Stress is a normal part of our lives. As you know too much stress can be harmful to not only our mental faculties but also our physical health. So, it’s important that we reduce and control the amount of stress in our lives.

One way to minimize the harmful effects of stress is to eat a healthy diet, exercise regularly, and sleep restfully. These things keep our bodies in good shape and resistant to the stresses in our lives.

Setting your mind free of the stresses and worries of the day is an important stress buster. Meditation or quiet contemplation are two methods of reducing stress. If you’re not into meditation, spend a half hour or so each night reading a good book in a comfortable chair.

Take up an enjoyable hobby. Anything that distracts you from the concerns of the day and allows you a chance to decompress can be a worthwhile activity.

Go for a walk in the park or get a pet. Get a dog and take the dog for a walk in the park. A walk outdoors in the fresh air can do wonders for reducing stress, as can a companion animal. It likely wouldn’t hurt to combine the two if you’re so inclined.

Play games. Card games. Board games. Video games. Whatever floats your boat, as it were.

You could also try puzzles. Putting a jigsaw puzzle together may be a good way to spend your time. It’s hard to worry about work when you’re trying to find a matching piece! Or, do a crossword puzzle, word find or sudoku.

If you’re artistic, you could paint, draw, or even just doodle. You could try needle crafts, sand art, sculpture, wood carving, sewing or whatever suits your interests.

Take time to listen to music or watch television. Take an evening and go out for dinner and a movie. See a play. Go to a sporting event.

The important thing is to take some time out for yourself. Find something that works for you and remember to take time to do it. Relaxing and recharging is important!

What is a workaround, you say? It’s a temporary fix that gets you moving again when things get stuck or broken.

In this book, Russell Bishop outlines strategies for “How to Conquer Anything That Stand in Your Way at Work.” These types of strategies are especially applicable when work situations make you feel frustrated and ineffective. In today’s work environment that is a common feeling with few solutions offered and it’s a big contributor to work stress. That is why I wanted to review “Workarounds That Work” for some fresh ideas.

Russell begins by pointing out that workarounds have varying levels of risk that are important to consider before choosing a strategy. Then, the first question to yourself should be, “What can I do to make a difference that requires no one’s permission other than my own?” Even before that you must free your mind from the blame game to get mentally prepared to focus on and create a viable solution. Russell writes,

Assume the positive. Just about all workarounds start with you and your internal attitude, intention, and determination. If you bump into something in your organization that seems like a roadblock, it may be useful to consider that what now appears to be a hindrance might have originated as something helpful (page 10).

In the beginning of the book, Russell is quick to emphasize that all workarounds begin with you and he goes on to describe three circles of your environment: control, influence, and respond. Next, he outlines the three basic elements of creating workarounds: intention, accountability, and response-ability.

In the chapter about communication, a neat distinction is made about listening vs waiting to speak vs malicious listening. The workarounds that Russell suggests are questions you can ask to move a stagnated discussion on to something useful.

Russell shares excellent strategies for workarounds in decision making, moving beyond consensus leadership, making the most of meetings (including dealing with disengaged attendees), and e-mail management that are spot on!

The last two chapters of the book were the highlight for me. In “Overcoming Criticism, Complaints, and Resistance,” Russell introduces the “minus 6″ mentality and how to turn that around. He reframed complaining by explaining three types of complainers and how to get at useful information they may provide. There were some very clever descriptions in this chapter too such as describing complainers as skilled at “one-downmanship” and that playing with gravity is what happens at the Olympics. Love it!

In the final chapter “Multitasking Our Way to Oblivion,” Russell contrasted multi-taskers with serial taskers and explained that many of us are distracted taskers and half-taskers. He pointed out that a more viable way to go is to “become a uni-tasker and supreme multi-goaler!”

I enjoyed this book and found it to be a very good professional development read with outstanding, outside-the-box, practical strategies to consider.

The book is available at Amazon.com. You can learn more at the website for the book where you can also download a free chapter — WorkaroundsThatWork.com.

Also, check out Russell’s Top Three Tips audio on e-CareerCoach.com.

Disclosure: I received a complimentary copy of “Work Arounds That Work” by Russell Bishop. I received no other compensation for this review.

I ran across this post from Seth Godin today which reminded me of one of my old favorites about where great ideas come from.

Long story short, make room for new ideas by controlling your focus and capturing them when they do show up. You capture an idea by journaling it, or sending yourself an email or voicemail, or using your digital recorder. It’s important to capture the ideas so you can refer back when you are ready to develop them further.

Cool movie by Dr. Jim Bright at The Factory Podcast on chaos and careers.

What do I want?

What is fulfilling to me?

Where am I choosing to focus?

Remember this — at times when you feel like you have no choice or like you’re being forced to do something, you’ve lost touch with your own personal power. Find your way back.

Here are a few suggestions.

• Ask yourself…who or what can I appreciate right now?
• Ask yourself…who appreciates me?
• Ask yourself…what am I thankful for?
• Think of something nice someone did for you.
• Think about a time when you felt powerful and let your body and your mind feel it.
• Be appreciative of how far you’ve come.

Its not easy to let go of the way you’ve been thinking but if you want different results its worth the effort. Often changing your own outlook and attitude makes all the difference…much more is good than is not good…keep your mind on the good.

Feeling a little stress is a normal part of the working day but when stress gets to be too much it can affect your judgment causing you to make rash decisions. Or, it can affect you physically causing tension in your muscles, increased heart rate, or aches and pains.

The key is to keep stress at a manageable level. One way to do this is with a simple breathing exercise.

• Sit still in a relaxed position with your back straight.

• Clear your mind as much as possible.

• Breathe in slowly, for a deep breath.

• Hold, but only as long as is comfortable.

• Breathe out slowly.

• Hold.

• Breathe in.

• Hold.

• Breathe out.

• Hold.

Repeat as necessary. Take a few seconds here and there and use this simple breathing exercise on a regular basis to help lower your stress level.

“Sometimes the most important thing in a whole day is the rest we take between two deep breaths.” –Etty Hillesum

We all face some amount of stress in our lives. Some stress is caused by situations beyond our control, making it all the more important to do what we can to reduce stress in the circumstances we do control.

One thing within our control is our level of organization.

While on the face of it, organization may seem to have little to do with stress levels, a lack of organization will prove otherwise in a stressful situation.

If you’re under pressure to find an item in a stressful situation, imagine how much more stressed you will become when you cannot locate it.

As you shuffle through papers, folders and drawers, your frantic searching may cause further disorganization, setting the stage for a later repeat of the situation. If instead, you can quickly locate what you need when you need it, your stress levels will be lower than they might otherwise be.

Naturally, the first step is to do a thorough cleaning, eliminating clutter and organizing everything that is needed.

• Make sure you organize everything in a manner that makes sense for you, using a system you will remember and stick with.

• Once you get organized, stay organized.

• Each day, set aside a few minutes to get your work area back in order.

Ideally and when practical, follow a pattern where you handle each item only once. For example, when you get a new document or piece of mail, read it and then act on it, file it or recycle it. Eliminate the “I’ll do it later” items as much as possible. Too often, later never comes because of other more pressing needs. Additionally, you won’t suffer the stress of seeing a growing stack of “I’ll do it later” items sitting on your desk. You can better focus on the job at hand rather than being frustrated by the amount of work left to do.

Being better organized will not eliminate stress, but it can help keep it at reduced levels. Plus, it makes for a better and easier workplace, so there is no downside. Get organized and reap the benefits of increasing your productivity and reducing your stress level.

Often changing your own outlook and attitude makes all the difference…much more is good than is not good…keep your mind on the good.

There’s a difficult time between where you are now and where you want to be that must be managed when you are changing careers. One thing that helps is to focus more on what you want next rather than what you don’t like about where you are currently because that makes the current day-to-day very difficult and keeps a negative vibe going in you. So during times of change, its important to focus on the excitement of what is coming but with an ability to be appreciative of where you are now and how far you’ve come.