High 5 Weekly Career Transitions Roundup: 4 Coping Strategies When You're Overwhelmed at Work

This is our weekly roundup of some of the best career-related articles, interviews, blogs, etc., we've read during the week. We share them so you have some great resources to prepare you for the coming week. Enjoy!

• 4 Coping Strategies When You're Overwhelmed at Work: "Learning to accept imperfection enables you to keep moving forward, and that’s precisely what you need to do when you’re feeling overwhelmed."

• These are the Jobs Older Workers are Looking For: "the most clicked-on job openings for workers over 62 (the earliest you can qualify to get Social Security benefits) are an assortment of construction and transportation positions."

• 4 Strategies to Schedule a Productive Workday: "While it may be tempting to tackle the easiest items on your to-do list first and save the more time-consuming and demanding tasks for later.... Instead, it's vital that you prioritize the tasks that will bring you the most benefit."

• 7 Skills That Aren't About to Be Automated: "if you have a reputation for excellence in a domain, it will feed on itself and give you preferential access to new knowledge and information because of your insider status."
• Best Beach Reads on Leadership: "In a world where we face the reality of digitalization and our increasing reliance on technology like artificial intelligence and augmented reality, the need for soft skills like empathy is vital"

5 Ways to Be More Organized Today

One way to reduce stress and anxiety related to your job is to become more organized and structured at work. This will help you be better prepared for the inevitable curve balls that come your way.

Implement these five tips to be more organized at work today.

Create a to-do list. But limit it to only three to five items. Be focused on tackling the most important tasks facing you today and avoid becoming distracted by tasks that seem urgent but ultimately do not contribute to the success of your project, career, or company.

And create your list in an e-version rather than hard copy so that you don’t add to the clutter around your work area. If you don’t want to use a simple Word document you can find many apps available to assist with setting your daily priorities.

Simplify your work space. Speaking of clutter, remove anything you don’t need from your desk or work area. Keep your space free of items (folders, files, papers, desk supplies, etc.) that are unnecessary to the work you’re doing. These items can make it difficult to concentrate or focus on the task at hand, or complicate finding some important notes you jotted down about the project you’re completing.

A clean, simple work space will assist you in directly your energies more fully to the important tasks you’ve identified.

Schedule time to organize. Set aside 15-20 minutes in your day to organize your work area, systematize files and folders, and remove or delete unnecessary files.

Ensuring that you schedule just a few minutes to organize each day will prevent you from becoming overwhelmed in the future.

Plan for tomorrow. Before you leave work take 10-15 minutes to evaluate your day, review your to-do list and set your priorities for the next day. This will enable you to relax and enjoy the evening better, and prevent you from the stress of thinking about what you need to get done.

Automate as much as possible. If there are ways to use apps, programs, or other tools to automate task associated with your work find a way to incorporate them into your work flow. This can free up time for the most important things you do in your work day and can ease stress levels.

Spend a few minutes today researching apps related to your job and you can yourself better equipped and more organized tomorrow.

5 Ways to Excel in Your Career (and Life) in 2017

As you've entered the new year you've likely set some goals for yourself in 2017 and, if you're like many people, a goal or two is related to your job and career. Of course, we can start the new year with good intentions and then quickly find ourselves discouraged and failing to meet our goals.

Consider the following five ways to stay on track with your goals and to excel in your career and job in 2017.

1. Automate when possible. Find ways to increase your productivity and create additional time in your schedule by automating as many tasks as possible. Use an app to manage your budget or to organize your email. There is, really, an app for everything so you have an opportunity to better manage and control some of the many tasks that dominate modern life.

2. Start a side gig. If you've always wanted to work for yourself or start a business now is the time. Set aside a few hours every week to work on this: develop a business plan, create a web site, offer your services as a freelancer, or start making that product you've dreamed of.

3. Go back to school. Start taking a class or two toward earning a new degree or certificate. You can even learn online or informally by reading some books by experts in your field of interest.

4. Be mindful of your health. Unfortunately, many of us don't pay enough attention to our health and don't realize that we can be much more successful in work and life, and increase our productivity if we focus on our health. Take a look at your diet and eat more healthily, be sure to be active and exercise, have a consistent spiritual practice, such as meditation, get enough sleep, and reduce alcohol and caffeine.  

5. Build a support system. None of us can succeed on our own so be sure to develop your support system. Your support group should ideally include co-workers, friends, family, a supervisor at work, and a mentor or two.