Laughing at work

Laughing is good at relieving stress - both my own and that of people around me. However, laughing at someone is not good as they may be offended (as I was when I was a kid in school) . Once this week I thought someone at work was laughing at me but I was mistaken. It is nice to laught with people or at jokes.

It has been very busy this week. I am in general coping better but I still need to reduce my stress levels. I cannot afford any more outbursts or 'flapping' scenarios. It can be difficult to control my temper in certain situations but I am getting better. Then I can concentrate on the other aspects of the job and build better rapport with my colleagues.

Multi - Tasking

Multi-tasking

Spend 5 minutes first thing in the morning and after lunch to list things as follows (things to do list):

· Important and urgent calls, emails and admin work that has to be done today

· Important work that needs to be done as soon as possible but can wait to be completed tomorrow

· Anything else that needs to be progressed if time is available

· Plan ahead so that as little as possible is done in the last minute

Also:

· Take time and double check things without rushing (bookings, quotes, joining instructions etc)

· Do one task at a time

· Only having one folder open at a time and return any that I'm not using thus utilizing space

· Report progress and issues that arise regularly to my managers

· Prepare computer at start with Outlook, Business Manager, Website and the consultant database running

Try to keep 3 hours in the morning for training and 3 in the afternoon for marketing activities. If this is not possible, for example if a training course is on, then re-dress the balance the next day. Get anything urgent done in the first part of the session.

Dealing with interruptions

Get in the habit of learning how to control interruptions. Examples include:

· Answering some incoming calls (this also helps with learning and knowing who can deal with the enquiries).

· Having two copies of business manager running - one for interruptions and one for the work I am processing.

Don't be afraid of asking for a few seconds to get my thoughts together - for example asking someone to wait whilst looking for information or when noting where I am with a task or a previous interruption that needs action to be taken.