Beyond Folders : stress relief

Coping with Extreme Stress

Community Manager — Thu, 19 May 2011 13:36:00 GMT

Having a bad week? Or 52 of them?

If stress is your constant companion, it's time to take steps to combat its harmful effects on the body and brain.

We all know that stress causes a host of ills, ranging from high blood pressure, to depression, insomnia and heart attacks. And most of us are familiar with tools to mitigate stress such as exercise and meditation.

While virtually every human being encounters stress fairly regularly, some face enormous pressures day in and out. Think President Obama walking into the Oval Office every day or CEOs tasked with managing multibillion companies. In the face of extreme stress, why do certain people survive, even thrive, while others buckle?

We've assembled some resources chronicling how individuals facing tremendous pressure handle the burden. We find these accounts to be instructive and we hope you will too.

How Top CEOs Cope with Constant Stress: Author Justin Menkes examines business leaders who thrive under pressure and finds that they share common attributes including realistic optimism, or the ability to identify challenges but not be undone by them.

Stress Management for the CEO: This Forbes article looks at nine CEOS and how they combat stress, offering up tips for readers.

Finally, if you've made it through the above reading unconvinced that constant stress can truly be managed and must instead be endured, read the Fortune Magazine article The Last Taboo. It's Not Sex. And It's Not Drinking. It's Stress and It's Soaring. The article chronicles the tale of an executive who worked 120-hours a week, sleeping only 2 hours a night. It took paralysis and a hospitalization for her to finally slow down and combat the stress in her life. If she can do it, you can do it.

Do you combat extreme stress at work? What tools help you get through a grueling workweek? Share your thoughts here and on the Pendaflex Facebook page.

by Candie Harris

Relax! It’s Only Work

Community Manager — Wed, 18 May 2011 13:30:00 GMT

Spring has officially sprung. Have you stopped to smell the roses? All too often we run at a breakneck pace, not stopping to savor small moments or even catch our breath.

Regular readers of Pendaflex's blog know we are advocates of tools to enhance productivity and doing more with less. But sometimes the best way to be productive is to pass on cramming more work into fewer hours and stop, unplug and tune out for a time.

We've rounded-up a selection of past posts to help you relax and embrace spring's season of renewal. Read on to refresh your productivity.

Work worries keeping you up at night? Or interfering with concentration during the day? Check out our advice in Stress Less: Keeping Work Worries in Check for tips including time and task-management, to gain perspective on what seems like an overwhelming workload.

Saying yes when you should say no? Read From Superwoman to Balanced Woman for tips on putting the brakes on work-overload and putting work into perspective. Time to retire your cape, Superwoman.

Do you have more work than there are hours in the day? Find coping strategies in Too Many Irons in the Fire? Tips for Coping with Project Overload.

Keep stress at bay with Easy Desk Stretches. Gentle stretches throughout the day help prevent the all-too-common neck and back pains that plague desk workers.

Finally, consider checking the weather report and using one of your untapped vacation days to enjoy the beautiful spring weather. A healthy dose of Vitamin D, gleaned during a favorite outdoor activity will have you smiling in no time. Relax! It's only work.

How do you keep work overload in check? What tools help you relax during a grueling workweek? Share your thoughts and don't forget to Spring Free with us this season on our Facebook page!

Want to Feel Your Heart-Throb?

Community Manager — Fri, 25 Feb 2011 16:59:00 GMT

February brings more than cupids and Valentines; the month also ushers in heart-health awareness with the American Heart Month.

Do yourself a favor and spend as much time this month learning about a heart-healthy lifestyle as you do shopping for Valentine's treats for your loved ones. Taking care of your heart is the best gift you could give the people you love.

Did you know?

Heart disease is the number one killer in the U.S.
Women are particularly vulnerable because too many assume that heart attacks and disease are a male affliction.
One in three women will suffer a heart attack.
More than 42 million women are at risk of debilitating heart disease.

What Can You Do?

Reduce stress
Exercise
Eat a balanced, nutritious diet
Eliminate cigarettes and alcohol
Watch your cholesterol
Watch your weight

Heart-Healthy Resources

Go Red For Women, an education campaign sponsored by the American Heart Association. Provides heart-healthy information by age category, a heart healthy tool box and PSAs from a host of celebrities including beloved (and spirited!) octogenarian Betty White.

WomenHeart: The National Coalition for Women with Heart Disease. A clearinghouse of information on living with heart disease. Provides advice on recognizing symptoms of heart attacks, how to monitor cholesterol, advice on finding support groups and more.

How do you take care of your heart? What motivates you to stay heart-healthy? Share your thoughts here and at the Pendaflex Facebook page.

by Candie Harris

The Working Parents’ Toolkit

Community Manager — Wed, 06 Oct 2010 12:56:00 GMT

Working parents pull double-duty, managing both paying work and labors of love. Pulling it all off requires patience, planning and frankly, luck. If you've ever had a child fall sick on the day of a major presentation, you know what I'm talking about. In the ounce-of-preparation-is-worth-a-pound-of-cure mode we've assembled some useful resources for working parents. Think of it as your toolkit for sanity.

Finding Child Care for Sick Kids: A Working Mom's Guide to Sick Kids: Daycare for sick kids? Yup, it exists; here's how to sleuth it out before Johnny has a fever.

Stress Management Tools for Parents: Take a deep breath and read on for stress-busting tips, everything from parental date-night to effective time management tools that help keep stress at bay.

Working Parents: A clearinghouse of information from leading web resource BabyCenter providing tips for working parents on topics ranging from childcare to managing mom-guilt.

25 Parent Productivity Tools for Busy Moms, Dads and Kids: Great productivity resources ranging from pet care to allowance trackers. Offers a productivity overhaul for virtually every aspect of family life.

Mom Puts Family on Her Meal Plan: Healthy, home-cooked dinners every weeknight? You heard me right. This helpful article takes you through the planning process for dishing up dinner after work.

Do you have any great tools that help balance the demands of work and parenting? Share your thoughts here and on the Beyond Folders Community's Facebook and Twitter pages.

by Carly Fadako

Disorganized? Stressed Out? You Could be Hurting Your Health

Community Manager — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 12:50:00 GMT

Google the phrase "disorganization and stress" and 384,000 results pop up. In .25 seconds flat. Whoa. But Googling isn't the only way of knowing disorganization is linked to stress, just feel your own blood pressure rise as you search messy desk piles for a crucial missing document. Stressed out? Heck yeah!

Being disorganized means more than just being messy, forgetful or chronically late; being disorganized creates stress which can have an adverse affect on your health.

Stress Mess

According to WebMD, people experiencing symptoms of stress may:

Feel cranky and unable to deal with even small problems.
Feel frustrated, lose your temper more often, and yell at others for no reason.
Feel jumpy or tired all the time.
Find it hard to focus on tasks.
Worry too much about small things.
Feel that you are missing out on things because you can't act quickly.
Imagine that bad things are happening or about to happen.

Combating stress is vital for maintaining good health. Heart disease, cancers, high blood pressure and mental illnesses are all linked to stress to some degree.

Ready to combat stress and improve your health? Tackle that to-do list and organize those files. Just as an apple a day keeps the doctor away, so too does being organized. Give it a whirl.

You may wish to review some of our past posts for help getting started:

And finally, we are big believers that organizing can be fun. We like the blog The Happiness Project for tips and techniques for combating disorganization, managing your time effectively and best of all, for its guidance on how to get happy. Start small, read The Happiness Project: Six Tips for Forcing Yourself to Tackle a Dreaded Task. You'll be happy you did!

How do you combat stress? Share your thoughts here and on the Beyond Folders Community's Facebook and Twitter pages.

by Carly Fadako

LEAN on Me: Using the 5 Whys to Eliminate Stress from Your Day-to-Day

Community Manager — Wed, 29 Sep 2010 12:45:00 GMT

Eliminate the unnecessary. This could be a bumper sticker for the "stress less" ethos we advocate in the Beyond Folders Blog. From purging unused paperwork, computer files or jettisoning low-priority, time wasting tasks, the Beyond Folders bloggers advocate organizing your work and home life to achieve balance, efficiency and maximum productivity.

Regular readers of the Beyond Folders blog know that I am an enthusiastic advocate of the 5 Whys, a problem solving method used by proponents of LEAN manufacturing, a business practice focused on reducing waste and improving quality. The 5 Whys is a question-and-answer process that reveals the root cause of a problem and in turn, a solution. Try applying the 5 Whys to what is causing you stress. As you work through the 5 Whys, does an opportunity to ameliorate the situation present itself?

I would also direct readers to an eye-opening article by Peter Bregman for the Harvard Business Review. A Practical Plan for When You Feel Overwhelmed brings a certain rigor to the task of eliminating stress. The article suggests incremental, measurable ways to tackle tasks that appear insurmountable. Bregman demonstrates that all assignments, all situations, can be tamed a task at a time.

Finally, you may have heard the buzz about Google's new Priority Inbox; it's worth a look to see if it can help tame e-mail overload. Check out Google Priority Inbox Soothes Email-Overload Stress.

Do you have a method for handling stress? Share your thoughts here and on the Beyond Folders Community's Facebook and Twitter pages.

by Bradley Eggers

Balancing Work and Life for Better Health

Community Manager — Tue, 28 Sep 2010 12:39:00 GMT

Modern life is a juggling act. Women in particular have many balls in the air: mother, wife, worker, caretaker, and my least favorite carpooler. When you consider that 70 percent of women with children under the age of eighteen are in the work force it's clear that the day-to-day routines of numerous women involve managing multiple demands.

While women often make the juggling act look effortless, being "on" in so many important roles can be exhausting at best and overwhelming at worst. When a woman's demands exceed her capacity for managing them, imbalance sets in, often with far more serious repercussions than a few dropped balls.

Negative consequences of too much stress, too little balance can include:

Strained personal relationships
Decline in physical health
Anger and hostility
Dissatisfaction
Anxiety
Depression
Alcoholism

In past posts such as Stress Less: Keeping Work Worries in Check we offer tips for coping with the demands of work ranging from better time-management practices to delegating. For out-of-the-box ideas on managing work stress spend time with Zen Habits useful tips in 11 Creative Ways to Avoid Becoming a Workaholic. Finally, the Business and Professional Women's Foundation is actively pursuing policy remedies to address the problem of work-life balance for working women. Visit their web site for initiatives and resources to help working women balance their many competing needs.

How do you balance work and family obligations? What would make balancing your competing obligations easier? Share your thoughts here and on the Beyond Folders Community's Facebook and Twitter pages.

by Candie Harris

How Much is Too Much? Managing Kids’ Sports and Activities

Community Manager — Tue, 21 Sep 2010 12:10:00 GMT

Do you need a spread sheet to keep track of your children's extracurricular activities? Are your weekends spent coming and going, and going, and going to various sports matches? If you're wondering how much is too much, you aren't alone.

In examining the overscheduled child (and carpool-weary parents) for the article How Much Is Too Much? the San Francisco Chronicle stated:

"A study by the University of Michigan Institute for Social Research found that from 1981 through 1997, children's time spent playing structured sports increased by 25 percent, and time spent in unstructured play fell by about the same amount. The study also found that kids have 12 fewer hours of free time a week, eat fewer family dinners, have fewer family conversations per week and take fewer family vacations."

Parents need to walk the line between providing children with enrichment activities and socialization opportunities and unwittingly pushing their children to burnout. Sometimes a soccer match is fun; sometimes it's the last straw. Read on for signs that your child may be too busy for their own good.

While every child is different, parents should be concerned if their children:

Feel tired, anxious, or depressed
Complain of headaches and stomachaches, due to stress, missed meals, or lack of sleep
Fall behind on their schoolwork, has a drop in grades

If burnout is an issue, it's time to scale back. Parents wishing to provide a healthy balance for their children may find the following tips helpful:

Agree on ground rules: Have children pick one sport per season or limit after-school activities to 1-2 times per week.
Keep a calendar: Use your kitchen command center to keep track of activities to avoid over-scheduling.
Skip sessions: A beautiful day or a birthday party can be a great excuse to skip a class every once in a while.
Carpool: Less driving, less stress. Enough said.
Balance kid and adult activities: Schedule time for you to enjoy hobbies. Carpooling shouldn't be your only activity!
Create family time: Family game night, walks or hikes are a great and inexpensive way to spend important family time.
Set priorities: School should come first. If homework and grades suffer, activities have to be dropped.
Say no: Don't let your child over-schedule; say no or discuss dropping activities to make time for new ones.
Schedule downtime: Do-nothing downtime has value.

How does your family balance after-school actives with family time and downtime? Is your child over-scheduled? Share your thoughts here and on the Beyond Folders Community's Facebook and Twitter pages.

by Carly Fadako

Assessing Your Daily Routine

Community Manager — Wed, 15 Sep 2010 14:09:00 GMT

Be honest. How often do you hit the snooze button? We've all had days where the only time for quiet contemplation are the moments between the alarm's brrrring and when our feet hit the floor.

Stop moving on autopilot. This fall carve out time to assess your daily routine. Do a soup-to-nuts overview of where you are in your life and how it functions.

Take Time to Make Time

This assessment is going to look different for different people. Some of you want to squeeze fifteen more minutes of productivity into your day, others hope to create that much efficiency in an otherwise disorganized day. Regular readers of our posts may have time-management and organizing firmly in hand, but might be looking to add another dimension to their days, be it extra energy, sense of purpose or even greater happiness. Yes, happiness.

Writer Maria Robinson has observed "Nobody can go back and start a new beginning, but anyone can start today and make a new ending." So take a look at your day and work towards your new ending.

Create Extra Time

Are you a juggling, multitasker who has most bases covered but needs an extra 15 minutes? Tips for squeezing more productivity out of an otherwise organized day include:

Steal time from tasks. Emails take 20 minutes a day? Allot yourself 15.
Delegate. Older kids can take over certain tasks. Ditto spouses or hired professionals.
Take advantage of technology. Coffee timers can brew your pot while you shower. Grocery shop and pay bills online.
Remember good enough works, perfection is not necessary. This is crucial for the hyper organized amongst us to remember.
Say no

For more tips, read 15 Ways to Find Extra Time and 5 Time-Management Tricks.

Organize Your Time

Do you move through your day haphazardly? Hoping to make it through your to-do list, running late and constantly in search of a missing item? Taking the time to organize your time and belongings will make your days more productive and less stressful.

Make a to-do list and prioritize it
Set a schedule for tackling tasks
Schedule your day/week to include time for organizing and downtime

Find a personal organizing solution that works for you and stick with it. At a loss for where to begin? Consider hiring a professional organizer or try a popular system such as David Allen's Getting Things Done.

For more tips, read our past post Tackle Your To-Do List with Time-Blocking and Time Management Training: How to Manage Time and Maximize Effectiveness.

Add Meaning to Your Time

Effective time management adds productivity to your days and decreases stress but it can also do more. Spend time to add value to your days: organize your calendar to find time for exercise, meditation or that wholly American pursuit, happiness.

These innovative resources suggest ways to add what you value to your days:

What does your daily routine look like? Do you have any tips for assessing your routine and making the most of your days? Share your thoughts here and on the Beyond Folders Community's Facebook and Twitter pages.

by Carly Fadako

Downside of Disorganization

Community Manager — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 13:09:00 GMT

"One of the advantages of being disorganized is that one is always having surprising discoveries." A.A. Milne

Stumbling upon a long forgotten pot of honey might have delighted A.A. Milne's most famous literary character Winnie-the-Pooh but for most of us, disorganization leads to unpleasant surprises. Unpaid bills. Overlooked invitations. Expired documents. The list goes on.

The Beyond Folders bloggers spend a lot of time offering tips and resources for turning piles into files and for clearing clutter from your desk tops (both virtual and physical!) but sometimes what's really needed is not how-to advice but why-to inspiration.

Why be Organized?

Being disorganized is a luxury most of us can't afford. Late bills equal extra finance charges and fees. Lost receipts leads to footing bills for company expenses rather than getting proper reimbursement. Crammed cabinets results in duplicate and triplicate items piling up, unused. Read on for what being disorganized is costing you:

Being disorganized not only exacts a financial toll, it can cause unwanted stress and can even make you sick. Sound extreme? Consider how your blood pressure skyrockets when you're frantically searching for that must-have document that is who-knows-where? And dust mites and germs lurk in piles of clutter. Unclutter and unwind. For more about the link between being disorganized and your health read on:

Do you see a downside to disorganization? What inspired you to kick your clutter habit? Share your thoughts here and on the Beyond Folders Community's Facebook and Twitter pages.

by Carly Fadako

Stress Less: Keeping Work Worries in Check

Community Manager — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 13:04:00 GMT

Deadlines, shrinking budgets, economic uncertainty: work provides plenty of sources of stress. How to keep stress at bay, or at least keep it from ballooning into full-fledged burnout?

To begin, do a stress check. Are you experiencing any of the physical or mental affects of stress?

Attention. How is your focus? Energy levels? Are they off?
Mood. Are you less optimistic than usual? Have your thoughts become negative? Are you easily frustrated?
Stamina. Do you feel like you're running out of steam?
Body. Are you experiencing back pain, dizziness, a racing pulse, heart burn or headaches? These are all common indicators of stress.

If you've answered yes to any of the above questions, you're experiencing some level of stress. So how to keep it in check?

Combating Stress at Work

To begin, recognize that stress isn't always negative. Sometimes the adrenaline rush that comes on before a big meeting or presentation can sharpen the senses and provide for optimum performance. But chronic stress can have a deleterious impact on health and is linked with negative workplaces outcomes such as absenteeism and loss of productivity.

Therefore, stress needs to be managed. For tips on reducing job stress by prioritizing and organizing read Stress at Work: How to Reduce and Manage Workplace and Job Stress.

Highlights include:

Practice realistic time management: Don't over commit; understand how long it takes to get tasks done.
Practice task management: Prioritize, break projects into small, manageable tasks and delegate.
Organize: Clutter creates stress. Organize for optimum mental performance.
Use your Emotional Intelligence: Master your emotions. Be self-aware and work on techniques to quickly calm yourself and remain a rational thinker when under duress.

More useful ideas can be found in the following articles:

Combating Stress with Lifestyle Choices

Keep in mind that tackling stress at work isn't enough. While the upcoming quarterly earnings report may be the source of anxiety, lifestyle changes at home can help keep things in perspective.

Get enough sleep. Dozing on the commute or in front of the TV isn't enough. Deep, regenerative sleep is needed regularly.
Exercise. No time for a regular regimen? Walk around the block during lunch or midday to recharge.
Eat a balanced diet. You are what you eat. Enough said.
Think positively. Sounds clichéd but positive thinking can translate into positive outcomes. Negative thinking can take a toll on the body.

Also consider techniques such as meditation, yoga, aromatherapy or the ten-minute day dreaming break. For more ideas for stress-busters check out the following resources:

How do you combat stress? Does your workplace use any innovative stress-busting techniques? Share your thoughts here and on the Beyond Folders Community's Facebook and Twitter pages.

by Candie Harris

Managing Productivity During the Summer

Community Manager — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 12:46:00 GMT

Memorial Day is in the rearview mirror, school vacation is almost upon us. With the "lazy, hazy, crazy" days of summer fast approaching, how best to maintain productivity during a season marked by holidays, vacations and distracting beach weather?

For starters, don't resist the time off. While it may seem counterintuitive, productivity is actually enhanced by taking a break. Roman poet Ovid famously said, "Take a rest; a field that is rested gives a bountiful crop."

Make a Plan and Hit the Road

Don't Forego Your Vacation This Summer!

The Upside of Downtime

Ovid's dictum holds true today. A 2009 study lead by Harvard Business School leadership professor Leslie Perlow confirms that getting away from work for set, preplanned periods of time can yield unexpected on-the-job benefits. The preparation required to successfully execute a shortened workweek produces tangible benefits which can include:

Better communication
Closer work relationships
Improved planning ahead
Streamlined work
Improved client service

Wall Street Journal reporter Sue Shellenbarger was inspired by the HBS study to put aside her own work for a set period each month and found her own productivity improving. Read her article If You Need to Work Better, Try Working Less for her first-hand account of increased productivity through planned respites.

Consider a Compressed Workweek

Looking for opportunities to let your field lie fallow? Explore the possibilities of working Summer Hours also commonly called a Compressed Workweek. Compressed schedules can be set up in a variety of ways, either 40 hours worked over 4 days, or a week of five nine-hour days followed by a week of four nine-hour days, giving employees a day off every other week. Some offices elect to give employees half day Fridays. Summer Hours typically are offered only between Memorial and Labor Days.

According to a study by Hewitt Associates, a leading HR consulting and outsourcing firm, the majority of firms who provide compressed workweeks during the summer find it successful in boosting employee retention, engagement and productivity.

While a flexible work schedule can provide plenty of upside-revitalized employees and improved workplace planning and communication- drawbacks to compressed workweeks exist and should be fully explored before embarking on any schedule changes.

Make Vacation Count

If a compressed work week isn't in the cards, recharge your batteries by making the most of your vacation days.

Alleviate pre-vacation stress by giving plenty of notice so schedules run smoothly and cross-train a colleague to sub in on your workload while you're out. Consider scheduling vacations after major projects and during slow periods so you can be confident your absence isn't burdensome.

And while you may need (or want) to check in, be sure to allow enough mental distance from work, that you can return recharged and ready.

Does your workplace have Summer Hours or policies to help manage productivity during the summer? Share your stories here and on the Beyond Folders Community's Facebook and Twitter pages.

by Carly Fadako

Are You Vacation Phobic?

Community Manager — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 13:05:00 GMT

How did you spend your summer vacation?

Millions of schoolchildren answer this question when they return to school in the Fall. But, as this NPR story relates, a lot of adult Americans would greet the same inquiry with a blank stare and deafening silence.

In the last decade or so, the American vacation has become an endangered species. According to BusinessWeek, over 50% of American workers fail to take all their annual vacation time. A sizeable 30% of us use fewer than half of our available days and 20% take only a few days off each year. Vacations are particularly scarce among the nation's small business owners, as noted in this denverpost.com article.

There seem to be multiple causes of the American vacation's demise. On average, we get eight paid vacation days per year. By sharp contrast, in many European countries, the government mandates that all employers offer at least 20 days of paid time off.

Beyond this relative deficit in days off, the recent recession has also dealt a blow to our ability - and willingness - to take vacations. As CNN.com reports, in addition to having less money to spend on vacations, we are afraid to take them because we do not want to risk losing our jobs. If you are like me, even when I do get away, I have a hard time leaving work behind. A daily traveler post brings this point home by quoting a research finding that "an estimated 83 percent of us check [our email] at least twice a day while on vacation."

If you are vacation phobic, there are steps you can take to get rest and relaxation and avoid burn out and stress-induced physical ills. Those grounded by travel expenses can take a staycation in your own communities to enjoy local activities and sites that you usually have no time to appreciate.

If leaving work is not an option, you might benefit from these workplace stress relievers. Sometimes, we can get away from it all just by gaining a bit of positive perspective from articles like this one on the Top 12 inspiring moments we saw at the Vancouver Olympics or this one featuring the fun and ultra-creative gummi bear chandelier.

by Bradley Eggers