Desktop Stress Relief

They call them Zen Gardens when you're an adult, but they'll always be sandboxes to me. A rake, some sand, some pebbles and you're ready. You could even make your own. A few minutes raking lines in the sand and organizing the pebbles, beach chairs, or whatever else you put in your sandbox can really clear your mind.

Tabletop Zen Garden Kit

ZEN GARDEN YIN YANG Style

Buddha Tabletop Zen Garden

Natural Rock Desk Zen Garden

Asian Japanese Feng Shui Sand Zen Garden

Desktop Sand Zen Garden

Maybe you're looking for zen gardens to rake, hand balls to squeeze, an online game to occupy your mind, or an exercise you can do right now to relieve the stress building up in your neck - I've got resources for those down below - but, first let me give you one hard earned piece of advice. The world will NOT end if something goes wrong at work. If it did, I'd have been gone a long time ago. Fortunately, I was blessed with the inherent nature of an optimist. Couple that with a tendency to use humor to deal with stress and I have probably the best odds of surviving stress when considering all the possible combinations of personality traits.

I'm going to tell you a little story. In fact, I'm going to tell you a few little stories because sometimes, just sometimes, another person's tale of woe can put your own in perspective. Or, perhaps you're going through something worse than I've ever had to manage. Well, then, laugh at my previous misery and scoff. Take heart in knowing that you've got me beat. I know, when you're stressed, you need all the wins you can get and I would not begrudge you this one.

Photo used under Creative Commons from xandroid.

Desk Top Bowl Water Fountain

Fabric Foliage Home Water Fountain

Alpine Waterfall Tabletop Fountain

Rock Design Desk Fountain

Indoor Meditation Table Fountain

EnviraScape Relaxation Fountain

I can't be too specific about my field of work. It's against company policy. Take my word for it that it's a very male dominated industry. At one point in my career, I was recruited by a large organization along with a friend of mine - another female. Counting the woman who ran HR, there were only three female managers and ten male managers in our peer group and every manager senior to us was also male. Not that there's anything wrong with that - I'm just describing the environment.

Now, my friend and I were also brought in under less than ideal circumstances, although we did not know it when we joined. The company had chosen to create two new management positions and filled them by recruiting from outside the company when they had some talented individuals internally who probably could have been considered. We were, therefore, not very popular and no one had any problem telling us so.

The company was going through the most incredible upheaval I've ever witnessed. I lost track of the number of division presidents we ran through in less than a year. However, during one of those transitions, my peers and I had an opportunity to meet the latest division president at a work function. As my friend and I approached the new president, a co-worker standing nearby spun around, putting himself directly next to the president, and said, ever so sweetly, "Mr. President, I'd like to introduce you to our two newest managers, also known as the COVEN." Seriously??? Had he just introduced the only two female managers in the business group as a pack of witches? To the division president? Why, yes, folks, he had. He never hesitated and he never got counseled about his comment, either. I, however, cast a spell on him and poked his voodoo doll-likeness with pins every night for a month. Another method of desktop stress relief.

Photo used under Creative Commons from rick.

I know...the end of the story. It's coming but I didn't want you to think there weren't some hand-engaging toys for you to consider for desktop stress relief, in case that's what you were after. I've had jobs where I've had to spend 8 hours on the phone, day after day. Your mind starts to go numb. You need to keep it engaged or it will wander off at inappropriate moments. If you're a puzzle solver, see if any of these could help you relieve stress at your desktop.

V Cube 6 Multicolor
Cube Toy

Perplexus Epic
Mind Puzzle

Ball of Whacks Creativity Tool

If you read the previous story, you''ll recall the organization I was with at the time was going through some challenges. Managers were coming and going like the line at the post office on tax day. Some of their own free will, most at the company's request. Even now, I don't know everything that was going on, I only know survival was the name of the game and I had a family to feed. It was like being an innocent bystander in the middle of the shootout at the OK Corral.

I traveled the most during that period as I covered a national territory with offices in various locations. It was not uncommon to hit two or three cities in a day in order to accomplish the work that had to be done for that week. On one such trip, I started the morning with a conference call in my regular office before leaving for the airport. During that call, it was announced to us that our manager was leaving and that effective immediately we would be reporting to Manager #2. That was a bit of a shock but I left for the airport and arrived in the next city a few hours later.

I had no sooner landed in the next city, when my cell phone rang and I was requested to attend another conference call in an hour. On that call, it was shared with us that Manager #2 was no longer with the company and we all now reported to Manager #3. If you have ever traveled a great deal for your job, you know you already feel a little bit behind the world when you get off of an airplane, so it was a bit difficult to absorb what the heck had happened when I was only in the air for a couple of hours.

Regardless, I went to the local office, attended a few meetings, wrapped up and headed back to the airport for my next flight. A few hours later, I landed in the final city of the day and headed to my hotel. On the way, the cell phone rang. It was a peer of mine back home who had just attended a meeting in which it was announced that Manager #3 was being reassigned and we now reported to Manager #4. In one day, I had been in three different cities and had no fewer than four different bosses.

It was nearly 10pm at night but I turned the rental car around and headed back to the airport. I caught the next flight back home and spent the rest of the week in my office with a can of compressed air thoroughly cleaning all the dust and crumbs of life out of my laptop keyboard.

Photo used under Creative Commons from kelvin255.

What causes stress? It's usually the result of some sort of fear or concern. If it's work related, you're likely feeling you have too much work, your work is demanding, you're not sure how you're going to finish you're work or if you'll meet an important deadline. You might be concerned about your performance and how others perceive your value to the organization. Get a handle on the issues driving your stress with the tips in this book.