Are you working or resting today? It’s Sunday afternoon and if you’ve invested a lot of time working this week, how about resting today. I actually believe that we have lost the art of resting. What does it mean? Here is my favorite definition I found on Google, take a short break from one’s activities in order to relax. What a great definition. Take a break today. We have lost sight of rest I believe. I typically work until I fall asleep every day. But after my workshop yesterday on Sharpening the Saw, I realize that I am out of balance. I work all the time, every day. Rest is not even in my vocabulary. But I know I need to rest.

I desire to be more effective in my business, in my work, and in my relationships. In order to become more effective, I need to take some time and add rest to my life’s focus. I enjoy working, however I have felt better this weekend, just by stopping the madness and relaxing. What could you do today that would be relaxing?

Here are a few ideas:

1. Take a power nap or just a nap

2. Read a book

3. Just sit and meditate - enjoy your surroundings

4. How about a massage

5. A pedicure

6. Go for a walk

7. Check this article: Freelance Fun on Fridays - Some great suggestions!

Take a break this afternoon from your regular activities and relax. Take some time to spend with friends, family or yourself, depending on what will bring you the most relaxation. I would love to hear from some of you about what you did to rest and relax today!! Tomorrow is coming, so enjoy today!

Image Credit: sxc.hu

Pimp Your Work

An article from Scientific American got my attention today, especially since I found myself sick several times last month. The article, entitled “The Danger of Stress”, revealed studies showing how long-term stress can be harmful to the body.

It might seem counterintuitive, but… stress makes our immune systems less effective because it actually elicits an immune response itself. [It] causes the body to release pro-inflammatory cytokines, immune factors that initiate responses against infections. When the body produces these cytokines over long periods of time—for instance, as a result of chronic stress—all sorts of bad things can happen. Not only does it hamper our body’s ability to fight infection and heal wounds, but chronic inflammation also increases our risk of heart disease, osteoporosis, and autoimmune diseases including type 2 diabetes.
Source: SciAm.com

Apparently, regular stress also increases one’s risk for allergies, and if you find that you’ve had an allergic response while in a stressful situation (the day before a big presentation, for instance), your allergic reaction will get worse within the next few days.

To read the rest of the article over at Scientific American, click here.

Do you notice the effects of stress on your body?  What do you do to relieve yourself of stress?

Photo Credit: Image from Charlie Balch  from stock.xchng

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Only recently did I write about sleep as an essential part of your workday as well as another article on taking a permanent break, but today’s post takes the cake when it comes to slacking off.  Today we’ll discuss how daydreaming can be a fundamental part of your work.

Don’t look at me like that, I didn’t discover it (but you already know what a slacker I tend to be, so it’s too late for these disclaimers).

In a recent article from The Boston Globe, scientists from several universities in the US and England discuss the importance of daydreaming in our lives.

Traditionally, we see daydreaming as a waste of time or a luxury we can’t afford in today’s hectic workplace.  The truth is that it stimulates creativity, since our thoughts are more abstract and we’re not bound to whatever is going on at present.

Research from the East Anglia University in England shows that children who lack imagination tend to be those who don’t have idle time to daydream.  However, Jonathan Schooler from the University of California claims that not all daydreams are created equal. Some daydreamers get too caught up in the moment and don’t realize that their minds are wandering, while others become aware of these daydreams and put their abstract ideas into good use.

“The point is that it’s not enough to just daydream,” Schooler says. “Letting your mind drift off is the easy part. The hard part is maintaining enough awareness so that even when you start to daydream you can interrupt yourself and notice a creative insight.”
Source: “Daydream Achievers” by Jonah Lehrer, The Boston Globe

So how do we make daydreaming work for us?

Be active when you’re daydreaming.  Don’t just sit and watch your daydreams as if you were sitting on your couch and watching TV.  It helps to be aware if you’ve struck a particularly interesting idea or imagery that you can use in other aspects of your life, including your work.

Don’t edit yourself.  Sometimes, after hitting a golden idea, negativity starts getting in your way.  You start thinking “That would never work” or “That’s stupid”.  If something struck you, it’s likely that it will be useful for something, someday.  Jot it down no matter how absurd it may seem.

Know if the moment is appropriate.  Daydreaming while crossing a busy street is a bad idea.  However, daydreaming while you’re on a break, eating lunch, or washing the dishes is perfectly fine.

The writer, Jonah Lehrer, ends the article beautifully:

One of the simplest ways to foster creativity, then, may be to take daydreams more seriously. Even the mundane daydreams that occur hundreds of times a day are helping us plan for the future, interact with others, and solidify our own sense of self. And when we are stuck on a particularly difficult problem, a good daydream isn’t just an escape - it may be the most productive thing we can do.
Source: “Daydream Achievers” by Jonah Lehrer, The Boston Globe

Tell that to your boss the next time she catches you daydreaming.

Or, on second thought, don’t.

Photo Credit: Image from Sophie  from stock.xchng

PimpYourWork.com

Let me be honest: I slept for the most part of the day.  True, it was because I was feeling ill, but after a good day of sleep, I have to say that I feel more capable to tackle the work I have to do. I seem more focused and less likely to give in to distractions.

What are the benefits of sleeping, exactly?  If we think clocking in some overtime work and burning the midnight oil will do wonders for our careers, we might be in for a surprise if we find out that it might be doing the opposite.

A recent article from Scientific American shows how sleeping can make us smarter (emphasis mine):

It is now clear that sleep can consolidate memories by enhancing and stabilizing them and by finding patterns within studied material even when we do not know that patterns might be there. It is also obvious that skimping on sleep stymies these crucial cognitive processes: some aspects of memory consolidation only happen with more than six hours of sleep. Miss a night, and the day’s memories might be compromised—an unsettling thought in our fast-paced, sleep-deprived society.
Source: Scientific American, August 2008

Apart from making us smarter, sleep can also make us more productive, as this article from India Times suggests.  The senior sleep consultant at the Indraprastha Apollo Hospitals at New Delhi says (emphasis mine):

“First, any person who has a good 7-8 hours (depending upon individuals) of night sleep does not biologically require an afternoon nap. But, of course, a siesta can be very refreshing and re-energising for the people in active professions. It’s a different matter, however, that in today’s hectic life and demanding workplaces, a nap is an absolute luxury. However, for those who can afford this luxury, say for instance self-employed, retired or housewives, it can be a great stress-buster.”
Source: IndiaTimes.com

If sleep is so important in our waking hours, most of which is devoted to work, then this means that a good night’s sleep is also essential to our work.  So if we’re having trouble sleeping, how do we manage to make the most out of it?

Schedule sleep time.  By setting some sleeping time aside instead of just scheduling your waking hours,  we can make a better effort at sleeping properly.  Also, sleeping on a regular schedule keeps our body clock predictable.  A good night’s sleep means we won’t be surprised in to wake up from an unexpected nap during the workday.

Know more about your sleeping habits.  Do you sleep better if the room is completely dark?  Does a glass of warm milk help?  What time do you feel the most active?  Do you wake up in the middle of the night?   If you need help figuring these things out, I found quite an extensive sleep profiling quiz on the BBC website that helps you analyze your sleeping profile and what you can do to fix it.  The only problem with the quiz is that in some portions, it has limited time options (for example, I couldn’t enter that I felt more active and optimized at 3am, the earliest time I could enter was 5am).

Develop a pre-sleeping ritual.  Once you find out what conditions make you sleepy, incorporate them into a nightly ritual before you sleep.  Doing so will help you mentally and physically get into ’sleeping mode’, instead of just lying awake in bed for hours waiting for sleep to happen.

How serious are you about your sleep?  Do you take naps within the day?  Do you try to get at least 8 hours of sleep each night?  What effects does sleep (or the lack of it)  have on your performance at work?

Image by Lynne Lancaster from sxc.hu