Cube Life

You Make Me Want to Shout! Calming Down at Work

By Jared Cole on Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Work can be stressful at times. Whether it’s annoying coworkers, chaos in the office, or unruly clients and customers, we all have moments when we are tempted to let go of caution and give in to our anger. Starting a new job can bring a number of situations that can make your blood boil.

But, when we make decisions or say words in the heat of the moment, it usually ends up being the wrong choice. Here are some helpful hints to aid anger relief so you can keep a clear head when making decisions and thinking through problems.

Just Breathe

Breathing is a normal function in terms of staying alive, but taking the extra time to stop and take a few extra deep breaths can help calm you down. The more oxygen in your body, the more easily you can release physical tension.

There are several different breathing exercises you can try on your own. Take five minutes to breath from the diaphragm and use some of the breathing techniques that are right for you. Taking that time to breath can help you look at your situation with a level head so you can make a better decision on what to do.

Just Stroll

If things get to the boiling point, take 10 minutes and go for a walk. Besides the health benefits of walking, it also helps blow off steam and releases endorphins in your body.

Just Separate

Sometimes the best thing to do is remove yourself from the situation. If you can escape work for a few minutes, find a peaceful place to get away from whatever is making you angry. Being physically away from the situation can help you take a mental break and fuel better visualizations and guided imagery to help restore your peace of mind.

This can also help you reframe your situation. Many times, being in the middle of the action intensifies the situation more than it really is. Secluding yourself for a few minutes can help you see your situation differently and give you a different perspective.

Just Reflect

When you’re out walking or separating yourself from the situation, it’s important to look at yourself. Go through the situations in your head and see what your initial reactions would be and picture the consequences of those actions. Reflecting on your feelings about whatever is making you angry can help you make a better decision in the long run.

Sometimes two heads are better than one. If you haven’t found any luck calming down on your own, consider talking to one of your managers or a mentor and explain the situation. There’s a good chance they have been in a number of stressful situations where they have wanted to scream. Verbalizing your feelings with trusted individuals can also help you calm down.

When you are angry, you don’t make the best decisions. The things you say can harm your career. No matter the situation, there are always things you can do to calm yourself down before anger takes over rational thought. If you follow our helpful guidelines, you’ll be better able to keep yourself cool no matter how hot your work life gets.

At Work Cube Life The Daily Grind

Lunch Foods to Keep you Energized at Work

By Jared Cole on Monday, January 30, 2012

We’ve all been there – 2:30 p.m. rolls around and our eyelids feel like they weigh 50 pounds. We start yawning, then stretch and squirm at our work station to stay awake. The mid-day food drain can impact your productivity at work and can be frowned upon by co-workers if you’re constantly yawning at meetings.

It’s time to ditch the drowsy and embrace the energy at work. By changing a few habits during your lunch break, you can find the energy you need to last the day and work stronger than ever. Here are some fun food ideas to help you stay awake and avoid the urge to take a nap at your desk.

Why Am I So Sleepy?
After eating, your body is diverting blood flow for the digestive process. While this blood flow can energize you, the heavier, fattier foods cause sluggishness. Eating sugary foods greatly increases blood sugar levels, causing the pancreas to release insulin. This causes the body to change the insulin into several enzymes until it finally gets into the brain and is converted into serotonin, a neurotransmitter that makes you feel sleepy.

Like a Checkbook, Keep it Balanced
One of the best ways to keep yourself fueled throughout the day is to make sure your lunch is complete with carbohydrates and low-fat protein. The good kind of carbs come from fiber in foods like fruits and vegetables, nuts, beans, and whole grains.

One of the best ways to combine these foods is with the classic sandwich. You can combine whole-grain breads, wraps, or pitas with high protein foods like lean meats, such as turkey, chicken, tuna, cheese, or eggs. You can complete it with assorted greens, sprouts, onions, tomatoes, or cucumbers to help give you some extra long-lasting carbs to keep you energized.

Eating sandwiches every day may get boring and you might get back in the habit of eating out. To add some variety to your lunch, consider bringing leftovers from previous dinners. They are a great food to bring because you can control the calories and portions to ensure it will be healthy yet filling. It wouldn’t be hard to cook a little extra at nights and bring your black bean casserole, soup, or chili to work throughout the week.

Less is More
Many starchy and carb-loaded foods take time to expand in your stomach to tell your body that it’s full, which causes you to still feel hungry after eating. Big meals take more effort to digest, which works your body harder and results in less oxygen and nutrition reaching your brain.

Another way to keep your energy level up during work is to spread your meals into smaller portions throughout the day instead of a big meal at lunch. Eating frequent, healthy snacks will keep your metabolism going and help you feel energized. Foods like fruits provide long-lasting carbs full, leaving you feeling energetic hours after consumption. Eating fiber in granola and oatmeal can also help keep you from feeling hungry and give you a vigorous boost as the day continues.

You don’t have to struggle keeping tempo with your after-lunch work schedule. If you eat healthier, smaller portions, you can maintain a high level of energy while feeling full and content all day. What are some foods you like to eat at lunch that keep you going all day?

At Work Cube Life The Daily Grind Workplace Safety

Avoid Getting Sick This Season

By Job Journey on Friday, January 13, 2012

Cold and flu season is upon us, and if your workplace is fighting off a mass of sick days there are a few things you can do to stay healthy. It’s important to know that germs can live on hard surfaces for up to 48 hours and that fingers carrying the flu virus can contaminate up to seven clean surfaces. So with that in mind, how are you going to prevent the spread of germs?

Keep Things Clean

While it may be hard to control whether or not your conference tables, door handles, and office equipment have been recently sanitized, you can keep your own hands clean. Make sure you wash your hands often throughout the day, with soap and water and dry them with paper towels or an air dryer. Keep hand sanitizer at your own work station, using it when you get back to your area after coming in contact with high traffic areas. Avoid touching your face after shaking hands or touching a door handle. Carrying germs into your airways through your mouth or nose is an easy way to get sick.

Clean your own work station as well. Think about your phone, keyboard, mouse, machines, and workspace. Consider cleaning them daily when colds are popping up around your office, it should only take about 10 minutes if you don’t have a lot of clutter, and the added benefit could be your increased productivity for having a clean workspace. Make sure you use cleaners that are safe on the surfaces you are cleaning and can kill germs.

Don’t Share …, In Favor of Staying Well

Try to keep the things you share, like pens and staplers, with others to a minimum. Splurge on a packet of unique pens that you really like and always keep one handy so you aren’t tempted to use the office pen that is likely covered with germs. Take the extra steps back to your workstation to use your own stapler, scissors, tape, or other equipment to avoid the germs left behind on shared tools.

Stay Home When You’re Sick

It sounds easier said than done, but now is the time to use your sick leave or sacrifice a day out for the greater good. While you may feel pressure to come into work when you are sick, try to be reasonable about how productive you’ll be when you are running a fever and taking cough medicine every few hours. You may think you are helping your team by coming in sick, but you may be starting a round of sick days taken by your co-workers when you spread your germs. Additionally, if you work in a service position, consider how your customers will feel having to purchase something from someone who is sneezing and coughing everywhere. Nobody likes to be ill, and your co-workers don’t want to be around you when you are under the weather. If you communicate with your supervisor in an honest and direct way, you shouldn’t fear calling in sick. Taking a day out to prevent everyone else from getting sick also shows your dedication to your team.

Do you have any good tips to share on staying health this winter? What is your workplace plan for keeping everyone healthy?

By Rachel Rudisill

At Work Cube Life The Daily Grind

Clean Your Workplace in 5 Minutes

By Jared Cole on Monday, January 9, 2012

Monday, Jan. 9 is National Clean Off Your Desk Day. It originated from Anne Chase Moeller, who is the daughter of one of the co-founders of Chase’s Calendar of Events, a publication showcasing special events, federal and state observances, and holidays. She often helped out at her father’s office, but he had an incredibly messy desk. Just for Anne to work, she had to cover the mess with a cloth and remove the cloth when she finished. Getting so frustrated with the mess, she made her father promise to clean off his desk at least once a year. To enforce it, they put National Clean Off Your Desk Day in Chase’s Annual Events book in 1982 as the second Monday of every January.

The old saying “a cluttered desk is a sign of genius” isn’t always true, and a messy desk can interfere with your productivity at work. To help celebrate National Clean Off Your Desk Day, here are some quick hints to help you clear the workplace clutter and boost efficiency at work.

Trash Your Stash

Take a minute to quickly glance around your workspace. Odds are there will be some crumpled up pieces of paper, candy wrappers, empty paper cups, or junk mail laying around. If you have to ask whether it’s trash or not, don’t throw it away just yet. You can deal with that later. All you need to do right now is a basic sweep of your area for any obvious trash. As you scan, take the junk and throw it away. Don’t give too much thought in deciding if something is worth keeping or not. Just use a minute to locate and toss any obvious trash.

Proper Paper Piling

Write down all of your daily work duties like bills, receipts, invoices, reports, phone messages, or any other reasons you need to keep and separate pieces of paper. Take stacks from your work area and sort the papers into an area that matches one of your daily tasks list. You don’t need to figure out or make decisions on the tasks themselves, just sort them into neater stacks. It’s possible you’ll have to add categories as you sort, and you might find trash-worthy items along the way.

There’s no Place Like Home

Now that the paper is organized, look for miscellaneous items like books, folders, and tools that are lying around and put them back where they belong. You should try to keep your books and folders organized on a shelf or some place that’s easy to reach, but separate from your workplace. If you find items that don’t have a home in your work place yet, find a location that is away from the area you work in the most and come back to it later.

Seal with Sanitation

Now that everything is squared away or organized, take a minute to grab disinfectant wipes, or spray and a paper towel, and quickly wipe down the areas with high traffic in your workspace. For many, the workspace is like a second home and more time is spent there than anywhere else. It’s important to keep that place clean not only from clutter, but also from germs and bacteria.

Be a Rock Star Worker

Congratulations! Your office is now cleaner and more organized. Now that you’ve taken the time to organize your stacks into categories, you have a clear list of duties to take care of when you get back to work. You’ll be amazed at how much you can accomplish if you take 10 to 15 minutes a day to deal with the piles of papers. Just deal with one category at a time and figure out your next plan of action on each piece of paper or information. What do you plan to do with all the free time achieved by your newly-found productivity? What are some quick and easy ways you’ve cleaned your workspace? Let us know in the comments section.

At Work Cube Life Workplace Relationships

Tech Etiquette 2.0, Using Modern Technology in the Workplace

By Jared Cole on Friday, December 23, 2011

With technology changing and upgrading at lightning-fast speed, the increasingly diverse generations working together have to deal with the different views and customs each generation has with technology. Newer generations just entering the workforce have a different way of dealing with social media. Last year, the Kaiser Family Foundation released a study revealing teenagers spend an average of 53 hours a week engaged in electronic media, which doesn’t include the 90 minutes they spend texting every day.

It can be difficult trying to figure out what is and isn’t acceptable behavior in the workplace regarding modern technology like MP3 players, smartphones, and social media sites. If you follow this easy guide, you’ll be able to better figure out how to enjoy your gadgets without disrupting those around you.

Company Culture

It’s important to double check your company’s policies and procedures. More companies are adopting social media policies every year and it’s important to reassess what is considered acceptable use of modern technology at work. You should also be mindful of your employer’s culture and unspoken etiquette. Some companies may be more relaxed on their policies and won’t punish you for having your phone out while working. Others might block access to certain social media sites or request you leave some devices in the car.

Know When to Talk and When to Text

Emails and text messages have been great tools to save time and effort by giving you the chance to send messages to anyone, anywhere. Thanks to modern messaging, the need to attend long meetings or conference calls has been reduced. But, nothing can duplicate the real connections you get with face-to-face conversations. If you’ve sent a message to a co-worker and haven’t heard back, leave your workstation and visit your colleague. It’s easy for text messages and emails to get overlooked in the shuffle of life, but a real phone call or office visit can guarantee your message is received.

Don’t Plug Me

Thanks to the popularity of MP3 players like Apple’s iPod, younger employees have grown accustomed to a kind of culture where headphones are used just about anywhere except in class. If your employer allows headphones while working, be courteous and inform your co-workers that you will be using them and find a reasonable volume so it won’t disrupt them as they work. When colleagues approach you, take out your headphones and devote your complete attention to them. You may feel like you can do both, but it’s a gesture of respect to take out your headphones when talking to your co-workers.

Buzzing is For Bees, Not Your Phone

You may feel like you’re doing your workmates a favor by silencing your latest ringtone, but if you leave your phone on your desk or hard surfaces near your workstation, the vibration could be heard by everyone around you. If you have to have your phone with you, turn the vibration off or put it in your pocket so the buzzing will be muffled.

Social Media is Not a Playground

Just because you use Facebook, Twitter, or a personal blog profile to talk about life on your free time, it doesn’t mean you should involve work or your co-workers without permission. What happens in social media is there forever. What you say can and sometimes will come back to find you. Think twice before updating your status or writing a post about a co-worker with an annoying laugh, obvious hairpiece, or smelly odor.

Not only can having questionable content on your social media sites negatively impact your career, it can also impact those you work with. You may not be Facebook friends with your boss, but posting a video of you and a co-worker having a blast somewhere with the caption “we should be at work, lol” could get back to your boss.

Social devices have added some complications to proper etiquette in today’s workplace, but as long as you use good judgment and have respect for your co-workers, you can enjoy your gadgets while still being professional.

At Work Cube Life The Daily Grind

3 Ways to Get In A Good Mood at Work

By Jared Cole on Friday, November 18, 2011

We’ve all had those days at work where your attitude or outlook is holding you back from being in a good mood. Maybe your workload is piling up or you’ve had a conflict with a co-worker. Whatever the reason, you’re in a bad mood and still have several hours left in the workday. The key here is to break out of your negativity so you can get back to work, because if you think you’re grumpy now – hindering your productivity with a bad mood will only make things worse. So, how do you get into a good mood instantly?

Stage a Victory

Chances are you’ve got a list of things running through your head that need to get done. Is there a task on your list that has taken up permanent residency among your “to-do’s”? Now’s the perfect time to tackle that pesky task. This will take your attention away from your grumpy mood and focus it onto taking care of business instead. In addition, the rush of good feelings you’ll get from actually getting rid of, or getting a good start on, that project that has been hanging over you will put an end to unnecessary stress and frustration.

Reflect on Success

If you’re in a bad mood because you’ve failed at a task, take 10 minutes to take stock of your achievements. Most employees are held accountable to certain standards and goals on a regular basis, whether that is at weekly staff meetings, quarterly reports, or during an annual review, you’ll need to know how you are measuring up. Take some time to review your goals and see how they are matching up with your current productivity. It’s a great way to see how you’re contributing to the company and meeting or exceeding your goals. Additionally, this focus on your goals will recharge your focus putting you in a good mood to head back into your work day.

Address the Problem

If whatever is bothering you is within your realm of control, take direct action to solve it. If you need to apologize, don’t wait to do so. The problem – and your bad mood – will get bigger until you address the situation. Once you’ve sought to resolve the conflict, you can move on. Wouldn’t that feel great? If what is bothering you is beyond what you can fix, take a few minutes to think about that. Is there anything you can do to improve the situation? If not, then why let it put you in a bad mood. All that is doing is letting something beyond your control take more control over you. Also, remember your allies and mentors. Send a quick email to your mentor or place a phone call to HR to get some advice that will allow you to feel like you’ve taken action, and then move on.

And if the ideas above don’t look like solutions for solving your bad mood, consider age-old tricks. Pump up your favorite type of music, likely setting off some memories of times you’ve enjoyed while hearing those tunes. Or take five minutes to take a quick walk around your workplace, giving you some time to cool off – and possibly locate some chocolate or other free office treat that is sure to improve your mood!

By Rachel Rudisill

At Work Cube Life Work/Life Balance

High Powered Foods to Buff up Your Breakfast

By Jared Cole on Friday, October 28, 2011

Finding time in the morning to cook and eat breakfast can be a difficult task. When living a busy and stressful work life, you need every minute you can get. Experts show breakfast is the most important meal of the day by relating skipping breakfast with type 2 diabetes. When you wake up, your body hasn’t consumed anything in more than eight hours and what you eat or don’t eat affects your metabolism and overall health.

Skipping breakfast can also lead to a lack of energy at work, which can impact your concentration and productivity. For many, settling for quick and easy items such as donuts, sugary cereals, and pastries on the way to work is normal, but those foods are unhealthy and can give you a short burst of energy with a sugar high that leaves you even more tired than before.

It’s important to have a mix of carbohydrates and proteins to not only give you a boost of energy, but also to help you maintain energy throughout your day. Most people know they need to eat better, but they may be tired of the same old bowl of oatmeal every morning. So here are some tasty breakfast ideas full of energy so your job performance can run on high-octane fuel.

Wonder Yogurt

Low-fat dairy products keep nervous systems going and can also keep you feeling full and satisfied. For extra nutrients, consider adding nuts or dried fruit to your yogurt. This can easily be put into a portable container and taken to work if time is of the essence. A quick way to add some variety and flavor to the healthier, but sometimes tasteless fiber rich bran cereal, is to replacing your milk with about eight ounces of lemon or vanilla yogurt.

If regular cereal doesn’t sound appealing, consider layering granola or weat germ, fruits and berries, and yogurt into a parfait. There are several varieties and mixes of fruits you can try.

Super Smoothies

If you want to expand on using fruits and other natural ingredients but are constantly on the go, consider taking advantage of the breakfast smoothie. Not only are they sweet and flavorsome, but they’re healthy and give you energy too. Antioxidants and other phytochemicals in fruits can improve brain function and give you the same energy from your office coffee mug of caffeine without the midday crash.

There are several different recipes and combinations of smoothies that utilize common and exotic fruit. You can drink them during your commute or enjoy one at the office without disrupting your fellow co-workers.

Even though sugar from fruits is much healthier than processed sugar used in most pastries, try to avoid sugary smoothies and focus more on protein based smoothies as often as possible.

Whole Grain Heroes

Sometimes you’ll be stuck at a desk or station for a very long time, and you won’t always have access to a snack. Having foods with high protein like nuts and seeds keeps your metabolism under control and will help you stay full while at work because small amounts of fat help maintain energy and keep hunger at bay.

One easy way to make sure you get your whole grains and protein is to bake and prepare breakfast foods ahead of time. Foods like almond-honey bars can last for days and are easy to grab when you are in a hurry.

Just because work occasionally demands more of your time doesn’t mean you should ignore your health. Your well-being and energy can directly affect your job productivity and routine. Enjoying a nutritious breakfast doesn’t have to be time consuming and can help you tackle your busy schedule head on. What have you had for breakfast that keeps you full of energy?