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Posts Tagged ‘stress’

New Business Book Summary Available for Overworked and Overwhelmed

Posted in Book Summaries, Stress Management, tagged , , on July 10, 2015| Leave a Comment »

Overworked and OverwhelmedMost professionals do not realize that mindfulness, or the balance of awareness and intention, is the antidote to extreme stress. While mindfulness may initially seem like a complicated and elusive goal, leadership coach Scott Eblin demonstrates in his book, Overworked and Overwhelmed, that there actually is a straightforward methodology to achieving it. To this end, Eblin provides readers with an in-depth guide to the nature of mindfulness, as well as a set of mindful routines they can implement to curb feelings of burnout and be happier and more productive in both their work and home lives.

Eblin advises readers to:

  • Combine awareness with intention. Mindfulness requires professionals to cultivate an awareness of what is happening in the present moment and then take intentional steps to reduce the feelings of being overworked and overwhelmed.
  • Breathe. By practicing mindful, meditative breathing, professionals can control both their bodies’ fight or flight stress responses and the harmful effects on their health and cognitive abilities.
  • Identify best performance qualities. In order for professionals to identify the best routines to achieve mindfulness, they must first understand what their best performances look like. This way they have a reference point as to how they want to “show up” in their personal and professional lives.
  • Develop routines to reinforce mindfulness. Routines enable professionals to reduce the amount of time they spend making decisions. Mindful routines also provide a positive foundation for professionals to consistently show up at their best.
  • Strengthen body, mind, relationships, and spirit. In order to achieve mindfulness, professionals must adopt physical routines to stay healthy, mental routines to keep their minds free of clutter, relational routines to maintain their humanity, and spiritual routines to reinforce their sense of purpose.
  • Take measures to stay on track. To ensure that they stick to their mindful routines, professionals must work to mitigate their self-doubt, make themselves accountable to others, and practice time management.
  • Determine desired outcomes in the three important areas of life. In order for professionals to take mindful actions, they must first understand what outcomes they want to achieve in the domains of their home lives, work lives, and communities.

To learn more, please visit http://www.bizsum.com

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New Business Book Summary Available for The 5 Choices

Posted in Book Summaries, Time Management, tagged , , , , on June 30, 2015| Leave a Comment »

The 5 ChoicesAs the demands of work and home life continue to escalate, people are feeling more overextended, overwhelmed, and overstressed than ever before. However, at the same time, people want to be more meaningfully productive and live personally fulfilling lives. In The 5 Choices, Kory Kogon, Adam Merrill, and Leena Rinne explain how extraordinary productivity and personal fulfillment is attainable for everyone—it just requires making the right choices when it comes to managing decisions, attention, and energy. The authors present a matrixed and logical process for choosing, on an ongoing basis, how and where to best spend one’s time and attention in order to create a productive and fulfilled life.

According to the authors:

  • Anyone can do extraordinary work. Every person has unique gifts, skills, and talents he or she brings to the table. By making the right decisions about which activities to focus attention on and ensuring energy is expended and replenished appropriately, those gifts, skills, and talents can be maximized for extraordinary results.
  • Being extraordinarily productive is both easier and harder than ever before. In the high-tech information age, individuals have more opportunities than ever to make significant contributions in their work lives. However, the information age also brings with it a constant barrage of demands that can distract them from getting the most important work done.
  • Do more by doing less. Being busy is often confused with being productive. By focusing efforts on the truly important things, individuals can do less overall while ultimately achieving more.
  • People can change their brains. The brain is capable of both reactive (automatic) decision making and proactive(thought-based) decision making. By becoming more conscious and less automatic in decision making, people can change their brains to be more thoughtful on an ongoing basis, which leads to better choices in the long term.
  • Do not just think–do! Thinking about making life changes is well and good, but without a developed plan for executing these changes, they are nothing more than wishful thinking. Extraordinary productivity requires a plan, a schedule, and follow-through.
  • Technology is both a blessing and a curse. Technology has the capability to make life much easier by streamlining processes, enhancing communication, and creating new opportunities. However, it can also be distracting, intrusive, and a time waster if not used properly. The goal is to rule technology rather than be ruled by it.
  • Manage energy, not time. There are myriad time management systems to help people make better use of their time. The problem is that time is finite. It makes better sense to manage energy by continually using it and replenishing it to get the right things done in the time available.
  • Extraordinary productivity is a choice. People must choose between operating on “autopilot” and giving in to the lure of time-wasting activities or consciously taking charge of decisions regarding how to spend their time.

To learn more, please visit http://www.bizsum.com

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New summary available for Mindfulness at Work

Posted in Book Summaries, Personal Development, tagged , , , on June 12, 2015| Leave a Comment »

Mindfulness at WorkThe professional world is characterized by high levels of stress, discontentment, and burnout. Individuals spend their entire lives laboring in their chosen professions, and the joyless attitudes that define much of the modern approach to work produces palpably unpleasant results. Spurred by the prevalence of mindless misery in the workplace, Dr. Stephen McKenzie pennedMindfulness at Work in an attempt to introduce the meditative discipline of mindfulness to today’s modern professionals. By offering helpful tips on integrating mindfulness practices into people’s everyday jobs, Dr. McKenzie explores how forging meaningful connections results in positive health benefits, increased job satisfaction, and improved performance.

According to the authors:

  • Leadership is highly valued in the workplace, but a precise definition can be difficult to identify. Mindful leadership is characterized by true engagement with others and the realization of collective goals rather than self-interest and power-centric objectives.
  • Individuals generally pick professions and stick to them for their entire working lives. This can often seem like a prison sentence, but by incorporating mindfulness principles into their professional activities, individuals can transform their outlooks and increase their personal satisfaction.
  • Professional relationships can be hard to manage; therefore, leaders must place relational perspectives around mindful principles to find common ground and work for a common good.
  • Creativity is a frequently used buzzword in the workplace, but it is often seen as elusive and difficult to capture within the parameters of a job description. Mindful professionals can heighten their creative output by simply letting go of whatever is stopping them.
  • Many job-related tasks can seem monotonous and frustrating, but by engaging with the tasks at hand and shedding previous notions of their characteristics, mindful professionals can find deep enjoyment in even the most mundane chores.
  • All industries can benefit from a healthy dose of mindfulness, but some professions in particular can see very specific results, including those in healthcare, law, education, sales, and the arts.

To learn more, please visit http://www.bizsum.com

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New summary available for How Not to Worry

Posted in Book Summaries, Stress Management, tagged , , , , on April 1, 2013| Leave a Comment »

Worry can adversely impact people’s daily lives and the lives of those around them. In How Not to Worry, Paul McGee explores why worry is such a significant part of people’s lives. He exposes some of the behavioral traps people fall into when dealing with life’s challenges and seeks to explore the causes as well as the consequences of worry. After defining worry and discussing its causes, McGee offers practical tools and ideas to help people deal with worries and challenges (real or otherwise) in a more constructive way.

Despite the fact that people in the developed world live a long, healthier, and safer life than at any other time in human history, worry and stress are on the rise. But there are steps people can take to relieve this stress.

  • Manage mental diet. People should be mindful of watching too much “CNN” — constant negative news.
  • Escape “escalators.” People should avoid sharing worries with people who escalate them.
  • Cut the clutter. People should write things down to “declutter” the mind and also declutter their personal space. Clutter creates confusion and counteracts calm.
  • Find the funny. Laughter really is the best medicine.
  • Use music as a muse. Music affects people’s moods, so people should be careful what they listen to.
  • If something cannot be controlled or influenced, people must learn to accept it.
  • To re-tell is to re-live and this is not always helpful.
  • Move on. People cannot start the next chapter of their lives if they keep re-reading the last one.

To download three free summaries, please visit our site.

Related book summaries in the BBS library: The Stress Effect, Thrive on Pressure, Choke

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Work/Life Balance Does Not Have to Be an “Either or” Situation

Posted in Leadership and Management, Motivation and Engagement, Retention, Time Management, tagged , , , , on December 3, 2010| Leave a Comment »

With Thanksgiving leftovers still in the refrigerator and the Holiday season in full swing, it’s an important time for all of us to recognize what is important in our lives. Much of leadership training involves prioritizing work and managing time in an effort to become more efficient, but now more than ever, a good work/life balance is essential for a healthy and productive workforce.

Many companies have started offering benefits such as flextime and telecommuting to help workers reach a balance between their personal and professional lives, but this may not be enough in many cases. According to Jennifer Lacy, director of research for The New York Times Job Market, “There is a general perception among employees that working long hours is important for career advancement…This notion, and the pay and promotion policies that support it, often undermines attempts to promote work/life balance.”

For corporate work/life initiatives to succeed, they must be supported from the top. Culture is one of the largest driving forces in any initiative, but the recession has put even more pressure on those wishing to take advantage of work/life benefits because they are afraid of being viewed as not dedicated to the company. However, if companies can launch successful work/life programs, they can reap rewards that include less absenteeism, lower burn-out rates, and a more productive workforce.

So, while enjoying those leftovers and planning the family festivities this season, leaders and managers should also be thinking about how to best serve both work and family all year round.

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