StartSpeedReading.com

Picture by BLW Photography

In most cases stress will do more harm than good to people. Most of the stress has negative influence on individuals. The positive effects of stress usually occur only in the short-run. If there are short high positive stress periods, then it may do good for us as it stimulates to induce effort. Unfortunately, stress tends to be continuous for many people. The long-run stress effects can be devastating. If there is always pressure and it will not go away no matter what you do then people tend to give up. If you are constantly in stress condition then it will lower your quality of life and it may lead to health problems.

What causes stress? There are many different types of factors, which create it. They are called stressors. First, stress can be caused by the physical environment. If you have to spend your time in disturbing physical conditions then it creates stress. The most common examples are:

• Insufficient space. If you have to work in an overcrowded office, then you are likely to get disturbed frequently. There may not be enough room for you to place and access your tools or papers. Similarly, if you live in a too small space, then conflicts are easy to rise. In order to be creative and productive in your work you need space. Otherwise you cannot develop bright ideas. For example, I am much more creative if I am alone in the room and if there is enough open space.
• Noise. Background noise can be very irritating. It will not allow you to concentrate. Other people chatting, making phone calls, or noise from different machines may create stress.
• Poor illumination. You should have as much as possible day light in order to reduce your stress level. If you have to work in a room with no windows and if the room is not properly lit, then it will create stress. On the other hand, sunlight makes people happy.
• Poor ventilation. You need to have fresh air in order to work comfortably and calmly.
• Inadequate temperature. If you feel too cold or too hot then it will disturb you-

Next, stress can be created by your working tasks. This is called work stress and it occurs when the nature of the work, the expected results or compensation received for effort is in conflict with our expectations. The main sources for work-related stress are:

• Unclear expectations. If you do not know exactly what you have to do then it is difficult to do it well. You get some instructions from the boss, but if they are not precise enough then you do not know how you should execute them. In the worst case you may get conflicting orders. For example, once you are told to work out changes in the marketing plan and then you are told not to change it. It is confusing and will cause you to do unnecessary work. Similarly, if you have given too difficult or impossible task to perform then you will know in the forehand that you will fail, which again creates stress.
• Unpleasant tasks. If you have to spend much of the time on thing you do not enjoy doing, then work will not be pleasure for you. Of course there are some tasks that you may not like for every job, but if there are too much of them, then it can be stressful. It may be caused by the fact that you are assigned tasks that are not suitable for you. Or the job itself can be something you do not like. Sadly, many people are employed on jobs that do not suit them well, but still people do not switch jobs.
• Changes in work. Different people have different capabilities of adapting to the changes. Some people feel highly stressed if the content of the work changes, they are assigned new tasks, they are transferred to a new position or when they switch jobs. Similarly, personnel changes may be a stressor, for example if you get new colleagues or team members or a new boss.
• Poor performance. If you cannot meet your expectations, then you may feel guilty for that. If you constantly underperform then you may start fearing your bad results and so working can become stressful for you.

Third, stress is often caused by human relationships. Various types of conflicts or misunderstanding or being not able to express one’s feeling may generate stress. The most common stressors in this group are:

• Marital separation or divorce. If your long-term relationship is going to end or has ended recently then it creates huge changes to lives of both partners. Furthermore, there have probably been problems for a while, and split-ups are often not so calm and controlled events. Usually there are lots of emotions and conflicts. Divorce may lead to complex financial troubles, so it can create continuous stress.
• Death of a family member or a close friend. If it comes unexpectedly then it can be a huge blow, it is going to change your life for ever and it may create high level of stress.
• Conflicts with spouse or friends. If these conflicts remain unsolved and if the repeat over and over again then they can cause much harm.
• Problems with children. Problems at school, bad behavior, trouble with police or not being able to solve conflicts with them to just make them to listen to you can cause stress.

Finally, there are many other sources for stress.

• Financial problems. It is said that money makes you calm, actually it does not make you. Money creates money problems, which cause stress. Financial stability and avoiding troubles with money makes you calm. Many people cannot handle financial issues well.
• Uncertainty about future. If there are going to be changes in your life, but you are not sure about them then it can create stress. For example, you do not know if you are going to get into university of if you will be able to find a job when you are unemployed.
• Lack of time. If there are too many tasks for you to do and you just do not have time to deal with them then you will not be able to complete all of them on time. You may feel guilty that you have so much to do, but you cannot do it and you say to yourself that you have to do more things, and you find that you are a lousy person because you have not managed it.
• Health problems. If you do not feel yourself well and if you cannot do anything to get better (or it takes time to heal) then it is unpleasant and stressful. If you do not have good health then you activities may not succeed so well, which again generates stress.
• Changing your residence. If you migrate to a foreign country then it will make huge changes to your life. You will have new job, new colleagues, and new friends. You will be in an environment where other people speak foreign language.

kristjan time management environment, health problems, job, relationships, stress, stressors

Photo by Telstar Logistics

For most people, learning to speed read means learning speed reading techniques, such as reading without regression or vertical reading. In the learning process you will change your old and inefficient reading methods with better and more rational ways to read texts. While this is absolutely true, speed reading can be also viewed at a broader scope. It is more than methods and techniques.

To benefit from speed reading techniques you should apply them into practice. In one previous post I discussed why most people do not learn speed reading http://www.startspeedreading.com/why-most-people-do-not-take-speed-reading-courses/

In addition to that there are many people who have learned to speed read but do not apply it in practice. If we test their reading speed then it is will be above the average as in case of a test they use speed reading methods. But while reading texts in their every day life they seldom apply speed reading. Some people are not confident in their speed reading skills, they worry about their comprehension. These people usually speed read only the easiest text or use it only for the reading tasks, which are not critical for their job performance or reading for leisure.

To benefit the most from speed reading you should apply it every day and for the majority of the texts you are reading. While it is not recommended to use it for non-fiction texts then you can use it virtually for every text you read on your job. Only if there are some texts, where you have to remember the context very precisely, you should slow you reading speed down, but for most of us this in not the case for the job-related reading material.

Regular application of speed reading techniques requires a change in ones mindset. It means that whenever you encounter a text you take an attitude that you will read it fast and focused. You are ready to attack the text, concentrate to it and read it with fast speed. It is a life-style, in which you want to be always fast and sharp.

If you make a decision to always apply speed reading when it is possible then reading at fast speed becomes natural to you. You do not have to tell yourself that now I am going to speed read. You just read the text and application of speed reading methods becomes automatic. Reading itself is so ordinary process for us that we do not even notice that we are reading. If we see a text, we just look at it and get the meaning of the words from the text. It is possible to achieve the same state with speed reading too, if you develop it into a habit.

The speed reading life-style allows us to read texts at fast speed, thus it enables us to work fast. We will be always attacking the texts and eager to complete our reading tasks in short time. Our reading process is active, our mind is focused and we do not even notice how fast we can fly with our eyes over the text. Being fast builds us confidence and reduces stress as we know that we can go through pig piles of texts in short time. It really makes our life easier and happier so it is worth developing speed reading habits in yourself.

kristjan Speed Reading comprehension, concentration, reading courses, regression, speed reading techniques, stress

Stress can be defined as emotional and physical strain caused by our response to pressure from the outside world. Common stress reactions include tension, irritability, inability to concentrate, and a variety of physical symptoms that include headache and a fast heartbeat. Stress is one of the biggest problems for many people.

Stress has severe impacts on people’s lives, firm’s productivity and nation’s welfare. Stress is recognized as the number one killer today. The American Medical Association stated that stress was the cause of 80 to 85 percent of all human illness and disease or at the very least had a detrimental effect on our health. American businesses lose an estimated $200-$300 billion dollars per year to stress related productivity loss and other cost. To put this in perspective, this amount is higher than the total cost related to all strikes and the net profit from all Fortune 500 companies.

Stress can be caused by many factors, which are caused stressors. Stressors can be both physical and emotional. Physical stressors are for example pain, exhaustion, noise, cold. Emotional stressors can be negative feeling, fear, work related problems and so on.

Although different types of stressors should be dealt with in different manner, in many cases stress can be efficiently reduced by good time management. In many cases stress is caused by the facts that we do not have a clear picture what we should do, we feel ourselves overwhelmed, we miss deadlines and have too little leisure time.

One of the main causes of stress is that we do not have control over our projects. We know that we have to do something, but we do not know what exactly. In these kinds of situations we often do not now how to start a project, we tend to delay starting with it and when we finally get ourselves going we end up in doing wrong things. This results in poor work quality and missed deadlines, which again generates stress. We may feel that we are worthless and that we will always fail.

Many people spend much of their time on urgent activities. It means that they are always in a hurry. There are so many things that have to get done now (or actually they should have been finished earlier) It creates constant pressure and there is not much room for error. If that kind of situation is persistent then it results in high stress levels.

Time management will enable you to get things under control. Among other things it includes finding your life purpose and setting long-term goals. And then you start making changes in your time use, which will allow you to spend more time on the activities, which will give you benefits in the long run and on the activities, which you like to do the most.

If you focus more on the most important activities then it will make your life more purposeful and happier. You will not find yourself so much in a hurry than before and there will be less stress for you. Lower stress-level will increase your self-confidence and your work-performance will improve.

kristjan time management stress, time management

Have you ever been bored and tired from having to stay long hours in the office? Has it happened sometimes that you cannot leave office at 5 PM because you are behind your schedule? For most of the people the answer to both these questions is „Yes”.

Long working hours itself are not always frustrating. If you are working on a job assignment, which is interesting for you to perform or if it is a critical task, which will give you an award after being completed then it may happen that you work long hours intensively and you even do not notice how the time flies. And if you can succeed in your task then you will feel you self satisfied and relieved despite the long hours and fatigue. Unfortunately, not all long work days do provide you success. It can happen that although you spend long hours on your assignment, but you are still not able to complete it.

In many cases the fact, the you have to stay long at the office is caused by the fact you have been working slowly that day and probably you have wasted lots of time on unnecessary tasks. It may be the result of poor time management, for example you do not have clear work plans or schedule, or you have procrastinated a lot because you did not have a clear vision, how you should perform you tasks.

Besides poor time management, working slowly can be caused by the fact that lack of skills or knowledge is slowing you down. You may waste time because you are unfamiliar with the new software package, new legislation or Spanish language. But you may be slow because you are a slow reader.

A typical office worker spends about 25% of his/her working time on reading. So if you are a slow reader, it will really matter. If you work slowly you have problems with keeping up with the deadlines and it is likely to generate stress. You have to work longer hours, which means that you will get more tired by working.

In addition, reading faster itself can make your working more pleasure. If you can read faster, then you can think about the topics you read faster. According to a study by Emily Pronin and Daniel M. Wegner http://www.photoreading.co.uk/2006FastThinking.pdf the thinking speed affect persons mood and happiness. In this study, there were made experiments with people, who had to read given statements at different speed. The results indicate that when the survey participants read the statements at faster speed then the participants were more likely to experience positive mood.

If you read and think faster then it can give you more confidence. You will feel that you have the control and you are less stressed by the fear that you cannot finish on time. Fast reading and fast working may create excitement.

So, it means that speed reading skill will first give you an opportunity to save your working time and prevent you from working late hours. Second, it will give you a possibility to get more happiness from the work process itself.

kristjan Speed Reading, time management fatigue, office worker, pleasure, speed reading, stress, time management, working time