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The Art Of Office Zen
Damon N. Burgess
This is not the Karate Kid performing the Crane kick down
at the beach with Mr. Miyagi, nor is it meditating like a
Buddhist monk high in the mountains of Tibet. The word Zen
gets thrown around all over the place; think of all the books
labeled "The Zen of Blank". I do not wish to take a heavily
used word like Zen and attach it to something that people
will take and alter their life, consciousness, or spiritual
understandings. No, I am going to use the word Zen how it
was meant to be used and apply it to a specific aspect of
life that we all deal with on a 9-5 basis, 5 days a week -
Work.
Across the planet people have all sorts of jobs and some lucky
people don't need them due to financial security. Applying
Zen to your job is first applying a simple lighthearted approach
to the pressures in life in general. So I am not going to
set up rules that must be followed, nor should we look for
a certain goal other than a more peaceful work environment.
Office Zen - A guide to Peaceful Work
The aim to here is to make your work environment soothing,
productive, and peaceful. Now the word Office will apply to
the environment that you work in regardless if you are in
a literal office or not. If you are in a home office, with
desks, bookcases, and all sorts of other office furniture,
well that's your surroundings. If you are pumping gas, flying
an airplane, or driving a truck, that's your office.
One Simple Rule
Simplicity is the first step toward a better working environment.
When things are simple, they are easy to accept and understand.
When things get too complicated, that's when things get stressful
and start to invade any peacefulness you had established.
So first off, see complex things as simple. Complexity arrives
when it is too much for you to handle, you feel out of control
and unorganized. It's the mental anxiousness that looks for
what needs to be done, how, when, and why.
Don't linger over what you should have done or what you should
do, but instead think of the now. Make your Office, your own.
Find something small that you enjoy doing at work, and focus
on that one simple thing. By doing that, it helps set up a
foundation of seeing simplicity in even complicated demands.
The complexity happens when you try to think of everything
at once, instead of focusing on one task at a time. When you
focus on one idea at a time it's digestible, and reduces stress,
which in turns makes you happier.
When the mind is relaxed and centered you are more productive.
The Zen of your work environment is a tool that can be used
to help focus on one aspect of your everyday life, which in
turn makes all the other areas more peaceful.
This idea may seem too simple, and your mind already wants
specific things to do, or tasks, but that's it. It's a very
simple idea and that's the point. When you can manage to focus
on one thought at a time, and do each to the best of your
ability, it will transcend through out your life. The most
efficient people do this, they are not gifted with some super
power, they are able to focus the task to their ability and
better understand it.
As simple as it is, people over look it all the time. You
can make your environment great or a nightmare depending on
you perception of it. If you are a white color worker, your
office or cubicle can be groomed they way you want it to keep
you happy and relaxed. You may have an overload of emails,
memos, and every day routines. The secret to multi tasking
in an office atmosphere is to focus on one thing at a time.
Having all your attention on one task lets you understand
and evaluate it more. The more you understand, the simpler
it becomes which reduces complexity and makes everyone much
happier.
Let's say you are a blue collar working, granted you most
likely are not sitting in a nice cushy ergonomic chair. Still
nonetheless, be mindful of things that need to be done, but
focus on one thing at a time. You would be surprised how well
this works for anything.
The Art of Office Zen is an attempt to reduce the mental noise
of complexity that we overload our minds with. All these negative
things hurt your chances to be happy at work, home, and in
life.
A happy worker is a productive worker, which is a benefit
to what you do as well to yourself. Without delving into any
spiritual hocus-pocus, we took one simple idea that works
for anything.
No matter what you do for a living, keeping things simple
won't make living complex work. No rules, or wrong ways about
it, everyone is different, but one thing Office Zen can show
that we all have in common is to be happy.
Damon N. Burgess is a search engine conceptualist,
writer, and an award-winning designer. The founder of www.versedesigns.com,
a Long Island web design company, where his concepts come
to life. Also the marketing manager of one of the largest
online furniture stores on the net - One Way Furniture( www.onewayfurniture.com
) More articles at www.damonburgess.com
Article Source: http://www.upublish.info
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