Your Happiness Factor

Feeling stressed? Learn to be present! Wendy Smith is a Career Coach and Life Coach   helping you to solve difficult problems at work Many of the great religions talk about the value of being able to sit quietly in the present. Sometimes this is a prelude to prayer – sometimes sitting in the present is the prayer or at perhaps a step on the way to enlightenment.  But only recently have we understood the psychological value of being wholly in the present, with or without the religion. I work with clients who feel stressed. And being able to bring themselves wholly into the present can be a great help to them. Here is what I teach them to do. My practice of presence! Find yourself a quiet spot.  This can be a pleasant spot within your home, or somewhere quiet at work.  It is great if you can do the exercise out of doors in your garden or even on a park bench.  But you need somewhere where you can sit for a few minutes and no...

Stress Management: How to Relax Your Mind  Wendy Mason  is a Career Coach and Life Coach   helping you to solve difficult problems at work Learn how to relax your mind from wellness consultant Samantha Ibarguen in this Howcast video. You can check for Howcast playlists for guides that interest you at  http://bit.ly/ytmainplaylists Wendy Mason  is a Career Coach and Life Coach helping you to solve difficult problems at work wendymason@wisewolfcoaching.com  http://wisewolfcoaching.com

Managing emotions - Identifying feelings (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) Time Management - Pinpointing Those Emotional Blocks to Change My last two posts about Time Management ( The Clock Is Ticking! How Good Are You At Time Management) and ( Time Management: Know Where Time Goes - Keep A Log ) said that the first two steps in managing time are to be clear about your purpose and your direction in life and then to know how you spend your time. Knowing those things and completing the first two steps are important. But often time management improvement plans still fail. This is usually because there are underlying emotional issues. Sometimes people feel guilty about spending time on their own interests. For example, what about the rest of the family – shouldn't this time be spent with the children? Or perhaps you might be anxious about saying no to a colleague and refusing to help them at the expense of time to do your own work. This might be because you lack the ...

Time Management: Know Where Time Goes - Keep A Log My last post about Time Management ( The Clock Is Ticking! How Good Are You At Time Management?) said that the first step in managing time is to be clear about your purpose and your direction in life.  Now you need to find out how you actually spend your time. The best way to do this is to start using a time log. Record each activity throughout your day with the time taken to complete it. Do this at the time, if you can.The closer to the time, the more accurate you log is going to be,  But at the very least, ensure you record each hour's activity at the end of each day. For example Date    Time           Activity             07.00             08.00             09.00  Etc The period covered should be the whole of your waking day. Everythi...

Resolution - better time management (Photo credit: vpickering ) Time may be relative but it is also neutral.  The reality is that there is neither too much nor too little time unless we make it so.  So time management “at the end of the day” is about self-management. If you have a time management problem, the first step is to understand why.  This begins with looking at yourself. In reality, for most of us, 80% of our results come from 20% of our activities – the good old 80/20 Pareto Principle at work again. But first let us work out the extent of the problem. Below are 10 questions. They are all about the signs of poor time management.  So saying yes to even one question suggests you need to improve your time management skills. If you say yes to several questions, you could already be in danger of suffering from stress and even possible burn-out. Are you constantly rushing about from one meeting or appointment to another? Do you fin...

Setting boundaries at work can help to prevent you feeling stressed and exhausted.  It allows you to do better work instead of spreading yourself too thin.  Heather's article below advises you on how to go about saying no to the extra pressure! Four Steps to Better Work Boundaries by Heather Boerner, for Yahoo! HotJobs Want to advance your career? Saying “no” may be the key. “It’s wonderful to be the go-to person to a point — until you find you’re totally overwhelmed, exhausted, resentful and in a time crunch,” said Susan Newman, author of “The Book of No: 250 Ways to Say It — And Mean It and Stop People-Pleasing Forever.” “Setting workplace boundaries means you will be doing better work and not spreading yourself all over the lot.” Here’s how to get there: 1. Track your yeses. You can’t set a boundary you don’t know you have, so watch yourself for a week, Newman said. Where do you say “yes”? Do you agree to lunch with that coworker on the day of a major presentatio...