Death by Overwork - Breathing Space Blog

Authors Louise de Rosario and Anthony Rowley, in an article written for the Far Eastern Economic Review, observed that up to 10,000 Japanese die annually as victims of karoshi: death by overwork.  In one survey, 40 percent of respondents indicated that they feel too uncomfortable to take paid holidays

The Value of Rituals - Breathing Space Blog

In an ultra-hectic world, small daily rituals play an important part in everyone's life. For example, some people linger in the shower for several minutes, collecting their thoughts, letting the warm water pour over them, to gain a sense of satisfaction or even renewal. 

In the workplace, a ritual might entail setting the window blinds ‘just right,' clearing one's desk, and having all calls held before tackling a project. Teams at work might have breakfast or lunch together, or engage in five minutes of friendly banter before the beginning of a formal meeting. Rituals can serve as little breaks throughout the day to keep noise and distraction at bay.

Such positive rituals – automatic forms of behavior or activities – help to reduce stress because they effectively limit the array or options one might otherwise face.

The People Who Hate Their Jobs - Breathing Space Blog

As shocking as it seems to those of us who love our work, a majority of American workers either loathe their jobs or could care less about what they do. These results, coming from a Gallup poll, published in The State of the American Workplace Report, reveal that some 30% of Americans are passionate and enthusiastic about their work, and are actively engaged in their tasks on a daily basis. These are the high-performing, highly productive segments of the labor force.

According to Gallup, apparently everyone else falls far short of being actively aged and nearly 20 million workers are what Gallup terms “actively disengaged." These workers are unhappy and only too willing to convey their sense of dissatisfaction about the jobs they do. Another 50 million workers are “passively disengaged.”

In all, about 70% of our 100 million person workforce fall into the “I don't like my job” category. Thus, executives, managers, and supervisors today face a continuing challenge when it comes to enticing the 70% to consistently reach their productivity potential.                  

Rainy Day File - Breathing Space Blog

A rainy day file is something to keep in one of your desk drawers or in your filing cabinet to review on a down day. It would include handwritten notes from other people, pictures, memos, jokes, cartoons, or anything else that brightens your day. 

The file could also include performance appraisals, evaluations from speeches or presentations you’ve made, or simply your boss’s handwritten words of praise accompanying something that you have submitted. 

The file could include love letters, ticket stubs, or program mementos. It might include a lucky medallion, coin, or dollar bill. It could be a flight itinerary, vacation brochure, postcard, or picture from a magazine. Anything and everything that will lift your spirits is fair game.

Marvels of Technology - Breathing Space Blog

What a world, a scalpel is now being developed at Vanderbilt University that will actually help doctors to determine if a cell is cancerous or not before cutting into it. This seems impossible, but as it turns out, the way cells reflect light from a laser attached to the scalpel indicates whether they are cancerous or not. This spectacular breakthrough enables doctors to avoid cutting into health tissue, while not leaving malignant tissue behind.

Doctors in Germany are now growing human bone and cartilage by extracting tiny bits of cartilage from a patient’s rib, soaking the parts in a special liquid and then spreading them out over a biodegradable form. The cells begin to grow and assume the shape of the form they have been spread over. The procedure is still in its early stages but has been used successfully in repairing a torn ear lobe and shattered finger joint.

Leery of Going on Vacation? - Breathing Space Blog

Five years ago this month:  "The great American vacation is slipping away. The number of Americans taking off from work for less than a full week at a time has more than doubled since 1990. Fewer and fewer workers are willing to risk a full two weeks away from the job, fearing perhaps that they'll return to find their sales trophy in a box and a stranger in their cubicle. "

"Instead, vacations are reduced to a couple of days tacked on to a long weekend, like a housekeeping addendum to an inter-office memo. Worse, the more senior the employee, the more likely she/he spends some part of that mini-vacation in the death grip of a digital-communications device."
      --Francis Wilkinson, The Week Magazine

30 Minutes Count - Breathing Space Blog

Question: No matter how conscious I am of saving time throughout the day, I still find myself racing the clock. What, if anything, am I doing wrong?

Consider the following: any one-hour activity that you undertake in the course of the day will consume one solid year out of the next 24 years of your life. One hour is to 24 hours as one year is to 24 years. With this realization, consider the cumulative effects of reading junk mail for only 30 minutes a day or spending 15 minutes a day in line at the bank--both of which could be avoided if you used mail, phone, or email services. Obviously there are some things that you couldn't or wouldn't want to give up and it is silly to apply this kind of arithmetic to activities such as personal hygiene. In general, however, each 30 minute segment of the day is valuable!