Whether you are aware of it or not, the winter doldrums affect us and our productivity. For most of us, we barely notice the change since it affects us so mildly, but we may feel our energy has been zapped. But up to 20% percent of us will feel noticeable fatigue, apathy, increased appetite, sleep problems, and/or mood changes. For 5% of us, the winter blues are severe enough to be medically diagnosed as seasonal affective disorder (SAD). Interestingly, the incidence of SAD depends on your climate; only 1% of Floridians are affected while 10% of New Hampshire residents will suffer.

Aside from taking a week-long vacation in the tropics, what can we do about this? If the severity of your winter blues doesn’t warrant medical attention, there are a few quick and simple lifestyle changes you can make to increase your energy level this season.

Exercise Regularly

Engaging in some form of activity each day is the easiest way to manage your energy levels. Some find that exercising in the mornings can even be a good substitute for that daily coffee (although I’m not one of them!). If you can, try to squeeze in an outdoor walk during your lunch.

Rearrange Your Space

Declutter your working space so you have more room to work and declutter your home to feel fresh and organized. Consider replacing dark shades with light curtains. Another idea is to turn your desk so you face toward a window or open up those blinds once in a while.

Lighten Up

If you can’t get outside and there are no windows near your workspace, a decent alternative is an artificial blue light, or simply, switching to full-spectrum light bulbs. According to a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences last year, light from specifically the blue part of the spectrum activates the areas in our brain that play a key role in our ability to process emotions. This means that handling emotional challenges that crop up throughout our day is easier and takes less out of us. Other studies have also shown that blue light can improve alertness and mental performance.

This post was originally published on the Intuit QuickBase Team Leadership blog.

I wrote about six different types of goals a while ago. As a quick recap:

• Behavior versus Outcome Goals: focusing on what you can solely control (your behavior) can prevent the frustration that occurs when, despite your best effort and intentions, events outside of your control serve as a roadblock.
• Approach versus Avoidance Goals: using positive phrasing and focusing on what you do want can have dramatically different results than focusing on what you don’t want.
• Concrete versus Abstract Goals: stating your goals in very specific language and quantifying them can provide more structure and motivation than being vague about it.

It may seem that I am advocating behavioral, approach, and concrete goals. While they are better in most cases, outcome, avoidance, and abstract goals can have a place too — especially in long-term goal setting such as New Year’s Resolutions. Here’s how.

Outcome goals can serve as the end-point marker. By setting outcome goals, you are essentially defining the flag that goes up when you have achieved what you set out to achieve. Often when we get wrapped up in pursuing our goals, we don’t celebrate our accomplishments. As we progress, our standards get higher and higher and what seemed impossible when we started now looks like you’ve known how to do it along. This is especially true for high performers and so-called perfectionists. Outcome goals are also a crucial type of goal to set when you are setting goals for others. As a leader, you want to set the outcome goals and help your people define their own behaviors that will lead to the achievement of those goals.

Avoidance goals can serve as the initial momentum that keeps us going. Avoidance goals often stem from fear, and that is not necessarily a bad thing. Peter Bregman, blogger for Harvard Business Review, writes, “There’s an ongoing argument in the world of behavior change about what works better: fear or incentive? Some argue you need both at the same time. My experience is that you need both, but not at the same time. If you want to change your behavior, start by creating a bit of fear, then experience the reward.” Sometimes you need to bring that which you fear, and therefore want to avoid, to the forefront of your mind.

Abstract goals can help when procrastination or uncertainty gets in the way of defining goals. Thus, abstract goals can serve as temporary goals until you are able to create more concrete ones. For example, sometimes an image or a feeling or a seemingly unrelated desire can help you get closer to discovering what it is you truly want to achieve.

Goal Setting Activity

Let’s give this a try. Think about the New Year’s Resolution that you made, and transform it into timelined objectives using the bolded questions below. In the parentheses I include the types of goals that are most helpful for each stage. If you didn’t make a New Year’s Resolution or define any goals for 2012, now is a good time to start thinking about it!

What is your 1 month goal? (Behavior, Approach, Concrete)

• Example of Behavior: What will you do differently today, tomorrow, next week in support of this goal?

What is your 3 month goal? (Behavior, Approach, Concrete)

• Example of Concrete: How many miles will you be running per week during the last week of March?

What is your 6 month goal? (Outcome, Approach, Concrete)

• Example of Approach: What new achievements do you want to be able to add to your resume by mid-2012, that is, end of June?

What is your 1 year goal? (Outcome, Approach/Avoidance, Concrete)

• Example of Outcome: How much do you want to weigh on January 1, 2013?

What is your 5 year goal? (Outcome, Approach/Avoidance, Abstract)

• Example of Avoidance: What don’t you want to be when you are 40 [or your age in 5 yrs]?

What is your 10 year goal? (Outcome, Approach/Avoidance, Abstract)

• Example of Abstract: How do you want to feel about your life in 2021?

This is a lot of information to work with, but my tip is to take what is relevant to you now and leave the rest for later. Two years ago, I set the most basic goal – a one-year goal that was behavioral, approach, and concrete. I resolved to be consistent in my efforts to work out, exercise, and just move in general. My plan was that I would either get to the gym or take a walk around the neighborhood every day in 2010 (give or take 1-2 days a week – the point was to not skip out on physical activity for weeks or months at a time). It was that simple. As the year progressed that remained my #1 priority (“just start” / “just get out there” was my mantra) but what also happened was that I set sub-goals as my skill level increased. I finished up 2010 not only 100% achieving this goal, but also 15 pounds lighter, running 25 miles a week, and lifting 140+ pounds.

This post was originally published on the Intuit QuickBase Team Leadership blog.

For Your Employees

One of my favorite gift ideas for an employee is to give a business book. The trick is to personalize your selection so that the person will want to read the book you choose.

• For the aspiring leader: The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership: Follow Them and People Will Follow You
• For the people person: Delivering Happiness: A Path to Profits, Passion, and Purpose
• For the brainy one: How We Decide
• For the over-achiever: Outliers
• For the creative: Made to Stick
• For the newly promoted: The First 90 Days: Critical Success Strategies for New Leaders at All Levels
• For any manager: Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes are High
• For the team leader: The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable

For more books like this, check out the 800-CEO-READ and the Amazon.com best-seller lists.

For Your Boss

It can be difficult to decide what an appropriate present is for the boss. How much do you spend? Do you let others know? Moreover, it can alienate co-workers if they were not planning to purchase a gift. One way to get around all this is to do a group gift from the team.

For example, you can make a gift basket. You the organizer will handle purchasing the basket and taking care of assembling it, while the others on the team each bring one or two items to put in the basket. This is especially appreciated when the boss has a family with whom he or she can share the items in the basket.

Just a few of the things ideal for a gift basket:

• Wine
• Wine Stopper
• Decorative Napkins
• Candles
• Chocolate
• Candy Canes
• Ornaments
• Gift Card
• Fruit
• Coasters
• Coffee

For Your Clients

The holiday season is a good time to not only show appreciation, but also to remind your clients why they do business with you. You can gift items that will help your client further their agenda and their business. You can also gift items that will keep your company and your brand at the forefront of their mind. Or ideally, both.

If you have just a few clients, you’ll want to personalize the gift – the aforementioned gift basket, something that relates to their hobby, or a ticket to their favorite sports team event. But if you have more than a handful of clients, such an approach may not be worth your time or money. Instead, you can give something with a personalized feel, but a wholesale price tag. My favorite website for mass-produced branded items is Branders.com. Here are a few items from their site that I love and almost anyone can use:

• Business Card Holder
• Mini Travel Mouse
• USB Hub (pictured)
• Flash Drive
• Padfolio
• Umbrella
• Fleece Blanket

What are you giving this year? What are you hoping to receive?

This post was originally published on the Intuit QuickBase Team Leadership Blog.

Let’s face it – if you spend a lot of time at work, you spend a lot of time with your colleagues. Of course, you have some coworkers with whom you actually enjoy spending time, while others, shall we say, you’d prefer to see a little less frequently.

Maybe you find one of your colleagues a bit annoying or perhaps you have an office bully in your midst, always criticizing and taking credit for others’ great ideas. Is there an energy vampire in the office, often interrupting you and asking for your help? Or maybe a coworker simply reminds you of your overbearing Aunt Mildred. Whatever the circumstances of your challenging colleague, here are five simple strategies for learning to play nice in the sandbox.

1. Right Turn – If your colleague says something hostile to you, release your resistance and say, “I can see how you would think that” or even, “I agree with you” or “yes, it’s true that I did that.” You completely diffuse a conflict when you don’t fight back. Look for a kernel of truth to agree with and then see if you can find a solution, if necessary, from a more grounded place.

2. Take 5 – A breathing exercise is one of the quickest, most effective ways to calm yourself down. If your colleague has pushed your button, excuse yourself to the bathroom and try this simple technique. Relax your shoulders and breath in for the count of five, hold your breath for the count of five, and then exhale through your mouth for the count of five. This will clear your head and calm your body so you can move on with your day.

3. Joy to the World – Try sending your colleague good wishes. Although you may not be feeling overly kind and generous towards them, try wishing them good health, peace, and happiness. Chances are that they’re struggling with their own insecurities and personal demons, so spend a moment in the morning thinking, “May you know peace” or “I wish you a happy day.” When you open your heart with compassion, you begin to feel more joyful.

4. Teacher’s Pet – Consider that this person has been sent to you as a teacher in your life. Could it be that you’re supposed to learn more patience, more tolerance? When you find yourself feeling frustrated with your colleague, ask yourself, “What could I learn from this experience?”

5. Remember This – When your colleague is really getting your goat, remember why you are working at this particular job. Maybe you’re putting in your time so you can climb the proverbial ladder. Maybe this is work that you actually feel is part of your life’s mission. Or maybe this job simply provides the important function of paying your bills. Try to keep the bigger picture in your mind’s eye so that you can have perspective on the lesser annoyances.

Try these simple strategies and notice how your relationships begin to improve. Remember that you cannot change the colleague, but you can change your own reactions and responses. And when one person starts to play differently, the whole sandbox dynamic begins to change.

For more wisdom and resources from Ashley Davis Bush, please visit her site www.ashleydavisbush.com.