You find yourself frequently rushing around like a chicken without a head. You get showered, get dressed, give the kids their breakfast, and then ship them off to school.

If everything goes well, you’ll be able to catch the train on time; but if there is even one slip up, the whole morning can be disastrous (not exactly the best precedent to set for the rest of your day).

Answer:

Go to bed 15-30 minutes earlier and wake up 15-30 minutes earlier. Use the extra time to chunk morning tasks into something more manageable and sane.

Also, consider using the extra time to sit outside with some coffee, read the newspaper, or do some praying and meditation. A little bit of “me time” can help get your attitude right before taking on the rest of the world.

2. You let coworkers get under your skin too easily.

It’s bad enough you have to listen to your kids whine and complain, but now you have to deal with it at work. Some people never seem to grow up.

Who is it this time? The gossiper? Your office buddy who needs a second opinion on everything? Or maybe it’s the anonymous asshole who never fills the coffee pot after taking the last drop?

Let’s face it – some people are rude, disrespectful, and just plain annoying.

Answer:

Sucky people exist, but we don’t need to let them get under our skin. Put yourself in their shoes and understand that everyone is trying to get through the day in their own way.

Try making your interactions as pleasant as possible by laughing away the small stuff or cracking a joke. Do whatever it takes to get the good vibes flowing, and don’t take anything too personally.

If people get too pushy: find a quick escape (“I really should get back to this report”), ignore them, tell them directly to stop, or even report them to the manager if the situation gets out of control.

For more tips check out the book The No Asshole Rule.

3. You can’t find time to eat.

Some tell me they are just “too busy to eat.” But if you don’t get the proper nutrition, you can kiss productivity goodbye. Without food you can’t concentrate, you lose stamina quickly, and you’re more likely to daydream about stuff like…eating.

Answer:

Don’t be ridiculous, take the 20-40 minute break and find yourself something to eat. Both your mind and body will appreciate the boost.

For the best results, eat something balanced and healthy, but any food is always better than no food. Consider leaving some snacks around the office for quick replenishment throughout the day.

4. Your boss treats you like a door mat.

Typically you want to be a good lil’ worker and not get the people in charge upset. And there is nothing wrong with wanting to please your boss (or bosses).

However, there are limits. There are times where the worker-boss relationship can be detrimental, bordering on abusive.

Having too much work to do, or being talked down by your boss on a daily basis, can all have significant psychological effects on your well-being (not to mention your productivity).

Stress has been shown to be most prevalent in individuals who are on the lower end of hierarchies, which leaves the average worker very susceptible to high levels of stress and anxiety.

Answer:

In Good Boss, Bad Boss, Stanford professor Robert Sutton explains how a good boss should be receptive to feedback from his or her employees and respond to those employees with dignity.

Obviously, not all bosses show this kind of understanding. However, you can test the waters by expressing your concerns and seeing what your boss is willing to do to improve working conditions. Make sure you voice your opinion as respectfully as possible.

If your boss isn’t willing to budge at all – and you absolutely can’t stand him – it may be time to start looking for a new and more tolerable job.

5. You have trouble sleeping at night.

By the end of the day you may have a lot of pent up energy, aggression and frustration. This is a cocktail of emotions that is sure to leave you up all night with your mind racing.

Poor sleeping habits can become a downward spiral. Just one night of tossing and turning can leave you worn out for the rest of the day, dozing off at work, and then having the same troubles the very next night.

Answer:

A few years ago I had insomnia and searched for a number of ways to help fall sleep. One of the most effective ways I found was using hypnosis. Basically, I counted down from 50 and consciously slowed down my breathing between each number. Each step represented a more “sleepful state,” and often (with practice) I would be sound asleep before I even got down to 0.

Part of the reason I was so effective at this was because I was training to be a hypnotist at the time. However, it’s really not that hard, and you can get good instructions from books like Paul McKenna’s I Can Make You Sleep: Overcome Insomnia Forever, which also comes with a “Guided Hypnosis CD” that can do a lot of the work for you.

If you’ve tried hypnosis already, or you are too spooked out about it: also try exercising more. Exercise can help release excess energy. The more physically active you are, the more likely it is that you will be tired by the end of the day, and therefore be able to get the rest you need.

People sometimes underestimate how much their environment reflects their mental state. Does your office have loose papers scattered across the room, coffee stains, and an overflowing waste bin? Do you walk into the office every morning and it looks like a cyclone hit it?

Guess what – it’s time to re-assess your cleaning habits at work.

Answer:

Keeping things clean and organized isn’t that hard and you don’t need an elaborate system to do it.

Spend 20 minutes every Friday afternoon emptying out the garbage, vacuuming crumbs on the floor, dusting behind the computer, or whatever (this is assuming your company doesn’t already have someone hired to do this stuff for you).

As for papers:

1. Organize a couple of folders or binders.

2. Label them according to your tasks throughout the work week.

3. Find a space for them in your office where they aren’t going to move.

Keep it simple stupid. You’re not trying to replicate Wikipedia, and dust bunnies don’t actually grow fangs and suck blood if they aren’t cleaned up right away. The point is to introduce some sanity into the workplace, not become a neat freak.

Allot no more than 25-30 minutes a week and make an active effort to keep things tidy and in order.

7. Troubles at home.

Sometimes the most common distractions at work aren’t work-related, but our relationships at home with family, friends, girlfriends, boyfriends, or roommates.

An unhealthy home life spills into an unhealthy work life (and vice versa).

If we have stress at home, we often carry that negative energy into the workplace as well. That means poor relationships with family and friends might also tell us why coworkers so easily get under our skin (#2). We seek healthy social bonds, but when we don’t get them we sometimes think the whole world is conspiring against us.

Answer:

Address the problem. Poor relationships need to be brought into consciousness and reconciled, not suppressed where problems can grow and exacerbate.

If you have to: introspect on the relationship and figure out where the core issues lie. Then, have a civil conversation with the person (with the intent to find common ground). When conversations aren’t possible, seek new and positive relationships elsewhere (not always easy, but sometimes necessary).

8. You recently lost a loved one.

Time can sometimes be a cruel teacher, especially when you lose those who you deeply care for. A recent death can make life freeze in place. You don’t want to go anywhere. You can’t concentrate on getting anything done. And you don’t want to go to work. Instead, you just want to sit at home, cry, and reflect.

And, depending on the person, you may also have funeral plans to arrange – which can be another burden in itself during these depressing times.

Answer:

Request time off. These are those rare times where you probably want some solitude and you need the time away from work. Most people will be understanding and let you do your thing. Try to take things slowly.

In addition, find some way to celebrate the person’s life. Maybe watch a favorite movie you used to both like, or go to some spot you used to have deep and philosophical conversations. Find a way to reconcile their passing with honor and fortitude.

Then take your best step forward.

9. You need a vacation.

Sometimes nothing is wrong at work. You are just tired of the day-to-day rat race and you want some time to enjoy the finer moments in life.

Answer:

If you have been budgeting yourself correctly, you should have some money saved away to go on a small vacation. Make sure you let your employer know in advance when you plan on taking time off, and be sure to book any hotels, tours, or attractions beforehand.

Also, leave plenty of free time and flexibility in your schedule, just in case you want to lounge by the pool, read, or go out to dinner. This is a time to relax and enjoy yourself – don’t make it too busy.

10. Your job just sucks.

Maybe after it is all said and done you just don’t like your job. You tried to make it more pleasurable, you tried to stick with it, but you simply can’t. Maybe it just doesn’t suit your personality. Or maybe the job just really does suck.

Answer:

Start looking for a new and better job. Although a new career can seem daunting, in the long-run it might be the best decision you ever made. You can start by follow many of my tips at 50 Things To Do While Unemployed – but please don’t quit your job until you have another one secured.

Books you might like:

• The No Asshole Rule: Building a Civilized Workplace and Surviving One That Isn’t
• Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity
• Guerrilla Marketing for Job Hunters: 1,001 Unconventional Tips, Tricks and Tactics for Landing Your Dream Job

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Whether we brainstorm in groups or in solitude, brainstorming is a constant battle of ideas. Neuroscientist Mark Beeman claims that, while an everyday thought like what to eat for lunch may involve millions of neurons, an insight might only be tens of thousands. It might be that we are having creative thoughts all of the time, but they aren’t being listened to because they are largely happening underneath the surface, competing for our awareness.

When you enter other minds into the picture, like during a business meeting, the brainstorming process becomes even more dynamic. Not only do we have different neurons competing in an individual mind, but we also now have full ideas being verbalized, grabbing more of our attention, and synthesizing with other ideas.

The creative process can be chaotic, especially if we don’t have a methodological way of sifting through new thoughts and ideas, or letting other voices be heard. Setting some guidelines can be a good first start.

Tips for brainstorming in a business or organizational setting

- Start off with 3-5 minutes of quiet writing time so each member can first brainstorm individually.

- Have each member write down their ideas anonymously in order to limit social pressures that might hinder creative thought.

- After, collect all the ideas in a hat, pull one, and spend some time discussing it as a group.

- Encourage politeness and open-mindedness throughout the whole session.

- Allow members to write down new ideas during discussion.

- For extended meetings, make sure to include snacks and bathroom breaks. People that don’t have their physical needs met won’t be able to think as efficiently.

- Don’t ignore the environment of the meeting. Choose something with vibrant and lively colors, but nothing too distracting.

Remember that you are trying to build a system where creative chaos can flourish, but also later be processed into something practical and useful. This requires a constant shifting of perspectives, both as a dreamer, and also as a critic and a realist. Once you begin scrutinizing these ideas, you can begin connecting, and as your visions begin to synthesize you might be getting closer and closer to that Eureka moment.

Most creative processes follow a similar pattern, but the form and context they take place in can be very different, so we don’t often think of them as comparable. This time instead of business I’m going to list some guidelines for a music band (notice the similarities and differences):

Tips for brainstorming in a music band

- First ask each musician to warm up, go over scales, stretch, etc…

- Musicians think with their instruments, so after warming up the best way to brainstorm is through jamming.

- Give each musician a chance to start an idea, a riff, or a pattern, and then have the other musicians build around it.

- Read each other’s emotions and attitudes. Ask, “What is trying to be communicated?”

- Play off others and build an energy around the sound.

- Speak out when you hear something you like.

- Give helpful critiques when you hear something that can be improved.

In both scenarios you want to let everyone’s individuality be expressed, and then you want to try and integrate that into a more cohesive whole. That is what it means when people have creative chemistry.

Where Good Ideas Come From

Science author Steven Johnson spoke at a TED conference earlier this year about “Where Good Ideas Come From.” His theories come from an “environmental perspective,” meaning that good ideas rarely come from a single mind, but instead are likely to formulate when minds come together and exchange ideas in the right setting.

Most ideas, Johnson claims, take a long time to evolve. They remain dormant until our hunches combine with other hunches, and finally a full idea emerges. He says that the great driver of technology and science is our connectivity, and inventions like cellphones and the internet have become the primary engine of innovation.

Watch a great cartoon presentation of his lecture here:

His new book, “Where Good Ideas Come From” is coming out October 5th of this year! You can pre-order it here (or buy it depending on when you a reading this).

Individual minds and creative pairs

According to a recent article at Slate.com, there seems to be a debate among creative experts between what is more likely: the lone genius, or creative fusion when we work in pairs or in groups.

In a way this is a false dichotomy. Only individuals think, but their thoughts are very much influenced by their surroundings and interactions with others. If we were to take a newborn baby, put it in an isolated bubble and let it develop into an adult, it would have very few inputs to use toward creativity.

Rich minds always stay active and search for new experiences. They look at nature, visit New York City, talk to other like-minded individuals, and they also spend time alone, absorbing and reflecting on everything they have learned.

As an individual thinker, there are certain tips we can follow to enhance our creative output while interacting with our environment:

- Carry a notepad or voice recorder with you everywhere you go.

- Be interested and curious in everything.

- Always seek new knowledge.

- Talk to other creative people.

- Try and look at things in unconventional ways.

- Be more mindful of your thoughts.

Besides the advice to carry a notepad or voice recorder, a lot of this is about fostering the right attitude. Brainstorming and creativity is very much about how you see the world, and consequently how you interact with it.

Other great links on the creative process

Creativity is something that has always interested me. Not so surprisingly, there are many different ways to think about it. Here are a few links I’ve discovered over the past couple of months that give some interesting insights:

- Filmmaker David Lynch on “Where Ideas Come From”

- Psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi on “Creativity Fulfillment, and Flow”

- CEO of IDEO, Tim Brown, on creativity and play

- Pixar’s Randy Nelson on the Collaborative Age

- Creative expert Ken Robinson says schools kill creativity.

- Author Elizabeth Gilbert on nurturing creativity

What’s wrong with that? Well, some may say that blogging distracts us from our “real work” or our “real job.” Blogging in this case is seen as just a hobby, and thus it is considering a pleasure, not a mode of productivity.

But is this even true?

I believe blogging actually makes us more productive, not less. Just because we aren’t making a lot of money doing it doesn’t mean that we aren’t being productive. And just because something is self-serving doesn’t mean it can’t also benefit others. Blogging exemplifies both of these points.

This is why I have compiled five main reasons why having a blog makes you more productive. These reasons include:

Each of these will be expanded on below:

1. Organizing Your Thoughts

A blog is basically a diary with a public audience. It provides an outlet to share our experiences and expand on our thoughts.

When we write about these aspects of our life we are allowing our brains to better organize our mental world, to make better sense of it, and to think more lucidly about our life situations. This can lead us to better problem-solving skills, a more goal-oriented lifestyle, and a clearer understanding of what we really want out of life.

2. Exercising Creativity

Our blog is our creation. Sure, we may have a default WordPress theme, we may have borrowed some pictures from Flickr.com, and we may even quote from different news articles and blog entries. But when it is all said and done: it is our creation! We were the ones who found all the resources and put them together in a way that we envisioned.

Some are more creative than others, but there is virtually no limit to the things we can do while maintaining a blog. We can write, take photos, record videos, design, manufacture products, and so much more. Blogging is what makes it possible to combine all these elements all in one place.

3. Networking

If we are consistent with what we do then we are bound to cross paths with others who have similar interests. This can lead us in all sorts of productive directions. We could run into someone who gives us a helpful suggestion regarding a current endeavor. We may even run into our future business partner.

Nowadays good networking skills can get us almost anywhere in the workplace. Even if we don’t connect with someone directly through our blog, the skills we develop while networking with others will carry over to other areas of life as well.

4. Better Spent Freetime

How would you be spending your freetime if you weren’t blogging? Would it be watching TV, playing videogames, or surfing YouTube? Which do you think is more productive: blogging or what you would most likely be doing if you weren’t blogging?

You could be writing about anything and I would wager that you are being more productive, and that you are provoking reality to a much greater extent, then if you were just sitting in a near vegetative state passively consuming various mediums of entertainment. This isn’t to take anything away from the enjoyment of a good movie or a hilarious Youtube video, but – in terms of productivity – blogging is the better choice.

5. Visiting Other Blogs

If you are like most bloggers then you probably also like to visit other people’s blogs too. And of course, just like your blog provokes the interests of its readers, other blogs are going to provoke your interests as well. The blogosphere is filled with quality, thought provoking, and mind expanding material. I have only been blogging for 6 months and I already feel much smarter because of it.

There is a blog for just about anything you could possibly be interested in. Do you like obscure music? Do you need business tips that come from the heart? What about advice on how to pick-up women? The blogosphere has it all, no wonder it is the newest and most popular way to disseminate information across the net.

Conclusion

I hope you are now convinced that blogging is an activity that can benefit anyone. Whether you plan on creating a business out of it or just pursuing your own personal pleasure there is something to gain if you are willing to dedicate the time.