In today’s fast-paced world, we are constantly under pressure to do more and achieve more. And for many of us, the only way to meet these ever-growing demands is to learn how to delegate effectively. Delegation may seem daunting, but following these five fundamental principles can get more done and reduce your stress levels.

Principle 1: Define the task clearly

When delegating a task, it is essential to take the time to explain what needs to be done and why it is necessary. This will ensure that the person you are delegating to understands the task and can carry it out effectively.

Principle 2: Select the right person for the job

Not everyone is suited to every task. When delegating, selecting the person with the skills and knowledge necessary to do the job effectively is essential.

Principle 3: Set clear expectations

When delegating a task, set clear expectations regarding deadlines, results, and other relevant factors. This will help ensure that the job is done as you expect it to be.

Principle 4: Provide adequate resources

For the person you are delegating to be successful, they need the resources to carry out the task effectively. Ensure they have everything they need before you charge the job to them.

Principle 5: Follow up and give feedback

Once the task has been completed, take the time to follow up and give feedback. This will help ensure that the job is carried out effectively and help the person you delegated to learn and improve.

Rule of Thumb

When delegating duties, it is essential to remember the rule of thumb: always start small. Delegate one task at a time and give the person you delegated plenty of opportunities to succeed. If they do well, move on to delegating more complex tasks. But if they struggle, take the time to provide feedback and help them improve.

By following these five fundamental principles, you can delegate effectively and get more done without increasing your stress levels. Try it today!

Did you know that your mind and body are connected in ways you never imagined?

It turns out that what you do, think, and feel affects your physical health in several profound ways.

Here are five unbelievable mind-body connection facts that will blow your mind.

1: Stress Can Make You Sick

You’ve probably heard the saying “stress kills.” Well, it turns out there’s a lot of truth to that.

Chronic stress can lead to several health problems, including heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, and depression.

What’s more, stress can make existing health problems worse.

So if you’re feeling stressed, finding ways to relax and reduce your stress levels is essential.

2: Your Thoughts Can Affect Your Physical Health

Did you know that your thoughts can influence your physical health?

It’s true.

A study published in the journal Science found that people who had negative thoughts about their health were more likely to die than those who had positive reviews.

So if you want to improve your health, it’s essential to focus on positive thoughts and emotions.

3: Happiness Can Boost Your Immunity

It turns out that happiness isn’t just a state of mind – it can also positively affect your physical health.

Studies have shown that happy people have more robust immune systems and are less likely to get colds or other illnesses.

So if you want to stay healthy, try to focus on the positive things in your life.

4: Your Gut Bacteria Can Affect Your Mood

You’ve probably heard that “gut health” is important, but you may not know that gut bacteria can affect your mood.

A study published in Nature found that people with depression tend to have different types of gut bacteria than those without depression.

So if you’re feeling down, it might be worth paying attention to your gut health.

5: Exercise Can Improve Your Mental Health

You probably know that exercise is good for your physical health, but did you understand that it can also improve your mental health?

Studies have shown that exercise can help relieve symptoms of anxiety and depression.

So if you’re feeling down, make sure to get some exercise. It could make a big difference.

Wrapping Up

These are just a few fantastic ways your mind and body are connected.

So if you want to improve your health, it’s essential to focus on both your physical and mental well-being.

You can live healthier, happier lives by taking care of your mind and body.

By focusing on the negative side of procrastination, researchers often ignore its good side, especially when it comes to supercharging your productivity. In fact, most researchers believe that positive procrastination (scheduling tasks for a later date) is key to sustaining a higher level of productivity. It helps you leverage the ‘get on with it’ instincts you have when closer to a deadline, without the pressure of feeling disorganized.

Here are the ways positive procrastination can help improve your productivity.

1. Focus better

A study published in The Journal of Social Psychology revealed that delays resulting from time spent gathering important preparatory information and planning can be beneficial. Purposefully delaying task-solving could mean that you prefer working under pressure, probably as it makes you feel motivated and challenged. This can force you to focus better when handling the task in question.

Also, pushing daunting tasks closer to due dates often creates pressure, and that adrenaline boost may be what you need to get the task done. The right amount of pressure can force you to eliminate distractions and concentrate on the task at hand.

2. Make better decisions

Active procrastinators often plan their tasks in an organized fashion. However, they don’t restrict themselves to following a time structure or preplanned schedules. This allows them the flexibility to deal with new demands and changes as they come. That means they can make better decisions and deal with competing tasks effectively.

Few things hinder productivity and efficiency than time put into tasks that are no longer necessary. Similarly, when you delay important but not urgent tasks, you have the time to accumulate crucial information that can help improve the final outcome. This can also help determine what tasks are necessary.

3. Deactivates your inner perfectionist

One of the reasons your projects go on far longer than necessary is perfectionism. Unfortunately, it can be challenging to switch off that soft voice that keeps telling you, ‘it’s not right yet.’ Active or positive procrastination offers you a practical way to disable that soft voice and become more productive. That means you will adopt the ‘good enough’ attitude because you no longer have the luxury of overanalyzing your work.

4. Improves your creativity

When you actively put off a task for some time, your preoccupation with the task may not disappear entirely. Instead, that pending task ‘runs in the background of your mind, buying you the time you need to find an innovative solution. A 2017 study featured in Personality and Individual Differences revealed a correlation between active procrastination and creative imagination – the ability to come up with creative ideas.

Wrap up

The positive side of procrastination is rarely discussed. Most people believe that it correlates with poor work performance. However, positive procrastination is associated with more creativity, better decision-making, the ability to focus well, and avoiding the downsides of perfectionism. Remember, these benefits may not apply if you always put off tasks indefinitely.

 

You’ve probably heard the saying that when you are down in the dumps the quickest way to feel better is to help someone else.

Turns out, there’s some truth to that.

The Low Self-Esteem and Depression Link

Research shows that there is a major link between low self-esteem and depression. In fact, low self-esteem is often a predictor of depression later in life. However, while a poor self-image can lead to depression, when depression improves so does self-image. It is a strange and difficult cycle.

Counseling that focuses on increasing self-esteem can help to prevent depression but finding ways to do that is a bit tricky. Outside validation is fickle and fleeting. One day people could have a positive opinion of a person and the next day it could flip to negative. So, it seems that the best way to accomplish this is to raise self-esteem internally and not worry about outer influences.

This is easier said than done though because if a person is already feeling depressed, they are likely going to have a hard time building themselves up.

This is where intrinsic rewards become valuable.

The Self-Image and Compassion Study

A 2017 study published in the Journal of Clinical Psychology looked at how interpersonal goals can shape relationships as well as depression and anxiety symptoms. The researchers theorized that trying to maintain certain self-image goals can create problems in relationships while increasing depression and anxiety symptoms. On the other hand, pursuing compassionate goals such as helping others may have the opposite effect.

The participants in the study found that when they focused on extrinsic rewards such as gaining status or approval of others while avoiding vulnerability while interacting socially, they experienced conflict in their relationships and experienced more depression and anxiety symptoms.

On the other hand, when they focused on intrinsic rewards such as pursuing compassionate goals which included helping others and avoiding behavior that was self-centered or selfish, their relationships were better, and they experience fewer depression and anxiety symptoms.

The message is clear. When you help others and practice compassion, you are happier, and it can lessen your depression and anxiety symptoms.

Ways to Practice Compassion and Help Others

When you turn your attention to others and help them you not only make yourself feel better, but you also make the other person feel better. Here are some ways to practice compassion.

• Let others know you care about them.
• Be supportive of other people.
• Lend a helping hand whenever you can.
• Encourage others with your words.
• Avoid self-centeredness.
• Do something nice for someone.
• Avoid doing something that would hurt another person.
• Have compassion when someone makes a mistake.
• Mind your words and avoid saying hurtful things.

Helping others does not mean spending money on them or doing something expensive. It can be as simple as sending a handwritten note to someone who is ill or visiting someone who is socially isolated. It could mean complimenting someone or helping them put their groceries in their car. There are so many opportunities to help others – all we have to do is look around.

 

 

Here’s a scenario: Have you ever woken up in the morning to your alarm clock blaring … bleary eyed from lack of sleep, staring at the ceiling, thinking about the day ahead … and what you’re really doing is wondering how in the world you’re going to get through the day because you have so much to do and so many people who are going to want things from you?

Perhaps you already have a few voicemails or texts on your phone from people at work. Maybe you just saw a negative balance alert on your bank account, along with several NSF fees. Maybe you can hear your children crying in the next room. They need to get up. They need their diapers changed. They need breakfast. Perhaps you just realized that you completely forgot you had a dentist appointment yesterday and that it’s your mom’s birthday today and you have no gift.

These moments can feel … overwhelming. It’s easy to get lost in this haze of stress and to feel like you’re drowning. It’s easy to want to quit and walk away from it all.

When this happens to you, here’s what to do.

What to Tell Yourself When Life Gets Too Stressful and You Want to Quit

Tell yourself this:

Life is always going to be stressful.

Let us say that again: Life will always be stressful.

Like a punch to the gut, isn’t it?

Get ready because here’s another one: You’re never going to get it all done.

That’s right. We said it.

It’s not what you want to hear, is it?

You want to hear that there is some time in the future where you are finally going to “get it all together”. You’re going to pay off your debt, lose the weight, organize your basement, have the perfect home, make $1 million, find “The One”, and have the ideal job that lets you take all the time off you need and is super rewarding and fun. Moreover, at this point, you will never feel stressed because nothing will ever go wrong, and you will die peacefully in your sleep at the age of 110.

This little story above is not something that we tell ourselves explicitly. It’s not something that clearly runs through our minds because if it did, we’d instantly realize how foolish it is. Has any of this cascade of wonderful events ever happened to you before? To anyone you know? Have you ever known a time period in your life where absolutely nothing went wrong? Do you always get what you want?

Chances are, the answer to these questions is no across-the-board.

Why are we saying all this? Because the sooner you understand it, the sooner you can get to work on improving what you can and letting go of what you can’t.

Life will always be stressful. If you feel that “life is just stressful right now,” you will imagine a dream in which it’s not stressful, and this is what will really mess with you.

It is when you can accept the current state of things and work on what you can while not letting the small stuff bother you, that you can really make progress. You, and millions of other people, have daily challenges, all of which threaten to take you down. It is those among us who rise to the occasion and accept these challenges — doing their best to combat and work with problems that arise — who will overcome and learn to enjoy and cherish life as it is … not as it “should be”.

The once-prevalent drive to possess financial security has been tempered by a growing need to reduce stress and create a healthier work-life balance. According to the American Stress Institute, daily office grinds and unpleasant environments are driving forces behind the following statistics.

• Approximately 75 percent of employees believe that workers have more on-the-job stress than a generation ago.
• Upwards of 40 percent of workers reported their job was very or extremely stressful.
• About 25 percent view their jobs as the number one stressor in their lives.

Shifting away from annoying commutes and seemingly hostile offices to work-from-home positions has reduced or eliminated some of the emotional hardships. But transitioning to life as a remote worker presents a new set of challenges. Getting to a low-stress place where you feel more mindfully present may require a few tweaks. These are ways newly-minted remote workers are adapting, overcoming, and feeling more comfortable.

1: Setting Boundaries Around Work From Home

It’s not uncommon for employees to grow reliant on workplace structure. For instance, you may go through your morning routine, punch in at 9 am, take scheduled breaks, and leave at 5 pm. Daily schedules are established, so staff members don’t have to think about it. They fall into a routine and focus on tasks.

Remote workers sometimes lose structure. People start to perform routine household tasks such as throwing a load of laundry in the washer or doing the dishes. After a while, remote employees have integrated salaried work with household chores, and life becomes one big to-do list. The solution for many remote workers is to sit down and write out a structured work schedule. Include a start time, breaks, and end of the day. Focusing on one item at a time supports healthy mindfulness.

2: Overcoming Feelings of Isolation

Human beings are social creatures by nature and too much time alone as a remote worker is not necessarily healthy. Regularly scheduled video conferences can help take the edge off feeling alone. Online meetings allow professionals to interact with colleagues and reinforce the idea you are part of a team. It may also prove comforting to have a weekly coffee hour with your former officemates before the regular workday begins.

People who go remote also lose the spontaneous after-work get-togethers. That’s why it’s essential to seek out evening and weekend social activities as well. Consider joining a walking group, taking outdoor yoga classes, or pursuing a niche activity that helps build a sense of fellowship. It’s impossible to be mindfully present if you’re feeling blue.

3: Practice Mindful Meditation In Everyday Life

There are two basic ways to improve your mindfulness. The first involves setting aside quiet time to practice it as a discipline each day, usually before you get busy. These are simple steps you can follow.

• Place your body in a comfortable sitting position.
• Breathe steadily and focus on each breath.
• Sit quietly and experience the moment.
• Be kind to yourself by not self-criticizing when thoughts crop up.
• Let judgments pass by.

As you practice traditional mindful meditation over time, the second element usually emerges. You find yourself focused on the task at hand, whether it’s completing a work-related project or preparing a salad. Mindfulness is something of a mental health lifestyle, and remote workers are uniquely positioned to reduce stress and improve happiness.