JOHN BURNS offers stres-busters to those adults who complain about stress at work. I have modified some of his tactics below with a little seasoning from the Twenty Major Desktop Guide to Office Protocol as well as experiences extracted from my professional life as a Pentagon Action Officer, freelance consultant, journalist and special airlift director.
1. Wear a headset all the time. That way, your colleagues will think you're not able to interact with them. Bonus: you hear no office gossip.
2. Surround your desk with creative visual things.
3. Turn your computer monitor so that it faces away from office traffic and keeps you from making eye contact with irritants. Caution: browse only work-safe content.
4. Do the nastiest job first--before you finish your first cup of coffee. I unsuccessfully try to finish the nastiest job right after I get up in the morning.
5. For at least two hours a day, do not check mail, mute your phones and work uninterrupted. Strongly Recommended.
6. Use flat bookshelves as job trays. Rotate the stuff ruthlessly. Move things out of your space.
7. Delay returning calls. Things sort themselves out, don't they?
8. Clear all chairs out from your office. Make them stand and they don't linger.
9. Avoid attending committee meetings in person. Refuse to attend any meeting that has no agenda. Do your work in wikis and collaborative document environments.
10. Do not join committees outside work because in Ireland, they are filled with gabbing conspirators angling for grants and your time. Committee members of local and voluntary groups normally epitomise indecision. Are you paid for that abuse of your time?
John Burns -- "All in a day's stress" in The Sunday Times, March 19, 2006.
