4 Tips to Destress Your Life and Work Happier

Kathleen Shannon 0:00
Hello and welcome to being boss minisode number 13

Kathleen Shannon 0:10
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Kathleen Shannon 0:15
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Kathleen Shannon 1:13
Alright, so in today's minisode, we're going to be talking about de stressing your life and making your work happier. And I've got four tips for you here today. And these are tips that both Emily and I use in work and life. So first, just learn how to breathe, the act of taking a deep breath can change your day, I find myself as I'm working to actually be holding my breath. And it is It's awful. It creates tension and a lot of sort of physiological distress in your body that I don't even know what's going on. But I do know that if I just stop and take a one big deep breath, it can turn things around. And it's kind of like that old tip of counting to 10, it really does make a difference. So learn how to breathe. If you've never taken up yoga, try that they'll teach you there how to breathe from your belly, big full breaths. Another way to make work happier is to find your most productive time of day. So for me, that happens to be well, it used to be the morning, but I found lately that I really like working in the evening. And lately I've been feeling guilty for working in the evening after hours. But it really is what I found to be a really productive time of day. And then also be easy on yourself whenever you're unproductive time of day rolls around. So I know that I'm pretty worthless between the hours of 3pm and 7pm, nothing is going to happen. And it's also a good time to kind of unplug and hang out with my family. So and your unproductive time of day, it's a good time to hit the gym or go for a walk or maybe binge on Netflix.

Kathleen Shannon 3:00
The main point of this is just to learn how to work with your natural rhythm. So find your most productive time of day. And be sure to block off that time to actually do what you want to be doing, whether that's writing a blog post, or meeting with clients. Use that time wisely. And then speaking of rhythm, one thing that both Emily and I have both done in our lives is getting rid of our alarm clocks. So I knew that Emily has shared with me that her life changed whenever she ditched her alarm clock. And she even changed her work schedule so that her team could do the same. So if you're not a productive person at 6am, and why try wake up whenever your body is ready. And if you're a late sleeper, give this a try for a while anyway, you'll probably find that you start waking up naturally earlier and earlier. And for me, I found that since having a baby, I really like waking up before the sun and even before my baby does and getting a little bit of work done or even just getting breakfast started getting a cup of tea going, it's a really nice way to just ease into the day. And then on those days where I really do need an alarm clock, I like to sleep with my phone outside of my room so that I actually have to actually get up, go to it and turn it off. Another thing is change your alarm clock. So it's not the kind with like the awful rare, rare, rare sound. Get one that is a little more peaceful that has made all the difference in my life to earn the right to actually use an alarm clock and then finally, just find a time to truly disconnect. And I found that even in the evenings, I'm watching TV, I've got my laptop open next to me and then I'm also playing on my phone like I can't even be present with my TV show. So what I've been doing is even just committing to closing the laptop and turning off my phone, even if it means I'm still sitting in front of the TV. watching a show.

Kathleen Shannon 5:01
But then you can also plan even a longer term tech cleanse. And this might be where you go out for a hike for a day, or even go on a week long vacation or a long weekend. And just disconnect, set your autoresponder on your email so that people know that you're out and you won't be responding. But a tech cleanse, it doesn't have to be a big deal. It can even just be I have a friend that takes a sabbatical on Sundays, and turns everything off on those days. Now Emily and I have both found that we can't really do tech cleanses very often. And it's not that we can't necessarily but it's kind of that we don't want to. We both love running our businesses. And so sometimes completely disconnecting from our tech gives us a little bit of anxiety. So I like being connected. I know that Emily likes being connected, but we both have boundaries in place so that we're not lousy humans addicted to our technology. Actually, that's not true. I'm totally addicted to my technology that doesn't make me or you allows a human.

Kathleen Shannon 6:12
Another way that you can disconnect is just to simply take a walk without your phone, or even turn off your ringer. So this is something that I've done in my life is I never have the ringer on my phone on that way. I'm not really a slave to whoever's trying to call me that way you're looking at your phone whenever you want to and not whenever the ringer alerts you to. Alright, so I hope that these tips help you find a few ways to de stress your life and make your work happier. Thank you for giving us a little bit of your time today. Feel free to continue the discussion on our Facebook group. Just search being boss and request to join. And if you haven't already, please be sure to check out all of our full episodes on lovebeingboss.com, on iTunes and SoundCloud and Stitcher. You guys have been leaving us really great reviews on iTunes and we read every single one. And it really does make a difference. It helps us stay in the top charts on iTunes so that more bosses can find us and connect with each other. So thank you for that. Do the work be boss and we'll see you next week. Oh and PS if you like this minisode Be sure to check out our secret episode on cultivating confidence available only at love being boss calm and don't forget to hashtag being boss podcast on Instagram to show us how you're being boss in work in life. Alright, we'll see you next time.