How to Find Calm in the Work Day
I have had a hell of a time adjusting to my new job, but it’s not because of the job itself. I just have a hell of a time adjusting to any change, even of the delightful and longed-for variety. And this makes perfect sense to me: when you are a person who puts a lot of time and effort into the set-up of your life, making sure it complements and pleases you, of course you would feel rocked hard when change sweeps in. Suddenly, none of your old systems apply to the new situation––you need new ways to calm, delight, and quiet yourself.
This is the case at my new job, where I feel the roaring din of the internet is in my ear all day. Sometimes it feels like there is entirely too much information coming at me––I understand now why people want to run off to the country to a solar-powered house, milk goats, make babies, and eat in front of fireplace in the kitchen.
But given that no city escape plan will be hatched for me anytime soon, I have to find the peace and quiet of the country in the life I have, during the work day I have. In the past few weeks, I’ve found a few things that help me feel centered and calm at work. Share your ideas for staying chill within the work day so we can all zen out at our computers together!
State the Obvious
This is a wonderful tip I picked up from Christine Louise Hohlbaum, author of The Power of Slow. It sounds a little silly, but is actually incredibly grounding. When you are sorting through 1,000 new emails or working hard on a PowerPoint, say (either in your head or out loud, depending how much privacy you have), “I am reading an email from Elaine,” “I am creating a new slide for my presentation.” Thich Nhat Hanh says when you are washing the dishes, really wash the dishes. Be present for what you are doing and that task alone. This idea is the same and great for verbal types.
Get Up Every Hour
Go to the bathroom, take a lap around the office, stand up, bend at the waist, and let hang your head over toward your feet. Getting up from your work once an hour prevents you from sliding into that eye-glazing, one-hour-into-the-next time sink that leaves you wondering where the day went.
Focus on One Thing at a Time
I am the world’s worst multi-tasker. The attempt to do more than one thing at a time makes me feel frantic, scatterbrained and stressed. So I try to do only one thing at a time. When I am waiting for a page to load, I fight the urge to open another tab and look something up that has just suddenly occurred to me (“Wonder what the weather is in Austin right now?”) or fiddle with my phone or start making a grocery list. I just do that one thing. Some could argue that this makes me slower or less-efficient, but to me it’s worth it: it makes my mind feel much more quiet.
Breathe
Simple but powerful. Whenever my sense of calm starts slipping away––IMs and emails are coming fast and furious, the doorbell rings, I feel myself torn in seven directions at once––I try very hard to stop myself in that moment of frenzy and take a deep breath. Then I exhale, and do it again. Just one or two rounds of this can keep me from heading into a stress tailspin and it takes less than 15 seconds.
Minimize Distractions
I love listening to music while I work, but I found that the radio is too unpredictable––even a short driving, aggressive song can leave me feeling stressed. So I turned off the radio. I close applications I’m not using. I turn off the email notification. I only leave open the tabs on my browser that relate to what I’m doing right now.
Kanesha: Nice post, Sarah.
I try to stay as calm as possible at work because I’m always managing some low or high level crisis (not of my own). I have a digital timer that I set for 20 minutes – and every 20 minutes (most days) – I get up from my desk and do some yoga/desk stretches. We have a weekly meditation group on Wed (on campus) so I try to make it to that at least 2 times a month.1 year ago
How people with high crisis jobs do it, I have no idea. I salute you, Kanesha! Your every twenty minutes rule is a good one–I think people say our concentration starts to flag after that long so it’s good to get up and then refocus.1 year ago
Katie: I SO needed to read this, on Day 2 of a new job. I’m still in full-on adjustment mode. Thanks for these wise words, Sarah!1 year ago
Elisha Lynn: Great tips Sarah!
I too have a HUGE problem with multi-tasking. I truly think it is a problem of our generation. With all of the different forms of technology that we have, our mind thinks that it can work like a 4G phone with endless applications operating simultaneously. Our brains are just not built like that!
Focus is something I have been working on for years starting in high school. I have a drawing hanging above my desk that simply says FOCUS to help me when my mind starts to wander. I have found that visual, written reminders help me get through the day.1 year ago
Mari Huertas: Ooh, I like this post.
I wrote something related a few days ago on digital footprint lightness. My tip is not to have more than three tabs open in a browser window at any given time. And when I’m focusing on writing a piece, Twitter and Gmail cannot be one of those windows – the little pop-up numbers announcing a new tweet / e-mail are too distracting and inviting of a click. (I’m not on Facebook, or that would be on that list, too.) Cheers!1 year ago
Christine Hohlbaum: Awesome, inspiring post, Sarah! The truth is we are ALL the world’s worst multitaskers because multitasking is a myth. Your mind is either thinking about the cat, your article or the latest tweet you crafted that crowned you “Pithiest Queen of the Day”. We cannot think two thoughts at once, nor can we execute two comparably difficult things simultaneously. So you’re off the hook. Congrats in embracing all things slow. Change, even a little, can be daunting. But just think of the rut you’d be in without it!1 year ago
Katie, I feel you––I’ve been in adjustment mode for weeks now. Just remember that it takes time!
Elisha, I’m glad Christine dropped into the bust the multitasking myth. And I love the idea of your Focus post.
Mari, I’m in love with your blog. So glad you commented here so I can start following you and learn how to SIMPLIFY!
Christine, The more I hear from you, the more I want your book! And I think I want a t-shirt that says “Pithiest Queen of the Day”!1 year ago
Cadi: Great post Sarah! To keep that too-much-happening-at-once feeling at bay, I keep a running, physical to-do list for each day: on a notepad, I list anything that pops up when I’m doing something else, that I know needs attention at some point. This makes me able to remove it from my train of thought, which makes me more efficient, but not forget about it completely. When I finish a task on that list I cross it off with a big black marker, which gives me a sense of satisfaction that it’s DONE.
The next day, I go back over my list and transfer all of the things that didn’t get done the day before to the very top of my list for that day. And I use a clean sheet every day – made greener of course by flipping the page over. This helped me get through years of my super-high level crisis job (their crises, not mine, like Kanesha).
Thank you for the zenful list!1 year ago
Tiffany: These are some GREAT tips you’ve listed here. I’m definitely going to put them to use.1 year ago
Hilltop Hausfrau: Breathe in….breathe out…this is my mantra these days. I like the idea you summarize here of being PRESENT in the task you have at hand. With two kids at home, I’ve scaled my list of things to do WAY down, but find if I am really concentrating on the thing I’m doing immediately, it gets done well. Or at least gets done! Thanks for the reminder here…1 year ago
Cindy J.: How timely, I find myself starting my first job this week since taking 10 years off to stay home with kids . . . and wondering how my mind is going to adjust. I know I am going to have to maintain a focus that has been lacking in my life; since being a parent of more than one child forces you to multitask, regardless of the consequences (in other words, I have gotten used to doing things badly). I will print out these reminders and try to find my way back to a “zen” work philosophy. Thank you!1 year ago
La Chapstick Fanatique: We created a “tea table” at work. We all contribute fancy teas and nectars of all sorts and we have a little water heater there. Whenever we feel stressed we heat up some water and have a cup of de-stressing tea.
I also takes walks outside during my lunch break. It helps me to focus in the afternoon.
stop by and enter the soap giveaway: http://lachapstickfanatique.blogspot.com1 year ago
Mari Huertas: Oh, thank you for the kind comment! I’m looking forward to reading more of your blog, too.
Cheers!
(Found you through @alexthegirl’s retweet of your post, by the way. She’s lovely, too.)1 year ago
Liz: I am pretty sure I would be 100 times more productive in a given day if I followed this advice.
Sort of ironic, given that the reason I found my way here is opening a non relevant browser window….:D1 year ago
Jen: Really great post – useful for new jobs and refocusing when you’ve been at the same desk for a while!
I have really benefited from having a timer. It’s good to just look away from the screen every so often. My timer is a program that I run on my computer that locks the screen for 20 seconds every so often, and 2 minutes at a different interval (you can set the intervals however you like).
Actually standing up every hour or so is a new development for me, and has made a real improvement! Get the ol’ blood moving, right? Just moving my legs and having a little stretch really helps me to avoid getting too tense, but also helps me to feel that I’m actually taking good care of myself while I’m at work. Just as important as drinking enough water or eating a healthy lunch.
Also: Trying to keep a reasonably clean desk. I just cleaned my desk today. It was just getting too cluttered and that really impacts my ability to feel calm and focused. Now that it’s cleaned up and things that aren’t important to what I’m doing right now are filed away, it’s basically a whole new situation over here!1 year ago
Alison: Oh but your apartment looks SO cheerful and friendly! It looks like spring over there. Now *I’m*stating the obvious here, but you really have such a knack for making things look charming!
1 year ago
Sara Rose: Gawd. Multitasking. It just discombobulates me too, no matter my efforts. I’ve tried to break the habit and when I actually do for five minutes, the task I want to get done, gets done astonishingly faster and much better. Then I attempt it again, which is retarded. Good post, lovely S.1 year ago
heather: at work or, say, at the airport, i find the biggest source of not-calm is SO often other people. at the zenith of craziness, i work to actively remind myself to be in a zen-like bubble of calm, whatever happens around me (reminding my husband, too, when, say, we’re slowly wending our way through airport security, and families/late people/crazy people are churning the air into butter around us).
i’ve worked places, though, where this actively rankles people…so many people have decided that chaos/flapping/frenzied activity = productivity, that if they DON’T see you acting this way–even if the work is being done, timely and well–they get pissed. bleh. times like that, the Best Advice I Ever Got is helpful to remember…my dad thought he was just teaching me how to drive, but “you can only drive the car you’re in” works for SO MUCH of life! you can’t make the people in front of you go any faster, just as the people behind you can’t make YOU go any faster…all you can do is control yourself. wah-lah! zen-like bubble of calm!1 year ago
Sheree: Thanks for the great tips! I’m not a huge fan of multi-tasking. To me, it’s just a made up word for not being able to give your undivided attention to any one thing. It doesn’t allow you to focus on one thing at a time and when we “multi-task” nothing ever gets done to the best of its ability because it didn’t receive 100% of our attention in the first place.
One of the things that I do to help stay calm during the work day is to listen to classical music because I find that a song with no words has the least distraction, plus I here it’s good for productivity.
I also take a one-mile walk during each of my two 15-minute breaks. If the weather is nice, I go outside. If not, I walk around the atrium inside of our building (8 times around = one mile.) When I get back to my desk I feel rejuvinated.
Lastly, I switched to decaf coffee. You’re probably wondering how the heck that would make me feel calm but it really does work (for me anyway.) I love coffee and I enjoy having it at my disposal througout the day but I started to notice that I would get too jittery and would start bouncing from project to project. Plus, if I didn’t have it by certain hour of the morning, the caffeine headaches would consume my entire day! Swtiching to decaf has made me much more calm, has elimnated by headaches and I can drink it througout the day without feeling restless. I also have become less dependent on the affects.
Those are my tips…….I hope you all have a wonderful day!1 year ago
Sheree: *hear
Sorry, I hate spelling errors.1 year ago
Sheree2: Great topic! I recently discovered a passion for premium teas. Smithtea.com offers some delightful blends. Making a pot of tea a couple of times a day has really become one of my favorite rituals.
Adore your blog–first time here.
Best,
S.
NYC1 year ago
Sheree, I so agree with you on the coffee! This has been a hard, sad truth for me because I love coffee, but I’ve had the same experience!1 year ago
jora: These are such great ideas. Multi-tasking leaves me feeling frantic and stressed too. Although it isn’t realistic for me to give that up completely (I have three kids 5 and under!!) I am going to try to minimize the number of things I am doing at one time. Also, I am totally making that cauliflower!!1 year ago
Amelia@TrulyWindchimes: For me, I find calm in my work by watching my twin babies’ videos and pictures. They are the joy of my life. They let all my stresses and tensions go away.
By just watching their smiles and their eyes make my day productive.1 year ago
Marlene: These sound like practical solutions but won’t work for me. I’m chained to a reception desk, greeting people, answering phones, solving problems, ordering and setting up equipment… many many tasks. Would drinking water all day help to keep me calm?44 weeks ago