v43.4: Stressed

Good morning folks,

-slurp-



Last night I was going through some old musings and came across a musing I wrote back in May 2005.  I was counting down the days before my vacation and had a series of musings that week (v4.7 - v5.1) where I ran a little experiment.  It was a de-stress experiment which, according to my musings, was quite successful.  I had completely forgotten about doing that (it was almost 8 years ago after all) so after reading it last night, I felt it would be good to bring it back and give it another try.  You can read the original musing HERE, but to summarize: I had determined that the link between work and stress is all in your head.  If you go to work planning to do the absolute minimum, you can be more productive due to the lack of stress you're feeling about doing your job.  As mentioned, my experiment was a success and despite going to work with the intent to do as little as possible, it was my most productive week ever.

-slurp-

So here's my plan.  Since it's already hump day today, it doesn't make much sense to run another experiment starting in the middle of the week.  Therefore, starting next Monday I will attempt this experiment again and see how it goes.  Just to be clear, this isn't about coming to work with the expectation to do nothing at all, it is about adjusting your mindset to not go crazy and think about your job and the things you need to do from day-to-day.  This experiment won't work for everyone and if you're in a volatile position at work, I wouldn't recommend doing it.  While I'm sure you would all prefer to sit and dwell on work during your evenings and morning commutes, I think the reason a lot of us are over stressed in our jobs these days is due to the fact we dwell on our work much too often.  I know I do it and I suspect a lot of you do as well.

-slurp-

This means starting next week I will be writing every day for the duration of the week; documenting my progress and hopefully come up with some witty banter and humorous musings.  It's been a long time (as I noticed while reading through them last night) since I've had a really good and amusing musing (see what I did there?).  It also may be a fun exercise to have others join me in this experiment.  After I muse each day, you will be able to comment on the musing and I would love to hear how your own day went and whether you've noticed a change in your overall mindset about work and the stress that it often causes.  Feel free to rant or bitch about your day (if you need to) and let me know how things went overall.  It will be interesting to see how many of us actually go through the work week and truly feel less stressed because of this experiment.

-slurp-

As already mentioned, please don't attempt this if things at work are volatile right now.  I would hate for anyone to lose their job because they were taking part in one of my experiments.  For those of you who are quite stressed at work and are not able to take part, I urge you to try to not dwell on work during your evenings.  Try to leave work AT work and resume when you return.  I know this is easier said than done (I'm living proof), but by dwelling on work after you've left work, you are basically still at work and will never truly be able to enjoy that downtime you so desperately deserve.  Work isn't easy, hence why they call it "work", but it doesn't have to consume your entire life.  Have some fun with this and experiment on your own.  I've provided you a very lose guide on what I will be doing so take that and adjust it to your own work needs.  Good luck everyone!
Well folks this musing has taken much too long to write due to "work".  I'll wrap things up here and if I don't have a chance to write before the weekend, see you all back here Monday.-slurp-

Cheers,

Al