The weekend should be a time for relaxing, but many of us are so stressed out that our down time will simply be more time when we feel down. To make your weekend less stressful, we’ve rounded up some of our favourite ways to tackle stress of all kinds. More »
Over at 43 Folders, writer Brian Oberkirch looks at how one of his favorite artists beats his worst tendencies to be intimidated by the hugeness of the work in front of him. By dividing his work into a grid and breaking it into smaller incremental tasks—like knitting a sweater—he sidesteps his anxiety. What I found that one of the nice things [about]working incrementally is that I don’t have to reinvent the wheel every single day. Today I did what I did. You can pick it up and put it down. I don’t have to wait for inspiration. There are no good days or bad days. Every day essentially builds positively on what I did the day before.
As noted in the post, this method also calls to mind the lessons in Anne Lamott’s Bird by Bird, one of our favorite classic life hacks.
Working in Close [43 Folders]Stressed out? Sit down and relax. If you’ve been plagued by anxiety, calm down. Get in the zone. The Self Evolution website teaches you how. Of critical importance is how you breathe. Expand your diaphragm to breathe forcefully through your nose. Repeating this technique will cause the tension to leave your body. Spread your legs. Slouch slightly (but only for a few minutes). Kill internal dialogue. You can do this by opening your peripheral vision and performing eye exercises:
Relieve work-related stress and overcome procrastination by “unscheduling” your workweek—that is, “instead of scheduling work you have to do, you fill in everything you want to do.” Weblog LifeClever suggests that with your calendar completely unscheduled, not only will you ensure you get regular breaks to avoid nasty work-related injuries like RSI, but you’ll also get a nice look at all that glorious free time you’ve got baked into your day. Granted, this method might not work for people who live and die by their busy calendars, but if your workweek is pretty steady, unscheduling your calendar sounds like a relaxing exercise.
How to Unschedule your work and enjoy guilt-free play [LifeClever]
