about Healthy life

Time management: Tips to reduce stress and improve productivity

From MayoClinic.com
Special to CNN.com
Do you find yourself overwhelmed by the number of projects you have at work or the depth of these projects? Do you feel the day flies by without your devoting the necessary attention to each assignment because other tasks keep landing on your desk, or because you can’t get it all organized?

You probably know that effective time management will help you get more done each day. It has important health benefits, too. By managing your time more wisely, you can minimize stress and improve your quality of life.

But how do you get back on track when organizational skills don’t come naturally? To get started, choose one of these tips, try it for two to four weeks and see if it helps. If it does, consider adding another one. If not, try a different one.

• Plan each day. Planning your day can help you feel more in control of you life. Write a to-do list, putting the most important tasks at the top. Keep a schedule of your daily activities to minimize conflicts and last-minute rushes.
• Prioritize your tasks. Like many people, you may be spending the majority of your time on a small percentage of your tasks. Prioritizing will ensure you spend your time and energy on those that are truly important to you.
• Say no to nonessential tasks. Consider your goals and schedule before agreeing to take on additional work.
• Delegate. Take a look at your to-do list and consider what you can eliminate or pass on to someone else.
• Take the time you need to do a quality job. Doing work right the first time may take more time upfront, but errors usually result in time spent making corrections, which takes more time overall.
• Break large, time-consuming tasks into smaller tasks. Work on them a few minutes at a time until you get them all done.
• Practice the 10-minute rule. Work on a dreaded task for 10 minutes each day. Once you get started, you may find you can finish it.
• Evaluate how you’re spending your time. Keep a diary of everything you do for three days to determine how you’re spending your time. Look for time that can be used more wisely. For example, could you take a bus or train to work and use the commute to catch up on reading? If so, you could free up some time to exercise or spend with family or friends.
• Get plenty of sleep and exercise. Improved focus and concentration will help improve your efficiency so that you can complete your work in less time.
• Take a time management course. If your employer offers continuing education, take a time management class. If your workplace doesn’t have one, find out if a local community college, university or community education program does.
• Take a break when needed. Too much stress can derail your attempts at getting organized. When you need a break, take one. Take a walk. Do some quick stretches at your workstation. Take a day of vacation.

Ask for helpIf you’re too frazzled to think about trying any of these tips, it’s time to ask for help. Does your life feel totally out of control? If so, contact your employee assistance program (EAP) at your workplace for assistance, or discuss your situation with your docto

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Nourish healthy habits amid tough economic times

• Story Highlights
• As crises rattle Wall Street, job pressures are fueling unhealthy habits
• Stressed workers often eat more calories, skip exercise, do other bad behavior
• But good food, exercise give people a sense of control and calm, dietitian says
• Walks, breaks, employee recognition help; caffeine, too many calories hurt

NEW YORK (AP) — Breakfast is diet Pepsi and two packets of M&M’s. For lunch, macaroons and white chocolates filled with marzipan from the farmer’s market near Wall Street.

After learning her job would be cut this summer, Kelly Daly started reaching more frequently for the soothing effects of sugar.

“It’s a stress reliever; especially now that a bunch of us are going to be laid off,” said Daly, 49, whose job reviewing medical insurance records in Manhattan’s financial district is being cut after 11 years.

As the credit and housing crises rattle Wall Street, pressures over bigger workloads, job security and shrinking nest eggs are upending diets and fueling unhealthy habits across the country.

Stressed workers often reach for calorie-rich foods, skip the gym after a taxing day or forgo meals because of heavy workloads. Or they indulge in other bad-for-you behavior like smoking, drinking or staying out late.

But it is in times of duress, experts say, minding your health is perhaps more critical than ever.

Eating right and getting exercise may seem burdensome and even frivolous under such circumstances, but such healthy activities actually give people a greater sense of control and calm, said registered dietitian Heather Bauer, author of “The Wall Street Diet.”

“It’s one less thing to stress you out,” Bauer said. “If you’re out of a job or in a financial slump, it can give you a sense of inspiration as well.”

For Aleksandra Cogura, heftier workloads in recent months means skipping lunch. If she’s lucky, she’ll manage to grab breakfast on the go. Once a gym regular, she hasn’t been in four months.

“I just feel like I need to complete my work,” said Cogura, a 44-year-old sales analyst in publishing in Manhattan.

Stress can take more serious, physical tolls. People under great stress release hormones and nerve chemicals that weaken the immune system, rendering them more susceptible to illness, said Dr. Esther Sternberg, who studies the effects of stress at the National Institute of Mental Health. Stress can also slow the body’s ability to heal wounds, she said.

That could all translate into higher worker absenteeism, and those who do show up are likely not to be as productive when under great stress, said David Ballard, who specializes in work stress issues at the American Psychological Association.

Some ingredients for happy, productive workers include a flexible work-life balance, employee recognition programs and an atmosphere that lets employees take part in decisions, he said.

“It’s about looking at the big system, creating a workplace that puts a variety of components in place,” Ballard said.

For individuals, reducing stress means “controlling the things you can control” when works seems to get too chaotic, said Marlene Clark, a dietitian with Cedar Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, California.

Taking a brisk, 10-minute walk can do wonders for clearing the head, Clark said. She suggests penciling the breaks in and giving them as much priority as meetings.

Laying off the caffeine — coffee, tea, soda or even chocolate — could also help calm nerves, she said. Getting enough sleep is critical, too, especially when workers face more demanding work and hours, Clark said.

Taking such measures to reduce stress will only become more critical as the economic forecast darkens.

The nation’s unemployment rate, now at 5.1 percent, is expected to move higher in coming months. Gasoline and food prices are at record levels, too, with ground beef, milk, apples, coffee and orange juice costing more these days.

“The first thing people want to do when they get stressed is eat stuff that’s bad for them,” said Bauer, who counsels Wall Street executives. “But the end result is that they’re more stressed out because they’re eating something they shouldn’t have.”

Food crisis

I posted two news about food crisis.

It  influenced everyone and social groups.

(CNN) — Ordinary Americans aren’t the only ones being punished by tough economic times. Charities say they need help, too.

Charitable groups that help the poor — food banks, thrift stores, shelters — say the slumping economy is eroding their ability to help the nation’s needy. They report declining donations and a surge in people seeking help.

Bill Bolling, the founder of the Atlanta Community Food Bank, says he’s experienced several recessions but never seen so many working people visit food banks. Bolling’s charity donates food to 800 nonprofit groups in Georgia.

“This is new for us,” Bolling said. “People are giving up buying groceries so that they can pay rent and put gas in the car.”

National charities like Goodwill Industries International, Inc and The Salvation Army give the same grim assessment — donations are down, needs are up.

At least 1.3 million more people have enrolled in the federal Food Stamp Program compared to last year, says Ross Fraser, a spokesman for America’s Second Harvest, one of the nation’s largest hunger-relief groups. It donates food to at least 200 food banks.

“People who have been in food banking for years say it’s the worst they’ve ever seen,” Fraser said.

People often assume food bank customers are homeless. But several food bank officials across the country say that many of their customers are working class people and their numbers are increasing.

They are people like Lynette Copeland, who works full-time as a clerk at a rehabilitation center in Atlanta, Georgia. She’s buying a Habitat for Humanity house and drives a car. But she says she doesn’t make enough money to pay her bills.

Copeland says she depends on the Atlanta food bank to feed the four grandchildren she raises alone. She says the high costs of food, fuel and daycare force her to eat meat sparingly and shop at Goodwill.

“Although everything is going up, your pay rate doesn’t go up,” she said.

Lately, Copeland says she has noticed a change in the makeup of the customers visiting her food bank. Instead of the homeless and destitute, people come from all walks of life: the elderly, men in security guard uniforms and mothers with children.

Many are first-timers. Some are too ashamed to ask for food in front of others; so they walk to the side of the food bank where fewer people are gathered to receive food, she says.

“I’m never ashamed to ask for help,” Copeland says. “I don’t care how people look at me.”

Charities blame their struggles on a brutal convergence of factors: rising food and fuel prices, the foreclosure crisis, and a decline in federal donations to food pantries.

Donna Rogers, a spokeswoman for the United Food Bank in Mesa, Arizona, says her group is trying to do more to accommodate the surge in customers. Her bank distributes food to soup kitchens and shelters in Arizona.

They are trying to give more, though, with less. Donations of canned goods are down 35 percent from last year; dairy and frozen meat donations are down by 26 percent, Rogers says.

The decrease in donations is coming at the same time food prices are increasing, she says. The price of macaroni and cheese, for example, increased by 44 percent from last year’s price.

“It’s been the worst case of food inflation of 20 years,” Rogers says.

The amount of surplus food they receive from the federal government is also decreasing.

The federal government donated $242 million in surplus food to food banks, soup kitchens and emergency shelters in 2003. Last year, it donated $58 million in surplus food to the same places, says Jean Daniel, a spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Agricultural.

The federal government’s food donations didn’t decline because it decided to provide less, she says. It declined because the American agricultural industry is experiencing strong sales and record exports.

The federal government buys surplus food from farmers to donate to charities. Those farmers, though, have less surplus food to sell because the agricultural market is so strong.

A farm bill pending in Congress would increase aid to food banks, but it hasn’t passed yet, says Fraser, with America’s Second Harvest.

“If the farm bill is passed, it’ll give millions of dollars in aid to food banks,” Fraser says.

Even if the farm bill is passed, just getting food to needy people may become a problem. High fuel prices are bleeding charities, several say.

The executive director of one food bank in Orlando, Florida says one of his drivers paid $880 to fill up a tractor- trailer hauling donated food.

It would have cost about $660 to fill up the tank last year, says Dave Krepcho, executive director of the Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida.

“This is getting really crazy,” Krepcho says. “If those trucks don’t move, the food doesn’t flow.”

People are even turning to charity in unexpected places, says one Salvation Army spokeswoman.

Spokeswoman Melissa Temme, said a Salvation Army shelter in one of the most affluent counties in Kansas recently reported it was filled to capacity with a waiting list.

The 13-year-old center has never been full before, she said.

Salvation centers across the country are reporting similar stories, she says.

“Some areas had more people coming to them and other areas had the same number of people but the extent of their need increased,” Temme says.

Copeland, the Atlanta food bank customer, says she can’t envision a day when she won’t have to depend on charity for survival. Her bills are too much and her pay too little.

And, she says, her faith helps her through these tough times.

“If you don’t have a strong spiritual foundation, you cannot survive what’s going on today,” she says.

“I get through with a lot of prayer.”

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Action to meet Asian rice crisis

The authorities in China and the Philippines have vowed to take fresh action to tackle the escalating cost of staple foods, particularly rice.

Chinese prime minister Wen Jiabao said food inflation was the country’s most “prominent” economic problem and urged efforts to boost grain output.

Food prices in China have risen more than 20% so far this year.

Manila, meanwhile, has banned all future conversion of farmland for uses other than agricultural production.

Social unrest

There have been warnings of dire economic consequences for developing countries across Asia and increased social unrest in wealthier nations should food prices continue to rise at their current rate.

The wholesale price of rice, a staple product for more than 2.5 billion people across the continent, has more than doubled in the past three months, while global supplies have fallen to a thirty-year low.

Against this backdrop, the UN’s World Food Programme has said it will cost an extra $160m (£81m) a year to feed Asia’s poorest people.

Reacting to the spiral in food prices, the Chinese Premier acknowledged that food costs were “high” and said controlling prices should be a priority for the government.

However, he announced no specific measures to increase farm output, instead reminding administrative regions of the need to follow government directives on the economy.

The Philippine government, on the other hand, is acting to protect farmland by indefinitely ring-fencing it for agricultural use.

Agriculture Secretary Nasser Pangandaman said the move would stop the “unabated” transformation of farmland into residential property developments.

The Philippines is struggling to grow enough rice to provide for its 90 million strong population and is heavily reliant on exports from Thailand and Vietnam.

Ministers recently pledged to spend $1bn to become self-sufficient in rice by 2010.

Peaceful Olympic torch run in Argentina

I talked about the torch events with my friend today.

She thought those guys who interrupting were a little bit radical. For me, I think it’s just a way to demonstrate  the  Tibet issue.

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BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) – Runners surrounded by rows of security carried the Olympic flame past thousands of jubilant Argentines on Friday in the most trouble-free torch relay in nearly a week.

People showered the parade route with confetti as banks, government offices and businesses took an impromptu half-day holiday for the only Latin American stop on the flame’s five-continent journey from Ancient Olympia to the Beijing Games. They are scheduled for August 8 through 24.

Small groups of fenced-off demonstrators protesting China’s human rights record exchanged jeers with hundreds of pro-China demonstrators, but there were no major disruptions. Three water balloons thrown at a torchbearer as he passed the presidential palace were easily batted away by guards.

The biggest threat seemed to be blustery winds that caused the propane-powered flame to flicker repeatedly.

“This is beautiful, a marvelous spectacle,” said Marcelo Tejera, 26.

Mayor Mauricio Macri took the torch from Chinese organizers and opened the relay by passing it to three-time Olympic windsurfing medalist Carlos Espinola, who jogged into Buenos Aires streets flanked by Chinese bodyguards. Heavyset police from Argentina’s navy huffed to keep up.

Another torchbearer climbed into a shell and rowers sped the flame down a muddy River Plate canal, their long oars flashing beneath gathering storm clouds. Back on land, runners jogged past the pink presidential palace and the iconic Obelisk.

Tennis Hall of Famer Gabriela Sabatini capped the relay by running down a long carpet into the hall of an equestrian club, where she ignited a flame in a giant metal bowl, to warm applause.

“I’m supercharged with emotion,” she said, her voice breaking. “It’s so impressive to see how people have experienced this.”

Heavy security accompanied the torch. About 1,300 federal police, 1,500 naval police and 3,000 traffic police and volunteers guarded the 8½-mile route, and at least four security layers swaddled the torchbearers.

A tight group of Chinese guards wearing Argentina’s blue and white surrounded the runners, with riot police driving alongside. Farther out, a line of burly men in blue-and-black track suits linked hands in a moving cordon, and plainclothes federal police patrolled beyond that. Watch as China copes with a public relations nightmare »

Liu Qi, head of the Beijing Olympics Organizing Committee, told senior International Olympics Committee officials in Beijing on Friday that additional steps had been taken to protect the flame, and IOC spokeswoman Giselle Davies said “we’re very confident and comfortable with that.”

About 500 China supporters in red windbreakers handed out by organizers waved banners and denounced the political protests that disrupted the flame’s last stops in London, Paris and San Francisco.

“We are here to celebrate the Olympics,” said Shao Long Chen, a 19-year-old Chinese immigrant. “It’s a great source of pride for us that the Olympics are being held in Beijing and that the torch is passing through Buenos Aires.”

As for the protesters nearby, he said: “They’re using sports to deliver a political message, and that’s not right.”

Protesters say China doesn’t deserve to host the Olympics because of its human rights record, its harsh rule in Tibet and its friendly ties with Sudan. Pro-Tibet demonstrators tossed lotus flowers onto the route in what they said was a nonviolent protest of the Olympic host.

About 25 Falun Gong supporters lit a “human rights torch” and marched along the route to protest China’s ban on the spiritual movement. Some traded insults with China supporters, but no violence was reported.

The flame heads next to Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, the flame’s only stop in Africa.