Are You Overwhelmed, Overworked, Overloaded and Just Plain STRESSED OUT?

Well are you overwhelmed, overworked, overloaded and just plain STRESSED OUT? If you're not, congratulations! You're probably in the minority of those who have learnt how to manage stress. And, if you're not suffering from the effects of seemingly having too much to do in too little time then I'm sure you know of someone, perhaps someone very close to you, who falls into this category.

Earlier this week I mentioned that Tim Ferris was coming to London to launch his "The 4-Hour Workweek". Whenever, I think of this book I'm reminded of another - "Crazy Busy" by Dr Edward Hallowell - what a great title! The rest of this book's title is "Overstretched, Overbooked, and About to Snap! Strategies for Coping in a World Gone ADD".

The problem is that our feelings of being overwhelmed, overworked and overloaded are actually compromising our effectiveness, productivity and efficiency. We get things done but at a cost to both the quality and quantity of work we produce and at a cost to our physical, mental and emotional health.

So here are some tips for dealing with being overloaded, overworked and overwhelmed.

3 Tips for Coping with Information Overload

1. Set Goals
Without goals we drift aimlessly through life. It is important to have clear goals. Your goals act as a filter. Anything, that is not relevant to your goals you can simply ignore.

This also means though, that the goals you set must be holistic, balanced and in harmony with each other. They must encompass every area of your life, so for example you don't build a business and sacrifice your health. Set your goals so that they become synergistic - working on one goal will help to support another.

2. Eliminate
Cut the clutter. Make it a habit to get rid of things that no longer serve a useful purpose in your life. Aim to keep at least a section of your work space or desk clear at all times. If your work space is cluttered it will inhibit your thinking and productivity.

Don't let newspapers, magazines, letters, etc. accumulate. If you subscribe to magazine decide up to which year or issue you're going to keep and recycle the rest. Information is often repeated in more recent publications. Plus, the more recent publications will contain the most-up-date information.

3. Turn it Off!
Learn how to switch off to become more switched on. Get comfortable with switching off your email, turning off your Blackberry, mobile phone, etc. for hours at a time.

You don't need to be a constant conduit for information. Periodically closing your personal information highway will free more of your time for focused work and play as well as provide the time for the restoration of your mind and body.

3 Tips for Coping with Feeling Overworked

1. Learn How to Say "No"
Entrepreneurs get ahead in business and life by practicing the art of saying yes. In other words, sometimes an opportunity may come your way and you may not have a clue as to how to go about it but you say yes anyway because you relish the challenge. You know that while it will stretch you it will also move you closer to your goals.

However, there are many things that you do on a day-to-day basis that perhaps you don't need to do because you are not the best person for the job. Find that person and delegate that particular task to them. However, don't say yes to other people's requests when you know that it's not in your best interest, simply because you can't pluck up the courage to say no.

2. Plan
Plan your day-to-day activities and also spend time planning the various projects that you are involved with. Plans are not rigidly set in stone. They need to be flexible because when you set about planning you want to predict where any problems might arise.

Then you make contingency plans for each of these problems. In this way, if something does go wrong, you will be prepared and can smoothly make the transition to an alternative plan. And, even if something unforeseen arises, the chances are that you will still be better prepared and better able to cope.

3. Focus
Decide what is really urgent and important and focus on these tasks first and foremost. Clear dedicated blocks of time to focus on just one task at a time. Where possible, aim to complete that task in the allotted time.

If something relates to a bigger project then break that project down into discrete, bite-sized chunks that can be completed within short timescales. In this way, whenever you work on that project you will make considerable forward momentum.

3 Tips for Coping with Feeling Overwhelmed

1. Exercise
Do some exercise, even if you just do some basic stretches at your desk. However, if possible, get out of your office to exercise. You don't have to go to the gym. Why not go exercise in the park or by the beach?

Go for a brisk walk. Aim to have you arms free so that you can move them in forward and back as you stride. This will help to integrate right and left brain activity.

2. Change
Change your task. Do something that is less taxing for a few minutes or simply change the nature of the activity you were doing. For example, if you've been writing maybe take a few moments to read.

You might want to spend a few minutes doing a crossword or Suduko puzzle.

3. Ask for help
Don't be afraid to ask for help. Too many people suffer in silence. Especially, if you are working as a part of a larger team, your team-mates would rather know that you are feeling overwhelmed so that they can devise ways to help you out, than find out at a critical time that you cannot deliver your part of the project on time.

If you are an employee speak to your boss to explore possible ways of restructuring your workload. If you're the boss then look at introducing new systems and ways of automating aspects of your work to take the pressure off your shoulders.

Interview with Dr Edward Hallowell

Courtesy of Joe Polish and my colleagues at Piranha Marketing you can listen to an interview with Dr Edward Hallowell today, Thursday 27 March:

Time: 3pm Pacific / 6pm Eastern

Phone: 1-507-726-3343

Passcode: 32708#

Replay at: 6pm Pacific / 9pm Eastern

The psychiatrist and founder of the Hallowell Center for Cognitive and Emotional Health in Sudbury, Massachusetts, Dr Hallowell has appeared four times on Oprah, such is his appeal and the value of the information he shares. So take advantage of this special opportunity to learn how you take control of your life and better manage stress.

Watch the video below for a humorous excerpt from Dr Hallowell's "Success with Sanity" seminar.



Click HERE if you cannot see video


How to Stay Cool, Calm and Collected
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Boost Energy Levels and Reduce Stress Levels by Giving Your Life the Room 101 Treatment

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I was watching Room 101 the other night where Paul Merton's guest was Ricky Gervais. Room 101 is a popular BBC comedy program where celebrities get to air their pet peeves and either banish them to Room 101 or take them home. The program is derived from George Orwell's novel "nineteen eighty-four" in which Room 101 contained the "worst thing in the world".

As I watched the program it struck me that more of us should give our lives the Room 101 treatment. Another word for the phrase "pet peeves" is tolerations. Tolerations are things we put up with in our lives. They drain us of our energy and they increase our stress load.

They can be minor things like a squeaky door but each time you hear that door squeak you say to yourself "I must oil those hinges". And that thought will keep revolving inside your head until you oil those hinges.

Tolerations can also be relatively more serious like a toxic relationship. We can continue a relationship even when we know it is not nurturing us. That person is like an energy vampire.

We don't feel good when we are around that particular person. In fact, we may find that we are not expressing ourselves as authentically as we would in other more fulfilling relationships.

The thing is you could have a more fulfilling and nurturing relationship if only you would create room for it.

Tolerations can be dealt with. You've just got to be ruthless in dealing with them. First of all, identify your tolerations. One of my coaches once asked me to write down 101 of my tolerations. It was challenging and I didn't quite get to 101 but I got very close. Once the floodgates open, all those things that have been niggling at your mind rush to the surface.

So my challenge to you is first to write down 101 tolerations. You may get stuck a few times but persevere because this exercise alone is well worth the effort.

You see, even if you simply put this list aside and forget all about it, if you review it after a few months you will be amazed at just how many of those items you are able to cross off. Once you've identified your tolerations in this manner your sub-conscious mind gets to work in helping you to eliminate these tolerations.

Your aim is to become a toleration-free zone.

The next step is to deal with your tolerations in a systematic and objective fashion. Another of my mentors gives his tolerations the "D" treatment. So once you've identified your tolerations go over each item and decide whether you are going to:

a) Drop it,
b) Delegate it, or
c) Do it NOW

a) Drop it

For example are you in the habit of saving magazine articles and emails saying I'll read that later and you never get around to reading them? Then this is an example of an item you should drop.

Let's face it. Life is short. We'll never have the time to do all the things we want to do. Therefore, ensure that you have the time to do the things that really matter.

b) Delegate it

Are you one the type of person who thinks that if I don't do it won't get done right? Are you the type of person who tries to do everything themselves? If so, get over it. Find ways to automate some of the things you are doing manually, i.e. delegate certain tasks to machines.

Identify what you are really good at doing and what specifically needs to be done by you. Then be diligent in finding individuals and or companies that can handle the rest. You might have to train someone to do certain tasks but, once the training is done, you can comfortably hand over that task.

c) Do it NOW!

There are some tasks that, if you don't take care of immediately, will have serious and perhaps irreversible consequences. You know what those tasks are and yet you procrastinate in handling those tasks. Why? Fear is often a factor and often they are things you don't like dealing with.

I don't need you to think about what will happen if you don't handle this particular task - you are already there. What I want you to do is simply "Feel the fear and do it anyway"®. You are going to feel much better as a result because,

1. You have overcome your fear and taken action, and
2. You have regained control over that particular situation.

You will most likely find that dealing with these tasks is not as daunting as you first imagined.

Tolerations clutter our lives and when and where there is clutter energy cannot flow freely. When energy cannot flow freely blockages occur in our system and this results in symptoms of stress, such as headaches, nervous tics, tremors, skin rashes, indigestion, chest pain, fatigue, muscular tension and pain. Does any of this sound familiar?

Then take a no-nonsense approach to tolerations and start the process of eroding them from your life. The more tolerations you are able to remove from your life and the better you become at swiftly dealing with tolerations the more your energy levels and your ability to deal with stress will improve.

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Please note that "Feel the fear and do it anyway"® is the registered trademark of Susan Jeffers,Ph D and is being used with her permission.

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Time to Improve Stress Management in the Work Place as BBC Reports that Ill-Health Costs Economy £100bn

The National Director for Health and Work, Dame Carol Black, said that ill-health was costing the economy £100bn a year. To be frank, I'm not surprised that ill-health is having such a huge financial toll on the nation's economy. Hardly a week goes by when you do not hear, via the media, of the extreme effects that stress is having on individuals.

Many people are resorting to alcohol and drugs to cope with their stressful workloads. Many individuals are experiencing severe depression and many people have resorted to taking their own lives as an escape route.

Some of the Key Recommendations to address this issue are as follows:

"GPs - Current sick note system should be reformed to create fit notes, spelling out what the patient can do."

"Employers - Should offer more support to staff including healthy lifestyle promotion, such as subsidised gym membership, as well as access to occupational health teams.

"NHS - Call to pilot fit for health scheme, which will work via GP referral. Case managers appointed to manage absence through access to physios, counseling and advice."

These are all sound recommendations and many employers are already taking measures to offer their staff support. Just last week I presented a series of stress management workshops for the teachers at Deptford Green School as part of a wider range of activities that included massage therapy, yoga and health checks.

However, one can't help but think that as far as GPs and the NHS is concerned, that these measures should already be in place. I know that in some areas there are a variety of health promotion schemes but we obviously need to do much more.

There is another important point to all this. This report was prompted by the cost to the country's economy but what about the cost to people's quality of life?

Dame Carol Black said that:

"£100bn sounds a large figure. But I think the cost to human life is much larger.

"For most people their work is a key factor in their self-worth, family esteem and identity.

"But it is so easy to fall out of work and move to a place where your confidence and well-being suffers. We must do more to help people, because if you intervene at an early stage you can stop the longer-term problems emerging."

She is right on all counts but the Government's agenda is to have a healthy workforce. After all, most people are nothing but worker bees in this society.

It is up to the individual to be proactive in taking better care of themselves and adopt measures to manage their stress so that they can not only earn a living to support themselves and their family but also enjoy life itself.

Journalist and women's rights activist, Margaret Fuller, said that:

"Men for the sake of getting a living forget to live."

How true. Are you enjoying life or is your life just slipping by?

Many doctors believe that stress lies at the heart of all diseases; yet we need a certain amount of stress to survive. The trouble is that in our modern society it is so easy to reach the state of overwhelm because there are so many pressures and demands on our bodies and minds.

"Stress is the trash of modern life - we all generate it but if you don't dispose of it properly, it will pile up and overtake your life."
Danzae Pace

So take steps today to evaluate your physical and mental state. And, if you are feeling the adverse affects of stress seek help before your life completely unravels.