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How To Avoid Self-Induced Stress And Decision Fatigue In Business

Not too long ago I finally went to the doctor for my annual physical. When I got the results back, it looked like I was healthy for a person my age. The results were right where they should be, except for one: my stress hormones. Apparently, my cortisol levels were incredibly high. Naturally, the doctor was concerned and wanted to dig deeper. Once she found out that I was an entrepreneur, she stopped her line of questioning. “That explains everything,” she replied with supreme confidence. “Almost all of my entrepreneur patients experience the same thing.” And with that, she sent me on my way with instructions to “try and relax.” It’s no secret that running a business is stressful. In fact, for the average entrepreneur, there are so many stressors and decision points throughout the day that at some point the quality of the decisions being made begins to deteriorate rapidly. This impaired ability to make good decisions is called decision fatigue, and it plagues leaders an

3 Small Things Every Person Can Do to Reduce Stress in Their Office

In a world of tight deadlines, it’s no wonder that some of your stress might seep out and affect your colleagues. But — because they’re under pressures of their own — you risk perpetuating a vicious circle, where you mirror and magnify each other’s frenzy. You can’t control their behavior, but you can take charge of your own. There are obvious ways to tamp down the stress you inflict on others, such as refraining from yelling or making sarcastic comments. But those are only the most visible ways one risks alienating one’s coworkers; to truly stop the office pathology, you have to look deeper. Here are three subtle but powerful strategies to ratchet down the pressure and ensure you’re not subjecting your colleagues to undue stress and frustration. First,   stop being vague . If someone doesn’t know the full context of a situation, vague messages — which might be quite harmless — are often read like a Rorschach test, with fears and interpretations piled on. If you send a late-nig

How to Handle Stress in the Moment

You hear a lot of advice about how to reduce stress at work. But most of it is about what to do over the long term — take up yoga, eat a healthy diet, keep a journal, or  get more sleep . But what do you do when you’re overcome with stress in the moment — at your desk, say, or in a meeting? Perhaps you’ve heard bad news from a client or were assigned yet another project. How can you regain control? What the Experts   Say Eighty percent of Americans are stressed at work, according to a  recent study  by Nielsen for Everest College. Low pay, unreasonable workloads, and hectic commutes were the top sources of tension, followed closely by obnoxious coworkers. What exacerbates the problem is that “people walk into work already laden with stress,” says Maria Gonzalez, the founder and president of Argonauta Strategic Alliances Consulting and the author of  Mindful Leadership . “If there is a hardship at home, you bring that to the office and it gets layered with your professional st

5 Ways You Can Use Mindfulness To Fix Your Brain, Reduce Stress And Boost Performance

There’s no shortage of advice out there claiming to make you better, but mindfulness meditation is the rare, research-proven technique that boosts your performance by physically altering your brain. Researchers from the University of British Columbia recently pooled data from more than 20 studies to understand how practicing mindfulness affects the brain. While the researchers found significant changes in eight brain regions, there are two regions that are of particular importance to you. In these brain regions, the simple act of practicing mindfulness increased both brain activity and the density of brain tissue: 1. The anterior cingulate cortex (ACC ), which is responsible for self-control. It enables you to resist distractions, to focus and to avoid impulsivity in order to work efficiently and make great decisions. The ACC is also responsible for flexibility, and people who have problems in this brain area are known to stick to ineffective problem-solving strategies