Learn To Manage Business-related Stress
Most people don't understand the toll that business-related stress can take on their health. It's not just your brain - it can affect your body, too. The stress can lead to obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease.
This blog post will share 9 easy ways to manage stress in the workplace. You'll learn how to reduce your risk of developing heart problems or getting Type 2 diabetes while increasing performance and managing change more effectively.
Manage the most stressful aspects of your job. It's tempting to try to work through the toughest jobs, but it's just going to add more stress to your life. Focus on what you can do immediately and let go of the rest. The less stress you feel, the happier and healthier you'll be.
Don't use food as a crutch. Food is comforting, but it will not give you lasting satisfaction. You might feel better for an hour or two after eating comfort food, but then that feeling goes away and you're left with a stomach ache or even worse - diabetes! Instead of turning to food for comfort, try exercising or other relaxing activities like meditation or yoga instead.
Make time for yourself. It's important to focus on your own needs, but you can't do that if you're constantly meeting the needs of others and being pulled in too many directions at once. When you're stressed out, it's easy to forget that you need a break and that it's okay to take care of yourself. Save some time each day to do something just for yourself - like read, meditate, or listen to music.
Plan ahead. When you're under stress, it's easy to forget the tasks that need doing because everything seems urgent or important. It's crucial to plan your time so you don't have to worry about forgetting anything. One way to make this easier is by using a shared calendar. (Shared calendars like Anydo give your team members real-time access to each other's schedule, so they can see exactly when each of their coworkers will be busy.)
Find a stress-free hobby or activity that you can do on the side. It doesn't need to be expensive or time consuming - just something that makes you happy and takes your mind off of work for a little while every day. Some great ideas include: playing sports, writing poetry, gardening, doing yoga/meditation, going for walks/runs, etc.
Get enough sleep. Sleep helps to regulate your hormones, release endorphins, and even helps you think more clearly. But you have to respect your own needs as well as the needs of your coworkers. Everyone has different sleep patterns, so make sure that everyone in the office knows what their own sleeping schedule is and makes allowances accordingly.
Relax! Avoid working on your desk or when you're standing up. When you're stressed out, you increase blood pressure and heart rate and shorten how long it takes for blood to flow through your body's capillaries (and other parts). It's also hard to stay relaxed when you're standing - try sitting or laying down.
Take preventive measures. A lot of heart problems are preventable if people started living healthier lives 10, 15, 20 years ago. If you're over the age of 40, get a blood test to check for diabetes and cholesterol levels every few years. Try out different routines for stress management and find one that works for you so you don't have to worry about getting sick later in life.
Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/01/23/stress-management-tips_n_6530872.html [ARTICLE END]
Podcast Episode : The Human Brain
In this episode of The Human Effect Podcast, Ben and I discuss what's going on in our brains when we listen to music, and why everyone is different when it comes to enjoying music. I also share a little bit about my personal playlist that has been 2 years in the making, and why I believe everyone should have a playlist like this. Enjoy! [START] Music plays such an important role in so many aspects of our daily lives. Whether it's playing in a restaurant, at our desk, or just in the background while we're walking down the street, people listen to music all day, every day. But most people don't think about what's going on in their brains when they listen to music. It's been called " music for the brain ." In this episode of The Human Effect Podcast , I talk about my 2-year personal playlist I've been working on for everyone to use and why it might be beneficial for everyone to have one too. Because everybody is different when it comes to enjoying music... and everybody likes different genres, rhythms, and melodies. I'm sure you've heard this; that "there are 10,000 versions of the same song." A lot of people think the number is off a bit at 10,000 but there is definitely an abundance of music available for us to enjoy. And with all these different types of music out there, what do we know about everyone's unique way of enjoying and experiencing music? [END]
Source: http://www.humaneffectpodcast.com/music-for-the-brain/ [PODCAST END]
Overcoming everyday bias (Part 1)
I recently gave a talk at the Design Thinkers Singapore meetup titled Overcoming Everyday Bias . Part of this talk was about the "early days" of behavioural economics and how much progress has been made since then. When I started behavioural economics, there were very few papers on the subject. Now we have dozens of papers and there is an abundance of research coming out on a variety of topics. I discussed the early efforts in these papers, as well as where behavioural economics is today (e.g. in terms of theory and research) and what more needs to be done before we can truly get rid of our everyday biases (like mind reading and anchoring bias) completely.
Conclusion
Typically when people think of cognitive biases, they immediately think about how they can be misused. We tend to associate cognitive biases with failure at school or in the workplace, and we worry that someone who is a victim of a cognitive bias will not be able to survive in society. But it's important not to focus on the misuse of all biases. Although many biases are misused, there are many cases where they are used correctly.
The example of anchoring suggests that we should always ask more personal questions when making decisions because if you don't know anything about someone you're buying something from, then you won't have a reference point for how much to spend on that item.