr Daniel Goleman. EI as it is called, and self-awareness, are two of the most important indicators of successful leadership in an organization. To be healthy, collaborative, and productive in the workplace, we need to be honest with ourselves. We need to objectively audit our strengths and weaknesses. We need to work hard to present a positive and cooperative approach to our colleagues. We need to be an effective contributor on the work team. We must be respectful and courteous of our colleagues.

What happens when you have a person who is unaware of the negativity they bring to the workplace? You have work to do or else this person will stress you out of your mind. You have to develop coping skills that mean that you do not get workplace stress. After all, why should this person cause you personal stress and upset? You have to accept that this is their problem, not yours; you need to maintain a professional and respectful approach to this individual. You need to find their particular strengths and give clear support to these strengths.

To deal effectively with personal stress and workplace stress you have to rise above yourself. You have to understand the problems the stress-causer is experiencing. You have to distance yourself from the person and the stress. You have to take a ‘so-what’ attitude and attend to your own business. The more you invest in the negative, stressful person, the more you will elevate your own stress levels and fail to get stress relief. Don’t be afraid to help them but don’t let them upset your good mood and turn your workplace into stress hell! Good luck!

Kind regards

Dr Jeff

for thte team at www.mightydigitaldownloads.com 

All of this adds considerable stress to one’s life – I’m not complaining. Living in Alaska is amazing –  the Iditarod, the snow, the wonderful fishing, the climate, the people. In some strange way, even having to deal with volcanic eruptions adds a touch of spice to life in The Last Frontier.

OK I’m lucky – this is not a huge deal but the situation does create extra stress; it requires me to make quick decisions, contact people, re-arrange timetables. If I can handle stress easily and productively, this will not be problematic. But what if I like predictability and certainty? Then my stress escalates. Anyway, I’ll re-read my articles on managing stress and play the wait-and-see game.

There are two ways to cope with stressors like these. I can focus on my emotions, get upset and worried, grieve about lost opportunities, get anxious about missed opportunities, even get mildly depressed. Emotion focused coping, as it is called, is a useful coping strategy as long as it does not overtake action. I encourage people to honor their emotions, however, we have to do things. I have to email the folk I was meeting; I have to set up alternative technology for what was to be a whole-day seminar. I have to arrange for materials to be emailed. I have to prepare new Powerpoints. I have to work with my team to set up either video conferencing, or Skype, or video share on Elluminate) a web based teaching tool). All of these arrangements require action – the planful, problem solving form of coping.

Oddly enough, both of these are essential coping mechanisms. But, in their own way, each adds a particular form of stress. Emotion focused coping adds internal stress (grieving, worry, anxiety, depression) while problem solving requires creative stress, organizational stress, even an emotional element – will it work?

All of this because the Alaskan volcano god decided to let us know he (or she) was unhappy. OK – so Mt Redoubt is NOT a god – just joking. It really is a vent formed by movement of the earth’s tectonic plates; a vent that permits the escape of gases, ash, and molten rock that reside below the earth’s crust. God or natural force – today it has caused me some additional work stress.

Warm regards

Dr Jeff

For the team at Mighty Digital Downloads

PS Get the impact from the Youtube video below!

Dr Jeff, a psychologist, writes about workplace stress, personal stress, interpersonal stress, and how to manage stress. On his blog,http://www.drjeffbailey.com, he answers questions from readers. He works hard to make his articles practical and helpful and all of his articles are based on sound research evidence and extensive clinical experience. Please go to his Dr Jeff blog to get your free report on stress.

The newspapers also tell the story: many firms are downsizing or closing their doors. Nokia (dropped 1700 jobs), The Sportsmen’s Warehouse (sold off many of its shops – though not in Alaska!), Caterpillar (5000 jobs), Sprint Nextel (8000), General Motors (2000 jobs), Home Depot (8000 jobs), and even Microsoft is considering job cuts.

All of this is happening at a time when there is widespread outrage at the massive bonuses being paid to AIG executives. Today’s local newspaper gives accounts of public protests, death threats, increased police presence around the homes of wealthy executives in the ‘Gold Coast’ area of New York, warnings to employees not to wear company badges or identification, and so on. Yesterday there was talk about Congress enacting a bill to tax 90% of the AIG bonuses.

All the negative news about unemployment, recession budget deficits, job cuts etc sounds big warning bells, increases anxiety, intensifies feelings of unpredictability, threatens personal security, and elevates personal stress and work stress. Anxiety has many faces but typically we think of situation specific anxiety (e.g., test anxiety) and generalized anxiety. Anxiety is a psychological response to stress. Anxiety can manifest itself in many ways: somatically (bodily or physiological reactions like elevated blood pressure, stomach aches, palpitations, even nausea), emotional reactions (such as irritability, being short tempered, feeling tense), cognitive difficulties (inability to be able to concentrate, short-term memory lapses), and behavioral reactions (engagement in risky physical behaviors, elevated activity levels, or lowered activity).

Charles Spielberger’s early research pointed to two ‘types’ of anxiety – state and trait. Trait anxiety is a long term representation of elevated stress and consequent anxiety, almost a personality characteristic for an individual. State anxiety is short term and reactive. One of his tests of state anxiety will give you an idea of the associated feelings one has with state anxiety. Here are the key emotional terms: calm, secure, tense, regretful, at ease, upset, worried, at ease, anxious, comfortable, self-confident, nervous, jittery, high-strung, relaxed, content, over-excited, rattled, joyful, and pleasant.

Some of these are positive feelings; most are negative. In terms of overcoming the work stress, or worries about being sacked, or not being able to pay your mortgage, or pay for the kids’ college tuition fees, consider some of these words and work out a strategy. Let’s take calm and contented. Sit down with your partner and write down your specific fears. Test these fears to see if there is any evidence that what you are worried about (job loss) might happen. Make a list of all the positive things in your life. Develop a feeling of calmness, contentment and satisfaction. Give thanks for what you have and celebrate your achievements. Put a positive face on the current situation. Get rid of the negative feelings that YOU have created (feeling jittery, tense, upset, high-strung). Note that all of these negative feelings are a result of your failure to put things into perspective and maintain a positive, balanced view of life.

If things are really tough, instead of sweating it, plan for bad times. I like the idea of President Barrack and Michelle and the kids planting a vegetable garden in the White House grounds. During the Second World War people worked on what was called their ‘Victory Gardens’. This is a classic example of finding positive strategies to increase confidence and reduce anxiety – and at a catastrophic time in our history.

I am not trying to diminish the importance of facing the facts and being realistic about job losses and financial challenges. I am trying to put a positive face on the work stress and personal stress so that you deal proactively and effectively with the challenge – and so that you will suppress and eliminate negative self-talk. You CAN control workplace stress and by so doing you can make yourself much less stressed and anxious and more productive and positive. Go out and dig that garden (physically or metaphorically) and you will reduce and relieve stress. Good luck.

Warm regards

Dr Jeff

For the team at Mighty Digital Downloads

PS Some neat ideas from the Youtube video below!