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STRESS
MANAGEMENT
Signs
of Stress and Imbalance
How To Break
Through Fear in Turbulent Times
What is
Stress?
Solving
Problems in a High-Stress Environment
Break
Through Self-Doubt & Fear
Let's Get
Physical
Holiday Stress Hotspots
Make
2004 your Year of Organization
Holiday Stress Hotspots
Manage
Stress by Stopping Obsessive or Unwanted Thoughts
Meditate
Stress Away
Taking Stress for a Ride
3
Strategies to Reduce Stress
Cleaning Up
Stress; Control It, Change It or Let It Go!
Substance
Abuse
The Courage
to Feel Bad
The Challenge
of Change
Tips
for Managing Holiday Madness
Modern Day Stressors: What Stress Looks Like in the 21st Century
The Life Juggle: How to Find Lifework Balance
New Year's
Resolutions
CHANGE
The Questions Leaders Should Ask Themselves
about Change
The Top Ten Ways to Manage People through
Change
Understanding Change
The Challenge of Change
RUNNING A BUSINESS
Be Heard. Be Strong. Be Effective. How to Deliver Impressive Presentations
Getting Started in the Speaking Business: Answers to Burning Questions
What Entrepreneurs Need to Know to be Successful
How to Create and Maintain Culture as You Grow
Recruitment and
Retention of Diverse Candidates
DIVERSITY
A Passion for Diversity
Traits of a Diverse Organization
Simma's Holiday Diversity Q and
A
How to Go from Eggshell Walking
to Multicultural Festivity Making
Are You Wasting Your Money on
Diversity Training?
Interview Bias: Overcoming the
Silent Forces Working Against You
How to Help LGBT Employees Help
Your Organization Grow
How to Integrate Diversity Into
Your Business Strategy
Diversity Benefits Organizations
and Communities
Diversity Fast Facts
How to Integrate Diversity
10 PC Tips for Communicating
with a Diverse Audience
Are You Truly Successful?
Interviewing Employees Who Stay
Wage and Position Disparity
Across Gender
What Every Consultant Needs to
Know About Diversity Consulting and Training
Diversity Competency Assessment
Recruitment and Retention of Diverse Candidates
Understanding Diversity Dialogues
Dialogue as a Communication Tool Amongst Diverse Groups of People
Communicating across Generations in the Workplace
Simma & Kate's Strategies for Cross-Generational Relationship Building
Valuing Diversity during the Holidays
COMMUNICATION
Understanding Dialogue: A Q&A on
the benefits of dialogue
Dialogue as a Communication Tool
Communication with Concern
Helping Others Deal with Loss
10 PC Tips for Communicating
with a Diverse Audience
Tips for Better Communication
Between Men and Women in the Workplace
Understanding Diversity
Dialogues
Dialogue as a Communication Tool
Amongst Diverse Groups of People
Simma & Kate's Strategies for
Cross-Generational Relationship Building
Web Site Tips
GENDER
COMMUNICATION
Differences in Male and Female Communication Styles
Gender Communications Differences and Strategies
Wage and Position Disparity across Gender
Tips for Better Communication between Men and Women in the Workplace
WORK/LIFE BALANCE
Life/Work
Balance in the Real World
New Year's
Resolutions: A New Approach?
Working with Loved Ones: Leverage Potential and Avoid Pitfalls
Modern Day Stressors: What Stress Looks Like in the 21st Century
The Life Juggle: How to Find Lifework Balance
RESTAURANT & HOSPITALITY
All in the Family
Are You Truly Successful?
How to Create and Maintain the Culture of Your Restaurants
Let's Get Physical
Meditate Stress Away
Taking Stress for a Ride
The Challenge of Change
3 Strategies to Reduce Stress
Cleaning Up Substance Abuse
FEAR &
SELF-DOUBT
Break Through Self-Doubt & Fear
Substance Abuse
The Courage to Feel Bad |
Make 2004 Your Year of
Organization
By Kate Berardo and Simma Lieberman
Organization plays a
strong role both in stress levels and time management. When many people
see a messy office or scattered computer file system, they experience a
low-grade stress that carries over to many different activities and
experiences. When it comes to actually getting work done, a disorganized
workspace slows down productivity and can add to frustration.
That's why we suggest you
make 2004 your Year of Organization. While memories of New Year
festivities are still fresh in your head, take a few minutes to make the
following time-saving and stress-reducing steps in your workplace.
Believe us, when the end of the year rolls around and you look back at
what you've accomplished during the year, you'll be glad you made these
simple changes.
Your Computer
We love technology when it
works, and curse it when it fails us. Keep your computer healthy and
organized for less stress and more productivity with these steps:
Make sure your Virus Protection Software is up to date (install it
now if you don't have it already). Run a full system scan for
viruses at the end of your work day today to check for contaminated
files. If you don't know much about computers, spend 10 minutes
familiarizing yourself with your software by going to the Help
Section. Should you get infected by a virus or experience other
complications, this will help you understand what you will need to do
and how to do it.
Clean it up.
Defragment your hard drive to make your computer run faster and run
disk clean-up on your computer. If your computer allows it (check the
help section) schedule these maintenance tasks to occur regularly.
Organize it.
Take a few minutes to reorganize your files and programs. Start with
your desktop. Erase shortcuts that you don't need, and add shortcuts
for some of your favorite programs. Open your documents files and give
yourself a half an hour to thoroughly go through and put documents in
their proper places. Set up an archive for old files that you don't
access often. Look at your files and their organization. If you create
a file system that is logical and easy to follow, you won't be stuck
saving documents to the desktop or to other mystery locations where
you have to do a search to recover them.
Your Organizer
The Organizer: It's
supposed to keep us organized, but sometimes it serves as a kind
reminder of how disorganized we really are. Kick your organizer into
shape with these easy steps.
-
Assign rank.
The first task
is to determine what really is your organizer. Is it the address book
on Yahoo account, your PDA, or your Outlook files? The downside of the
abundance of life-organizing software is that it's hard to keep track
of which one has all the information you need. Look over the features,
usability, and content, choose one program, and stick to it.
-
Merge.
Next comes the daunting task of pulling all your contact information
together and keeping it up-to-date. First, learn to import contact
information from your other organizers. Again, check the Help section
in your software to learn more about this feature (if your organizer
doesn't have this feature, then it's definitely not the one to
nominate as head organizer).
-
Fill-In,
Delete. Now
it's time to update your content. Many of us put off this essential
task and all-too-often have to deal with out of date information and
undeliverable email addresses. Take a deep breath, and take a few
minutes (hours? days?) to finally turn your organizer into a
well-oiled machine. Go through your contacts, delete old email
addresses, and fill-in missing information by contacting old contacts
and requesting what you need (a good way to potentially ignite an old
business relationships, by the way). If you have an assistant of any
kind, have them do this for you and feel very, very lucky.
Always On.
Once you have elected a head organizing program and have updated it,
keep it open and on your desktop at all times. When you get a change
of address email notice, copy and paste that information into the head
organizer. When you receive a new business card or contact, enter it
into your organizer as soon as possible.
Your Office Space
Spring Clean in January? Ever
wonder why we do Spring Cleaning? Some might say we do it to head
into the second half of the year fresh and organized. We say it's
because, come Spring, things are so messy for most people, it's
essential. If you start off with a clean office, you can keep your
office clean throughout the year and prevent a mid-year hold up.
-
Find a place. Visually, it's important that your office seems clean.
Paper, clutter, and other visual mess can make you feel unorganized
and stressed. Therefore, put things away and seek out desk space. File
papers, put books in a shelf, and take advantage of drawer space.
-
Kid in a Container Store. Invest a few dollars in some organizing
accessories that will simplify your task of getting organized and will
allow you to stay that way.
-
Take advantage of Phone Time. Some people pace during conversations,
some people clean. That's right. When you are on the phone in a
routine call, straighten up your office as you listen and talk.
Make the initiative to
start 2004 organized! Following these steps, you can set up a
streamlined workspace that will save headaches, smooth out your work
days, and add to your daily productivity.
Simma Lieberman works with people and organizations to create
environments where people can do their best work. She specializes in
diversity, gender communications, life-work balance and stress, and acquiring
and retaining new customers.
www.simmalieberman.com
Kate Berardo helps
people from different cultures, backgrounds, and schools of though work
effectively together. She is the co-author of Putting Diversity to Work
and the founder of Culturosity.com.
www.culturosity.com.
You may reprint these articles free of charge, on a non-exclusive basis,
provided that the authors' name and contact information are included. Simma
and Kate would love to know that you plan to use her article(s); please
contact Simma to let us know.
Call Simma at 510.527.0700 or Email simma@simmalieberman.com
Visit her website at www.simmalieberman.com
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