Audio stress management tools

 

soothing sounds provide solace

This month we are working through a variety of strategies  to help build your resilience to stress, and to manage your workplace stress levels. Your sense of sound is a powerful one; and with some thoughtful strategies, you can use that to help reduce the stress you feel at work.

We have looked at using ambient noise as a strategy for helping you to be more focused and effective at work. Building on that now gives you some tools to specifically feel more relaxed as you listen. Everyone has different preferences, so what makes you feel calm might irritate other people in your office. So use headphones if you need to keep things quiet, but try to build in some time to listen to soothing sounds when things start to build up at work

One tool you might enjoy is the website Noisli. “Noisli is here to make you more focused and boost your productivity. A background noise generator that helps you drown out annoying noises and that lets you create your perfect environment for working and relaxing. You can mix different sounds and create your perfect sound environment tailored to your personal need and taste.” I enjoy mixing in ocean waves, crackling fire, and just a hint of wind. Noisli can be used on your computer, or with an app on your phone. You can also enjoy the changing colors on the background, if you are watching the site.

Animals and stress relief

Animals can be great antidote to workplace stress!

Watching fish swim, patting a kitty, walking with a dog – it can all help to reduce stress, lower blood pressure, and diminish the symptoms of anxiety. Ahhhh….what could be nicer?

If your library has a fish tank, or a resident cat, or a therapy dog who visits and wouldn’t mind taking a break from listening to kids read so she can listen to librarians talk about their day – you are set! If you don’t have one at hand, there are plenty of other ways to watch some relaxing fish. Many aquariums have live cams, where you can enjoy watching some fish swimming all over the world!

Let’s just take a minute to breathe…

breathe….blow out the stress, breathe in the relaxation!

This month we are talking about ways to handle stress in your workplace. While working in a library is wonderful in a lot of ways; we all know that it also brings us some stressful moments.

You need to take less than five minutes, right now, and just have some time to breathe and let your mind wander in happy directions. Take a nice deep breath in, hold for a second, and then breath out with gusto. Do this another time or two, and just let your worries fade to the background for a while. (They will be there later; so you can just forget about them for right now!)

Stress reduction can be enhanced by watching nature. So if you are somewhere you can look at fish, stare out the window at some green space, or pat your dog or cat – do that. And if you want to just relax and let nature come to you, we have a nice video of the Acadia National Park in Maine. Let it inspire you to go out after work or over the weekend and do your own walking around in nature, for the best relaxation!

Strategies to Simplify: Moving forward

“Work simply. Live fully.”  This week CMLE focuses on the following work productivity tip from Work Simply, Carson Tate’s popular book.  At CMLE, we’ve boiled down Tate’s wealth of knowledge from Work Simply to a few key points; please see the book for more detail and resources. At the bottom, see links to earlier tips in the series! Let’s all be our best selves….

This week’s activity: Free yourself from the pull of constant “busyness” by focusing on achieving your best life. 

In the final chapter of Carson Tate’s book Work Simply, she describes an activity she uses with her clients. She has them imagine their lives with all aspects – personal and professional – just the way they want it to be. She has them think how this would look, how they would feel, who they would be with. This exercise creates feelings of “excitement, joy, fun, meaning, and purpose.”

Want to make that fantasy a reality?

Take all the tips and strategies you’ve learned from this series, and put them into action!

In case you need a quick review: Set your READY goals: Realistic, Exciting, Action-oriented, Directive, and Yours. Take a look at the tasks you complete each day and evaluate whether they will help you come closer to achieving your goals. Next, learn better ways of investing your most valuable resource, time. Finally, ask for help! Realize that you actually don’t need to do it all yourself, or all on your own.

Work Simply

Looking for more resources for streamlining your life and living with more meaning and purpose? Check out www.carsontate.com for more strategies and information.

If you missed it, discover your Productivity Style with a simple assessment. See our earlier posts in the series for personalized tips on working with your Productivity Style in order to transform your work and personal life.

Previous tips in this series

• Getting started with Work Simply: An introduction to the series 
• Tip 1: Direct your attention 
• Tip 2: Setting your READY goals
• Tip 3: Spend your time wisely
• Tip 4: Create your Master task list
• Tip 5: Ways to accomplish more
• Tip 6: Control your inbox
• Tip 7: Modify your work space 
• Tip 8: Get a handle on paperwork
• Tip 9: Better delegation
• Tip 10: Work productively with your team
• Tip 11: Meaningful meetings

STRESS! Let’s listen to podcasts to help!

podcasts of happiness await you!

Stress affects everyone, and end-of-year stress can be particularly difficult. Many of us are struggling to finish up all our work for the end of the semester, or celebrating holidays and all that comes with it, in addition to dealing with every single other thing that was already driving us crazy all year long! Patrons have less patience, money is suddenly tighter, and all kinds of extra programs can just cause even the best-balanced library person to hit a breaking point.

CMLE is here to help you. This month we will provide all kinds of information about stress, to help you learn more about it, and learn some strategies for managing stress. You cannot stop stress from happening, but we can all learn better ways to increase our resilience so stress does not knock us out!

One easy way to help is to listen to podcasts.

Of course, there are all kinds of librarian podcasts out there, and we recommend those as nice way to keep up with interesting things happening in the profession!

And there are podcasts you can listen to that will help you address your stress in a productive way.