On stress For years doctors have recommended exercise to enhance our moods, but the reason it actually works has never been that clear. Thanks to a group of overworked rodents, we may be closer to finding out, and it's pretty good news. Researchers at Princeton University recently conducted a study comparing sedentary rats with active ones. Both were dunked in cold water, which they really hate (uh, yeah, who wouldn't?). It turns out that even though all the rats were equally stressed out swimming around in frigid water, the brain activity of the more active rats was calmer overall. Scientist Michael Hopkins explained it to the New York Times this way: The “cells born from running,” the researchers concluded, appeared to have been “specifically buffered from exposure to a stressful experience.” The rats had created, through running, a brain that seemed biochemically, molecularly, calm. “[T]he positive stress of exercise prepares cells and structures and pathways within the brain so that they're more equipped to handle stress in other forms.” Though it will no doubt take a lot more research to understand whether or not the same effects result from exercise with the human brain, remember its seeming stress-busting effects the next time you don't feel like working out. When things get stressful as work, your stress-resistant exercise cells may help you remain cool as a cucumber. – lifehacker Look busy Corporate America is like any sport. You have to learn the rules of the game, memorize all the plays and practice, practice, practice in order to work your way up to the major leagues. In order to help out the amateurs, we've put together this simple list of tested tactics to help you give off the impression that you actually have work to do at your job. 1. Walk Fast. Walk Hard. Have you ever seen the way that your superiors stomp through the hallways, determined faces shining with perspiration? How sometimes they shake their heads and sigh at nothing, toss you the “This-day-is-a-doozy-eh?” with raised-eyebrows nod, before powerwalking their way to an unknown destination? This is a key looking-busy maneuver. They are probably going to lunch or to the bathroom or doing laps around the office, all in name of looking busy. The next time you are on your way to the snack machine, get there in a way that will have your bosses rethinking the busy work they were about to dump on you. 2. Clutter Your Desk. While a neat desk is a hallmark of organization, it's also a sign of an underworked employee. There is nothing wrong with staging a little controlled chaos for show. Steal a bunch of file folders and desktop storage organizers from the supply closet and start filling the folders with useless documents. Label the folders with weekly “deadlines” then print out every attachment, meeting appointment and email you get and file them haphazardly. When your boss walks by, start pulling random papers out of the folders and look panicked. - thedailycontributor.com 3. Always Carry A Notebook or Clipboard. If you have something in your hands, you are working. If you are walking around the office with what appears to be important documents and reports, you are going somewhere important. Actors use props and so should you. 4. Have Two ‘Lunches' - One In The Sun, One At Your Desk. When people see you eating what appears to be a normal-sized lunch at your desk and “working” through your lunch break they will think nothing of the fact that you are then mysteriously gone for an hour. Or more. Perhaps you are in the meeting that you were so diligently preparing for while eating. 5. Typing Is Working. The more sounds coming from your keyboard the harder you are working. Just remember: laughing is not working so don't LOL (laugh at loud) at the chats and emails you are so diligently participating in.
