Category Archives: Internet

Dealing With Stress: Proactive

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When you look at stress in the long-run you’re no longer ‘dealing’ with it but merely ‘managing’ it. If you’re prepared to become stressed then you won’t be shocked when it hits. These are some thoughts I’ve compiled:

Develop phyiscal resiliency: Many sources suggest a healthy, controlled diet. Some things include eating less sugar, reducing caffeine consumption and avoiding alcohol. Personally, I don’t drink nor consume much caffeine so this could be one reason why I never become as stressed as my coffee-inhaling peers. Additionally, I’ve read a lot about eating a healthy variety of foods. Nutritionists often recommend the following:

  • 5 or 6 servings of fruit and vegetables
  • 4 servings of bread or cereal
  • 2 servings of milk, cheese or yogurt; and
  • 2 servings of protein such as meat, eggs and beans

This is a big area I could improve. I’ll be starting a personal journal to monitor my eating habits but in the meantime, Askmen.com has a list of the top 10 stress reducing foods.

Develop psychological resiliency: The simplest way to overcome stress is to develop ‘hardiness’ (The Hardy Executive). I’ve realized that I am a very ‘hardy’ individual. For many, it’s easy to feel like they’re losing control. This may be due to any number of things (competitive drive, impatience, etc.) which often compose someone with an ‘A Personality’. The problem, though, is these things typically compound the problem. On the other hand, someone who’s hardy often approaches stressful situations optimistically. But, it’s not entirely clear what hardiness is. According to Developing Management Skills (Whetton) hardiness results from:

  • feeling in control of one’s life, rather than powerless to shape external events;
  • feeling committed to and involved in what one is doing, rather than alienated from one’s work and other individuals; and
  • feeling challenged by new experiences rather than viewing change as a threat to security and comfort.

This really isn’t that easy to accomplish but somehow it’s the mentality I’ve developed over the years. Perhaps just by considering the definition alone one can strive to achieve ‘hardiness’. I wish I knew, though…

I honestly feel my psychological resiliency sums up why I never become stressed. Would you tend to agree, Shivani? Hey, I’m starting to eat a bit better too, I bet that helps…

Switch to Yahoo!?

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Yahoo’s incentives to switch suck (for a few reasons). First, I don’t see a single thing that interests me. If Yahoo paid me, I’d gladly switch over and use it (exclusively). I doubt that will happen but hey, I love to complain/rave about anything and everything. Wait, here’s an idea: make your stuff work better than the other guys. How is it easier to spend money on consumers rather than the product? This old quote is straight from the Yahoo Blog “This commitment to being the best should be crystal clear from our investments in talented people, research, innovation and new products“. Where do the incentives fit in that list of investments?

MySpace Ads Suck

I was running some numbers today because, well, I hate myspace. Usually I can handle people’s unique background images and their silly javascript cursors but I hate the crammed, ad-filled look.

myspace.jpgI took a screenshot of the ‘above-the-fold’ view I see on my resolution (1280×1024). I end up seeing almost a perfect 800×800 square. Now as you can see there are two very prominent ads taking up prime visual space on my home page. The top banner is a 730×90 and the second (much more obnoxious) ad is 300×300 in size. Let’s do some math:

  • Total Pixels: 800 x 800 = 640,000
  • Banner Ad: 730 x 90 = 65,700
  • Box Ad: 300 x 300 = 90,000
  • Total Ad Space = 65,700 + 90,000 = 155,700
  • Percentage of Page filled with ads: 155,700/640,000 x 100 = 24.3%

I thought, ‘Wow, 1/4 of the page is dedicated to advertising’. I tried to think of some way to weight the box ad since it’s right in front of my face. I wasn’t successfully clever enough. I started thinking some more and I realized, ‘is 24% typical?’

google.jpgGoogle’s page does expand to fit the full screen so there may be more total pixels but perhaps a smaller percentage?

  • Total Pixels: 1264 x 800 = 1,012,000
  • Top Links: 935 x 85 = 79,475
  • Side Links: 660 x 300 = 198,000
  • Total Ad Space = 79,475 + 198,000 = 277,475
  • Percentage of Page filled with ads: 277,475/1,012,000 x 100 = 27.4%

Wow. Perhaps I was quick to jump to conclusions. Google is dedicating more space for ads than Myspace. Granted, the links don’t take up the entire section and you don’t even seen them everytime. Additionally, the ads are more-or-less out of the way and certainly less obtrusive than Myspace’s.

I guess there are a few things to take away from this post. First, quality ads (Google’s) are important. Second, unobtrusive is a plus. Google has trained me to look to the top/side if I want to spend some money. Myspace is just taking up room and being an ugly annoyance.

Myspace is obviously laughing it’s way to the bank while I complain. But, hey, this was a fun exercise…

PS: Facebook is only 15.2% and I couldn’t name a single ad ever run on the site.

[tags]myspace, social networking, advertising, internet[/tags]

Dealing With Stress

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I?ve been reading a bunch on stress (given I?m a workaholic) and I?ve done some thinking: I rarely ever feel stressed so I never have to deal with it. I?ve never understood why this is, though. Maybe I?m stress proof, maybe it?s how I live my life? My question to you is:

How do you deal with stress?

Do you ever lock yourself in the library for days at a time? Do you try to work harder and faster on the task at-hand? Do you work on the easier task first? Do you stop and take deep breaths? Do you tap your pen or move your leg up and down thousands of times a second? Do you tell yourself that the situation isn?t as bad as it seems? Do you ?retreat? and ignore everything else going on?

If you find yourself doing any of these things you may want to read more about the different ways to approach stress.

Reactive: Reactive approaches are the easiest. It?s as simple as responding to stress and trying to cope with it once it arises. This includes stopping and taking a deep breath or quickly tapping your pen and even writing faster. Sure, reactive equals ?immediate? but is limited to the short-term.

Proactive: Being proactive is about developing resiliency strategies: how you spring back to normalcy after being stretched in a hundred directions. This includes conditioning yourself to deal with stress (healthy diet, exercise, relaxation) and even reshaping your personality.

Enactive: Being enactive means creating an environment that eliminates stressors. This is the hardest approach because it takes a lot of work and a lot of time. Though, the benefits are permanent. For many their strategies include time management and even redesigning the way they approach work.

In the coming days I?ll address my personal strategies but, once again, I submit to you:

How do you deal with stress?

[tags]stress, personal, workaholic[/tags]

Facebook Fun

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Another day, another post about Facebook. I was wandering around today and found a few interesting things. First, this site looks familiar. Second, if you login and try to open blast.php you get redirected back to the home page. What does that mean? Well, pages that don’t exist will give you a 404; this page actually loads something. Something called a ‘blast’ is coming soon…