Get Ready for Summer: Update Your Goals and Make Time for Joy

Get Ready for Summer: Update Your Goals and Make Time for Joy Starting the year with goals in mind is a great idea. What makes that approach even more effective is checking in periodically to evaluate what’s working, what isn’t relevant anymore, and when we need to reprioritize. With the summer approaching, now is a perfect time to sit down with our list of New Year’s Resolutions and see how we’re doing and how we feel about the goals we set at the beginning of the year. Here are 3 steps to update your goals and make time for joy. 1. Are your goals still relevant? Let’s spring clean! When reviewing the goals you chose in January, consider which ones you've already achieved. Have you finished that big project? Have you been going to the gym? Take a look at your list of goals and check off the ones you've done. Celebrate what you’ve accomplished so far. Also, think about which objectives are no longer relevant and remove them from your list. We all change our minds and that’s fine. I call this “spring cleaning my to-do lists”! Any new summer goals you want to add to the list? Family, health, nature…what inspires you these days? Remember to pick only what’s most important to you and to be realistic in order to set yourself up for success. Often, less is more…I even have a “Not To-Do List” and I love it!! 2. Acknowledge the Progress You’ve Made. Acknowledging your progress can help energize you to keep moving forward. What’s working for you? What’s going well? What’s almost done? Take a few moments to think about how you achieved progress. Perhaps you have an encouraging note taped to your bathroom mirror. Maybe you have reminders set to pop up on your phone or calendar. What tools and strategies work for you? Make sure you continue using the techniques that support your growth. Consider updating the notes or reminders with a fresh message and try some new ways to continue doing things that make you happy and successful. 3. Add Joy. As summer approaches, perhaps it’s time to shift your focus to creating time for family and friends or simply enjoying the outdoors. Think about what adds joy to your life and where that happiness boost fits into your daily or weekly life. It might be as simple as taking a ten-minute walk at the end of the day or enjoying a cup of tea outside in the morning. Make time to engage with the people and activities that help you recharge. This helps break up the fog of monotony that can come from getting lost in our daily work and life routines. Add a breath of fresh air, whether it’s from a literal walk outside, coffee with a friend, or a visit to a meaningful place, like a museum or art gallery. You can learn more ways to increase your happiness in my book, 21 Days to Happiness. Each day of the [...]

By |2024-05-21T09:07:55-04:00May 21st, 2024|Happiness Tips, Leadership Tips|Comments Off on Get Ready for Summer: Update Your Goals and Make Time for Joy

3 Ways to Find Your Work-Life Balance This Year

3 Ways to Find Your Work-Life Balance This New Year Some of the most common New Year’s resolutions boil down to establishing a sustainable work-life balance. Whether you’ve set fitness, health, or financial goals, they become much more achievable when your lifestyle balances work and personal time. Work-life balance means something different to everyone. First, define what is important for YOU. Next, whatever resolutions you’ve set, we recommend that you make it a point to prioritize your work-life balance this new year. Here are three ways you can do that. 1. Be Realistic. Setting a goal to achieve a good work-life balance doesn’t mean getting it perfect. In fact, not only is a perfect work-life balance not ongoingly achievable but if you make perfection your criteria for success, the most significant thing you’ll most likely increase is your frustration. Instead, be realistic. How much flexibility do you have in your daily or weekly schedule? Does it make sense to work more hours on specific days so you can prioritize personal activities on different days? Health experts will tell you that having a healthy diet doesn’t mean you eat all the healthy foods daily. Instead, what you consume over a few weeks or a month creates a well-balanced diet. I personally love the 80/20 principle… I eat whole, organic, fresh food 80% of the time and “have fun foods” 20% of the time…The same applies to a work-life balance. Think of your time in terms of a week, two weeks, or a month, and look at where you’re out of balance in that timeframe. 2. Make Time to Unplug. At KCC, we love Anne Lamott’s quote: “Almost everything will work again if you unplug it for a few minutes, including you.” Set aside some time each week to put aside your phone and email. A morning, an hour, whatever suits your schedule. Give yourself a break from your screens and engage with your surroundings in other ways. If the weather is good, walk along a pretty street or in a lovely park. Enjoy time with your pet. People-watch at a coffee shop. Give your brain some time to slow down. Don’t be discouraged if this is harder than you expect. It can be disconcerting to discover how often we reach for our devices, even when we don’t need to. Set a timer and stick to your screen-free plans. Teaching your body to take a break will allow you to be more focused and energized when it’s time to work again. 3. Plan a Vacation. In my book 21 Days to Happiness, I mention how spending on experiences is usually more beneficial than spending on “things.” Why? Because there are 3 fun phases: phase 1 – planning; phase 2 – enjoying the experience; and phase 3 – remembering! So, now is the perfect time to start thinking about and planning a trip for later in the year. By doing the research now, you allow time to adjust your budget to have the [...]

By |2024-01-10T18:28:29-04:00January 10th, 2024|Happiness Tips|Comments Off on 3 Ways to Find Your Work-Life Balance This Year

5 Tips for Energy and Stress Management

5 Tips for Energy and Stress Management No matter how positive your outlook and how zen your mindset, it’s impossible for any of us never to encounter stress or fatigue. Unfortunately, experiencing some stress and fatigue is part of life. In truth, they’re part of what make the days we have great energy or feel calm and at peace so wonderful. The best solution is having strategies for energy and stress management in our arsenal to help on difficult days. Here are 5 great tips for energy and stress management. 1. Adapt Rather than Avoid It can be tempting to avoid stressful situations or choices by putting them off as long as possible. Avoiding the most challenging task on our to-do list or postponing that meeting with a challenging person might feel good in the moment. What it does, though, is give us more time to fret over the event. Pushing a meeting or task toward the end of the day can also mean asking ourselves to tackle the task when our resources have already been depleted by other work. Instead, use your natural energy rhythm to your advantage. What time of day do you feel the most energized and sharp? Schedule your most difficult task or meeting at that time. Or, schedule it first thing in the day, so you can get it over with early and move on to easier tasks afterward. At KCC, we call this “eating the frog”…inspired by Mark Twain. 2. Schedule a Stress Session If you’re struggling to keep worries and stress from intruding into your day, try scheduling a thirty-minute block of time to allow yourself to focus on what’s bothering you. It may seem counter-intuitive, but research shows that this actually helps us table anxiety and stress at other times of the day. It means we know we’ll have a chance to process those thoughts and worries at a specified time. You might find journaling to be a helpful way to quantify the things causing you stress. Writing a list may also help you identify solutions or ways to cope with some of the stressors you encounter. 3. Sweat it Out Exercise is a great way to work through stress. It gets our bodies moving, burns some of that anxious energy, and increases blood-flow to our brains. When we exercise, we’re also focusing parts of our brains on physical activity. We’re focused on balance, coordination, and breath. This gives other parts of our brains a rest, which can break that hamster-wheel cycle we sometimes fall into. If you don’t like exercising, try finding an active hobby or class to participate in. Consider joining a dance class, community sports team, or martial arts program. The goal is to get your body moving and have fun doing it! 4. Pursue Balance Is your work-play balance off lately? When we get stressed, it’s easy to withdraw from recreational activities without realizing we’re doing so. Feeling starved for recreation? Consider taking a day or afternoon off. [...]

By |2023-03-24T12:02:58-04:00July 13th, 2022|Leadership Tips|Comments Off on 5 Tips for Energy and Stress Management

5 Great Time and Priority Management Tips

5 Great Time and Priority Management Tips Effective time and priority management can make a huge difference in our effectiveness and ability to achieve critical goals. Taking on too many tasks or not having clearly outlined goals can make it difficult to actually be productive. Identifying your goals and limiting your daily to do list can help you get things done in a more focused, effective way. Deciding which tasks can be delegated or postponed helps ensure that you’re spending the bulk of your time on the things you need to do today. Time management is all about how to work smarter rather than harder. It’s how to be busy for the right reasons so that you can rest and relax at the end of the day. Priority management means deciding which tasks are the most urgent & important and require your specific abilities versus which things can wait or be delegated to another team member. Having a good understanding of both techniques will help you reach your goals and achieve the work-play balance we’re all looking for. Here are 5 great tips to boost your time and priority management skills today. 1. Identify Your Goals If you don’t know where you’re headed, you’ll probably never get there, right? No matter what industry you’re in, your company and your team should have quantifiable goals written down and communicated to all team members. When you understand how your role fits into the company’s goals, you’ll know how to be most effective at your position within the organization. 2. Set Reasonable Limits on Your Daily Tasks by Picking Your Frogs! How many tasks can you reasonably accomplish in a day? A lot of this depends on the kind of job you have and your ability to manage interruptions. If you don’t already, write a to-do list for yourself each morning with a few (no more than 5) tasks on it that you want to get done in a day. At KCC, we call these your “frogs”. Do a little bit of analysis. On average, how many tasks do you finish in a single day? Are there certain days you consistently get more or fewer tasks done? Maybe Mondays are meeting-heavy, so you usually only get to 1 or 2 other things, but you notice that Wednesdays tend to be your most productive days when you get 4 or 5 things done. Adjust your limits according to your own data. If you rarely, if ever, check more than 4 items off your to-do list in a day, set a new limit for yourself of only committing to 4 tasks per day. This will help reduce your stress level and help you set realistic goals and deadlines for yourself and your team. 3. Tackle Most Urgent and Important Tasks First As you look at your goals and assigned tasks for the month, week, and day, sort them by which tasks are the most to least urgent and most to least important. There are lots [...]

By |2022-02-15T18:25:41-04:00February 15th, 2022|Leadership Tips|Comments Off on 5 Great Time and Priority Management Tips

4 Reasons Leadership Requires Friendliness

4 Reasons Good Leadership Requires Friendliness Leadership requires a lot of different skills. In addition to expertise in a specific field, it requires the ability to manage resources, budgets, projects and most importantly, employees. One of the best ways to invest in the people who make up your team is to make friendliness a key component of your relationship with them. Friendliness isn’t the same thing as friendship. It’s possible, even beneficial, to craft a friendly management style and still maintain professional boundaries with your team members. Why does good leadership require friendliness, now more than ever? Here are 4 good reasons to use a friendly approach with your team in order to boost morale and reap the rewards of success together. 1. People respond more openly and positively to friendliness. Getting results through friendliness can take a lot less energy than getting results through direction. Task-oriented managers find it more difficult to motivating people. Think about it this way: if you use a positive, friendly approach when communicating with your team, they’ll be far more likely to leave a meeting feeling valued and energized. When team members feel like their boss is pushy or demanding, they may work more in the short term. In the long run, though, they’ll be less inclined to be fully engaged. They may also move on to a new job or boss more quickly than an employee who feels appreciated by a leader who understands them and shows that they care. 2. Friendliness increases the chance that others will buy in to the objectives. Friendly leaders believe that the way they address people is a key part of what creates a happy team environment. It cultivates the feeling that you’re all in this together and shows an investment in them. Friendliness also contributes to creating a safe environment for your team to ask questions. Employees are more likely to invest in objectives that they understand and believe in. 3. Friendliness in leadership sets the tone for your team. Whether leaders realize it or not, the people they lead carefully watch their words and actions. People model their leaders, too, so adopting a friendly style and using that approach with your team sets the tone for how they deal with each other. A warm tone and a positive approach reassure your team, especially in challenging circumstances. Bring out the best in people by showing them that you are not disproportionately results-oriented. As always, balance is key! 4. A friendly leader actually has greater impact on the team. A leader who approaches his team with intense emotions—displaying anger, stress or frustration openly—might hurt the team over-reacting. Venting might feel gratifying in the moment, but it can also reduce the trust between a leader and his team. It creates a leader-versus-team dynamic rather than a sense of facing a challenging situation together. Friendliness on the other hand, helps craft that sense of community and team spirit. A friendly approach shows the team that the leader views himself [...]

By |2021-05-25T16:01:14-04:00May 25th, 2021|Leadership Tips|Comments Off on 4 Reasons Leadership Requires Friendliness

5 Ways a Daily Mindfulness Practice Will Increase Your Happiness

5 Ways a Daily Mindfulness Practice Will Increase Your Happiness One of the most effective ways to increase your happiness and reduce your stress level is to engage in a daily mindfulness or meditative practice. You don’t have to spend hours a day in order to achieve results, but you do need to do a little research and gather some helpful tools, like a quiet space, perhaps an app or video to guide you through your practice as you learn. The goal is pretty simple. Mindfulness is a type of meditation that helps you to focus on what you feel or think and accept it without judging. You can do this in really short sessions—as little as two minutes to begin. There are a number of great free apps that offer guides to mindfulness practice. My favorite is CALM. Before you know it, your daily practice will begin to bring results. Here are 5 ways a daily mindfulness practice will increase your happiness: 1. Reduce Stress Level Regular mindfulness or meditation practice lowers the levels of cortisol, a stress hormone, in the brain. A regular practice—and this can take just a few minutes each day!—can actually physically change the activity in your brain and alter your hormone levels so you feel less stress and anxiety. 2. Reduce Depression It may seem counterintuitive to think that spending more time in your head would help reduce depressive thoughts and feelings, but the science doesn’t lie. A study at Johns Hopkins found that the effects of meditation were moderate, about the same as for antidepressants. 3. Reduce Job Burnout Here’s something exciting to note: the research on mindfulness as a way to reduce workplace stress and burnout is so compelling that some companies are beginning to offer mindfulness training to their employees, such as nursing staff, who routinely experience high stress situations. 4. Increase Attentiveness Spending a few minutes quieting your body and focusing your thoughts not only has an impact in the hormone levels in your brain, but also helps increase your ability to focus. A mindfulness or meditation practice is a great way to help teach your brain not to rush from thought to thought, but to be able to pause and hold one thought at a time. 5. Grow a Happier Brain In my book, 21 Days to Happiness, I talk about some exciting studies that show how meditation and mindfulness practices can actually help you grow a happier brain. This is really exciting research, and it means that happiness really is something we can choose to pursue. Just like targeting a particular part of your body in a strength-training workout, you can target the happiness centers in your brain with a meditation or mindfulness practice of your own. Are you ready to give it a try? Ingrid Kelada Owner of KCC Positive Business Psychology & Happiness Expert Try all 21 Days to Happiness in My Book There’s never been a better time to pursue happiness with my book, 21 [...]

By |2021-02-15T22:10:01-04:00February 16th, 2021|Happiness Tips|Comments Off on 5 Ways a Daily Mindfulness Practice Will Increase Your Happiness

How to Increase Your Productivity Without Working More Hours

More Work Doesn’t Equal More Productivity According to the American Dream Project, the average American works between 43 and 51 hours per week. That’s a lot of hours! One key question to consider as you plan your own workweek is, are you getting the best productivity from your work schedule? Does working extra hours actually make us more productive? The truth is, it doesn’t. In fact, the United States is ranked 5th in productivity behind countries like Norway, Belgium, and Ireland. Yet people in those countries work fewer hours than we do. So, how do we make our working hours more productive? Work Time Versus Productive Time Here are some interesting facts to consider: The average person is only productive 5 hours a day, yet our average workday is 8 hours, or more! Fewer people take breaks and vacations than ever before, which means people spend more time working than in past decades. Working more means feeling more exhausted, which also decreases productivity. Why Do We Work So Much? North Americans tend to have a higher living standard than some other countries. A lot of this comes from convenience spending, which is largely driven by our long workdays. But having more things and having easier access to food and entertainment don’t actually promote happier or more productive lives. Instead, those things can be a kind of escapism. We work hard, we’re tired, so we buy ourselves a treat—a fancy prepared dinner or a new outfit—rather than treating our bodies and minds to the things we really need, like rest and companionship. Happiness Equals Productivity Want to know how you can maximize your productivity while decreasing your stress? The answer might surprise you. Happiness! Taking time to invest in your happiness has a significant impact on your productivity at work. According to the Great Place to Work Institute, the companies with the happiest employees are also the most productive. Happy people have more energy, are more resilient, and suffer from fewer health problems. In other words, taking regular breaks and limiting your work time so that you allow yourself to rest and spend time with people you love actually makes you a better, more productive worker. Try This For Increased Productivity Set a timer on your phone to remind you to take regular breaks at work. While on your break, go outside and take deep breaths. Focus on a distant object or building to let your eyes rest, especially if you work on a computer. Listen to a favorite song or watch a funny video on YouTube. Get your mind away from your work for a few minutes. When you return to work, notice how your body feels. Do you feel more awake? Do you have more energy? Is your focus sharper? More on Breaks and Happiness For more information on how to improve your productivity by using breaks and managing your time to boost happiness in your life, check out chapters 15 “Take a Break: Life is Not a Race” [...]

By |2019-11-05T07:03:07-04:00October 30th, 2019|Happiness Tips, Leadership Tips|Comments Off on How to Increase Your Productivity Without Working More Hours

Work-Play Integration: The New Work-Life Balance

Integration for Life Harmony Balance. It's a nice word but the reality is hard to pin down. It may not even put us on the right track in our quest for fulfillment and happiness. Today we will talk more about  "work-play integration". Let's think about integration, which means bringing the various pieces of our lives into a cohesive whole. We each have many roles, goals, responsibilities and life plans. We have to consider all of those aspects globally and identify clear priorities. Identify Priorities Experience shows people best at balancing their lives are ones who have very clear priorities and their own clear definition of success. They know what's most important in their lives. These are people who can say, before it happens: if I have to make a choice between different activities, I know what my biggest priority is. Recognize the Choices You're Making Sometimes we fall into going through life feeling like we don't have a choice. We let the new promotion or the new demands of the job dictate what we do. This is not a balanced life road. We need to stop and reflect, communicate more with your significant other and your manager at work...basically be more pro-active and take charge. Take Time to Unplug It's easy to find we have too much to do. Technology has changed things and made people accessible 24 hours a day, encroaching on the peaceful "unplugged" time people used to have. Yet some things don't change. We still have 24 hours a day. We all have the same amount of time, and how we use it comes down to a personal choice. Use Management Skills in All Areas of Your Life For a balanced life, basic management skills have to be used at home as well as in the workplace. One of the reasons why many people prefer going out to work to working at home is that we're very organized in the workplace. We use time management there, and then we come home and just ride the waves, allowing  the latest problem that has cropped up to dictate our time. Instead, try bringing some organization into your home life. Plan a weekly dinner with friends or a family game night. Schedule an activity for yourself from time to time as an opportunity to take care of yourself and re-energize. Day 20 of my book, 21 Days to Happiness, focuses on creating happiness at work through the use of our strengths and talents. Check it out, and let me know which chapter helps you most! Ingrid Kelada Business Psychologist/Happiness Expert KCC Inc.

By |2019-11-05T07:38:10-04:00April 30th, 2018|Happiness Tips|Comments Off on Work-Play Integration: The New Work-Life Balance

Finding Balance at Work and Home

Sometimes We Chase the Wrong Things In a culture obsessed with high tech gadgetry, cellphones, credit cards, fast cars, large houses, and job titles, it should be no surprise that most people experience stress and anxiety.  The strain of striving after material advantage and the dictates of the Almighty Dollar have made many people virtual slaves in their jobs. Even after working more than 50 hours a week or getting every material need and luxury that money can buy, many people still live unhappily.  Success at work, instead of bringing fulfillment, leaves many people with a feeling emptiness and disillusionment. But there is still hope for the tired professional and the exhausted worker.  Stress and anxiety need not ruin lives and careers.  To get back on track, it may be helpful to consider the following advice on how to be an achiever who lives a balanced life: Identify what's important What we really are lacking is balance.  A good start would be to have a career and life plan that balances your time and effort between work and home. If we plan carefully, we will most likely make the right action or choices. Life shouldn't be a big enigma. Life can be made simple and enjoyable. A career or life plan must start with having a stated purpose. Knowing what you really want helps you get rid of unnecessary fatigue brought about by things which are not really important.  Knowing your priorities also help you get rid of unnecessary worries and prevents you from wasting energy. Writing it down --- putting your plan on paper --- is the first step on having a balanced life. Your first task is to identify what you want.  Do you prefer to have  a fun personal or family life, vibrant health more than having financial success or a well-respected position?  Maybe you can have both without making any sacrifice in terms of time or quality of life? Write it down! Goals are much easier to achieve when we identify them and list them on paper. Quick questions To get our bearings, it is important to be constantly aware of our priorities.  A good way to start redefining one's priorities is by answering the following questions: Are you neglecting yourself physically, mentally or spiritually? Are you neglecting your spouse, your children, your peers? Are you fulfilling your commitments? Are you operating in your comfort zone? Don't be discouraged if you answered "yes" to some of those questions. Taking a moment to acknowledge where your life is out of balance is a great first step toward happiness. Once you've identified problem areas, you can begin making changes that lead you toward a happier, more fulfilled life. It's All About Balance You have the power to manage your everyday stresses. You have opportunity to make healthy changes in your life. It may take time, but don't be afraid to start now. These helpful tips will ease the pressures and get you moving toward happiness. Focus – Take a [...]

By |2019-11-05T07:45:19-04:00January 22nd, 2018|Happiness Tips|Comments Off on Finding Balance at Work and Home
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