Project: Workload Unloading

It could be a hostile work environment. Creative differences. Financial burdens. Promotions. Humiliating demotions. Onboarding. Firing. A once in a lifetime risk. The situations and predicaments we find ourselves in as employers, employees and colleagues occur to all of us in a variety of forms and throughout different seasons. As we punch in our virtual clocks, time begins to sucker punch our life with stress and anxiety. Knowing how to overcome these frustrations before they overcome us is essential to healing ourselves, interoffice relationships and even those beyond our cubicles.

Taking proactive steps or being conscious and aware when noticing you begin to feel your workload is preoccupying too much brain space is the first step to unloading.

Here are a few ways to relieve stress:

Chew gum: Researchers have conducted studies that indicate chewing gum for more than 10 minutes is highly effective in reducing stress. Note - excessive gum chewing can cause adverse side effects and to those listening may annoy their senses should you smack your lips or pop bubbles.

Step away from your screen: Not only should you ensure you feet, back, chair, keyboard and screen are always at optimal levels when sitting at your desk, but every hour working, try to prevent eyestrain by taking a five-minute break. Get a cup of coffee or take a restroom break. Whatever you do, don’t check your phone or trade one screen for another.

Listen to your favorite playlist: Research shows that listening to soothing music like nature sounds or melodic tunes can lower your heart rate and blood pressure. Not quite your genre? Statistics also prove up-beat, fast-paced music can help you blow off your steam. Time to plug in and meet some deadlines!

Eat up, keep up: In the long run, skipping food because you think you don’t have time decreases your ability to focus and ultimately slows down your productively. Whether it’s healthy snacks between meals or indulging in a large breakfast, lunch and dinner, ensure you stay hydrated as well.

Be grateful: You have a job. It may not be a career. It may not be where you want to be in five years. But you have what not everyone has. You have accomplished a lot to get where you are and you will continue to accomplish more if you keep overcoming stress before it overcomes you.

 -The Green Couch

Project: It's Focus Time!

There are innumerable things that can distract us in life, or depending on our personalities, that we can use to distract others.

For some of us we are very intentional about our time and how we use it to get to the finish line.

However, if our eyes are on the finish line, are we paying enough attention to the projects at hand?

Are we allowing the finish line to be one of the distractions? Is the deadline distracting us from quality over quantity?

It is time to prioritize our focus and be intentional in the small details, so there are no loopholes to our structure, and the integrity of our work is something of which we can be proud.

It is time to check ourselves before we check off our tasks:

Do only what needs to be done. That is not an excuse to be lazy or do the bare minimum, but do not do as much as you can just because you are capable of doing it. If it can wait until tomorrow, let it wait. Do what you are supposed to do today, and do it well. Do not let things that can be done tomorrow distract you from today’s perfection.

Schedule everything that requires your presence. Never overestimate your memory. It is far too easy to overstress yourself mentally, but it is worse when you overbook yourself. It is impossible to be in two places at once or take two calls simultaneously. Color code everything in your virtual calendar for billing, meetings and any information that needs your attention. Use specific colors for team meetings, internal meetings, joint meetings, external meetings, phone conferences, etc. Your brain is already over stimulated, so you need a visual of what is going on to hold you accountable.

Use as few contact methods as possible. The more methods you allow people to reach you, the more methods there will be for miscommunication. If you email with one person, try to email consistently with them, at least for the remainder of that entire project. It is much easier to track the progression of the conversation as well.

Be on time, every time. And not just to the office or to a meeting. Be on time with your presentations, with your proposals, with your projections. Whatever your work entails, be on time, as it frees up space mentally and physically for the next batch of work to resume. Not only that, but it is the professional thing to do. You know, what you were hired to do?

Enjoy what you do. If, like in school, the only thing you like about your job is recess or lunch, then it is time to reassess what you do. If you cannot love what you do, your focus is clouded through desperation to get out. Not a victorious finish line.

Ready to reevaluate your workweek and focus on the in-the-now "focus time" and not just the finish line?

-The Green Couch Project

Project: The Green Couch Initiative

We tweet, post messages on Facebook, encounter people in impromptu meetings and set up sessions on The Couch. All with one intentional goal: To inspire people to speak, follow and fulfill their dreams.

We’ve formed an ever-expanding community of entrepreneurs that spill their risk-taking gutsy. Some whom are new to the game, others who are just beginning to pursue their dreams. Some getting their first taste of success, some their first taste of failure.

And so continues our purpose, to create a safe virtual and physical environment in which people - in which you- can,

1.)  Speak [your dream] Sometimes it’s literal – we need to voice it, we need to shout it. It’s like we say around here, “If it’s not a Hell Yeah! it’s a No!” Put some oomph behind your declaration. It may be to yourself, to your family or in your business proposal, but it’s time to speak it.

2.)  Follow [your dream] Follow up and follow through. Now that you’ve spoken up, it’s real. And there are people watching you follow your dream and who might want to follow along. Part of that business proposal can include an addendum that includes, “The Hell Yeah Guide to Making it Happen!”

3.)  Fulfill [your dream] Setting a deadline, meeting it and moving on to the next milestone? That’s called success. But there’s a reason they say reach for the stars. 1. Because they are so high, you’ll always push yourself to work upwards and 2.) Because there are so many you always have another star to reach.

 And when that happens, when you find another star, you have an opportunity to Speak [your dream]…

-The Green Couch