Modern Worker Week in Review - Blogosphere Santa Edition

Holidays Have You Feeling Tired? 5 Tips for Amazing Weekend Sleep

Reboot Your Morning Routine - The Night Before

Start Your Day with Mental Stretches

How to Make and Keep New Year’s Resolutions - Bonus 10 Easy Goals for 2008

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I’m settling into a few days away from my full-time job to relax and celebrate Christmas with family, so needless to say I’m excited to be near my loved ones. It’ll be a good opportunity to recharge my creativity and work on the blog here at Modern-Worker.com

How is everyone’s drafting of New Year’s resolutions coming along? Thus far, I have settled on 5 main, inspiring goals for 2008. Back to the matter at hand; let’s list off the best in self-improvement blogs over the past week.

The Fever of Humanity and the Antidote: Reconciling Self-Love and Self-Improvement

Albert, the net’s Urban Monk, offers up a dish of refreshingly tasty self-realization advice through his caring, insightful writing style.

Who cares about your job title - tell me what you DO!

Alexander, the Chief Happiness Officer, inspires professionals to focus on the work we do in the world and not being tied down to a specific title.

Making the Decision to Improve Our Standard of Living by Spending More

David illustrates the decision we all have to make on whether or not a higher quality of life is worth the hefty price tag. Weigh-in by commenting on this post.

Are You Winding Down A Little Too Much?

Cathering tackles the issues When relaxing become slacking. This n.h.b. blogger injects a swift jump into the ’sphere’s collective step by pointing out the downfalls of extended breaks.

Using Questions To Control Communication

Leon Ho of LifeHack penned a helpful piece on improving talks inside and out of work by posing questions. A must-read.

Don’t Break Your Back! Tips to Healthy Posture

Tina at Think Simple Now hits on a point many office workers ignore… posture. Be good to yourself, read Tina’s article.

The Right Seat on the Right Bus

Sonnie who hails from the Filipines, always produces tough-invoking writing. Bookmark his blog and you’ll be glad you did.

Interested in being featured in the Modern Worker Week in Review? Simply comment on this post.

I wish you all a relaxing, enjoyable weekend.

Photo by: Flickr user benimoto

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The holidays present a time of fun, exciting get-togethers, but sleep is often unwillingly ignored throughout December into the new year. More after-work activities and rushing around buying up gifts can wear on energy levels. That being said, I’ve compiled 5 tried and true methods for snoozing better when stacking Zs can be elusive on the weekends. Make time for yourself into 2008, be good to your body and you can be sure it will return the favor in folds.

1 - Clear your mind of anxious thoughts

Anxiety is a leading cause of lack of sleep, worldwide. If there are indeed things on your mind, write them down to deal with later. Bad dreams and waking up more than once during the night are signs of not properly clearing one’s head before bed. Deal with worldly thoughts during the day and focus on your goal of rest at night; don’t let them overlap.

2 - Take deep breaths to relax

I swear by this. No matter the situation, in bed or out, deep breathing exercises will always help in calming down.

3 - Rid your bedroom of televisions

Your place of rest should be a personal sanctuary where sleep is the main and only focus. A TV set detracts from this and should be left in a room such as the living space. Orient the objects/furniture in your bedroom to create maximum relaxation and convenience. For more on this, familiarize yourself with Feng Shui.

4 - 20 minute rule in full effect

If you crawl into bed and find that 20 minutes later you’re not asleep, it’s time to read a book or visit the kitchen for a cup of decaf tea. Watching TV or surfing the ‘net on a computer will not help to relax the mental state, so avoid these. It’s all about decompressing analog, not digital.

5 - Let the sun be your alarm clock

Your body has what’s referred to as a “biological clock”. The cycle of the night and sunrise are fantastic tools to align your body’s schedule to. By waking up with the sun on Saturday and Sunday, you’ll arise more naturally and feel increasingly rested each morning. Sleeping in ’til 2pm will induce a groggy, zombie-like state, guaranteed.

No matter how hectic work and personal lives may get around holiday festivities, we need sleep, because without it we cannot properly recharge our bodies and minds. Enjoy the rest of 2007 but consistently make an effort to employ these 5 methods for resting smarter on the week’s end.

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I’m willing to bet you’ve experienced on one too many occasions the effects of not having enough time to prepare for work after that alarm clock sounds the digital battle cry. To err is to be human, but beyond the darkness of consistently being ruled by clock there exists a promising light of promptness. Attaining morning bliss is easy, with a little planning.

Personally a few years back before I rebooted my morning routine, the AM hours consisted of never eating breakfast and hopping up on what couldn’t have been healthy amounts of manufactured eye-opener aka caffeine. Red Bull coursing through my veins, I’d consistently forget lunches and other items that I’d want to have with me at the workplace. I’ve never been a ill-prepared individual, but I will say that my college/early work years could have been injected with a solid dose sticky notes. I’ve got that on “lockdown” now and hit every day stacked to the brim with everything I will or potentially need.

So, what did I do to go from forgetful fumbler to stocked stud? Well, the recipe lies across several methods of better morning-time management via the evening before. You see, I was always viewing the time before making my commute as my window to pack the briefcase and dash off, when in fact I was dead wrong. To become the optimized professional, there were four main points I had to hit that hardly take any time and can be done 12 hours before work.

Pack lunch - This is perhaps the biggest time saver I can recommend. You’ll love yourself for doing this the night before.

Lay out clothes - No more deciding on what to wear or furiously sifting through closets at the last minute.

Write reminders - Instead of gradually remembering “to-dos” through the day, jot them down while they are fresh.

Clean up room/house - The feeling of leaving a living environment messy will hamper sleep and wear on a person through the day.

By doing these things at night, instead of the morning, you’ll enjoy a care-free commute with plenty of hourglass to spare between waking up and pushing through the office doors.

photo by: Flickr user amnesiak1978

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