Skyline Newspaper

Is caring less about your job the key to feeling better? One new book claims that it is.

Authors of the book “No Hard Feelings: The Secret Power of Embracing Emotions at Work” spent countless hours talking to gurus, reading self-help books, and performing healthy activities to lower perceived levels of stress. But few methods worked better than stepping back and stepping away from some of the stressors of the job.

Authors Liz Fosslien and Mollie West Duffy don’t want you to stop caring about your work, they simply want you to be less distracted by it throughout the day. They even identified the seven top stressors that can lead to feelings of burnout and stress, including:

• Unpredictable schedules
• Social isolation
• The information firehouse
• Sleep deprivation
• The information firehouse
• Obsessing about work on vacation
• And meeting unrealistic deadlines

These stressors cause us to obsess over work, whether we’re there or not. In fact, a recent study by Harvard psychologists revealed that most of us only spend half our time in the present.

This leads to further feelings of unhappiness, stress, guilt, anxiety, and depression. While this is hard to cope with outside of work, it also impacts our work life.

Nearly 51% of employees claim that their productivity suffers at work because of stress, but it’s very often the stress about work that creates this issue in the first place.

This creates a positive feedback loop of negative energy from which we simply can’t escape.

According to Fosslien, Duffy, and these Harvard psychologists, we need to stop letting work consume us. One method is breaking down your day into manageable tasks. Even setting aside a day for emails or writing can help ease the daily stresses of countless problems that come your way. Unless something is urgent, it can always be blocked off to complete at another time, like answering that social email or setting aside time in the morning to answer all emails at once.

Navigating stressors will look different for every person, but it’s also essential that you come up with ways to separate yourself from work when you’re not on the clock. Whether that takes the form of an after-work ritual or an adventure out of town, whatever creates a healthier work-life balance is worth pursuing.

After all, almost 70% of Millennials claim to be adventurous. Looking beyond your cubicle and embracing other aspects of life can really change your perspective.

Divorce is becoming increasingly common in the United States. In fact, between 40 and 50% of all U.S. marriages end in divorce. As a result, thousands of individuals face emotional stress and confusion every year as they go through the difficult process of ending a marriage.

After the decision to divorce has been made, many want the situation to be over as quickly as possible so that the healing process can begin. Unfortunately, divorces rarely happen overnight. The court process of separating assets and determining child custody can continue for several months. With such a long and complicated process, it’s no wonder that so many find divorce to be extremely stressful.

Though a stress-free divorce may not be possible, you can practice healthy coping mechanisms to make the process a little bit easier. If you’re going through a divorce, try any of these three stress-management tips to feel better and start healing:

1. Identify Where Your Stress is Rooted

Divorce can lead to a complete upheaval of your daily life. Take time to determine what aspect of the divorce process is causing you the most worry. Are you worried about not seeing your children, or afraid that you’ll have to relocate? By figuring out what upsets you most, you’ll be able to create an action plan for coping with your emotions and improving the situation however possible.

Often, new financial burdens heighten divorce stress. Since data from 2016 shows that the cost of living went up 30% in the previous 13 years, learning to manage a household on one income can be particularly challenging. If you determine that your stress is rooted in financial instability, start reconstructing your budget as soon as possible to feel more stable and in control.

2. Care For Your Health

In happy times, exercise and healthy eating habits are important. During stressful times like divorce, however, maintaining such habits is absolutely essential. Though exercise may be the last thing you feel like doing, taking time for even a short walk can boost your mood. Eating a balanced diet will also help you resist illness, sleep better, maintain a healthy weight, and in general feel more in control of your situation.

3. Focus On Other Kinds of Relationships

When grieving the loss of a marriage, take time to embrace other loving relationships in your life. Connecting with family and friends can help you combat loneliness and establish a support network. You can discuss the divorce if you feel like talking about it, or use your friendships to have a little fun and take your mind off the separation. Even adopting a pet can help– studies show that 74% of individuals who keep animals as companions report mental health improvements.

Divorce is never easy, but with these tips, you can find a path to healing. By taking time for self reflection, caring for your overall health, and reconnecting with others you love, you can better cope with divorce stress. Though your marriage may be at an end, your happiness doesn’t have to be.

There’s a meme out there that pictures a person riding a bicycle, jamming their own spokes with a stick, then lying on the ground after the fall, blaming anything and anyone else but themselves. That’s what Facebook has been doing to themselves over the last year. We’re starting to get to the point where user data and privacy issues go together with Facebook better than caviar and crostinis.

They’re quick to become a quotable statistic synonymous with distrust if they keep up their current trajectory. For instance, the CDC reports that one in six Americans gets sick from contaminated food every year. Soon enough, we might see similar reports that give alarming statistics detailing the amount of data Facebook mishandles in a year. Heck, even in a given month. Now they’re ensconced in drama, yet again.

It was recently discovered that, since 2016, Facebook has been paying users $20 per month to install software on their iPhones that would allow the company to have extensive access to the data on their personal devices. The extent of that access is unclear, but they’re not in a good spot because the audience this data mining tactic targeted happened to include teenagers.

Between 75% and 80% of malicious attacks happen within an organization rather than from external hacking. Organizations are questioning who dreamed up this mess within the social media giant. With targeting users between ages 13 and 35 a main feature of this tactic, how it got through conception to full deployment without someone questioning how wrong it could go is mind-boggling.

Now Facebook is against the ropes, yet again. Apple pulled that software from the App Store for breaching policy. Moreover, Facebook is exposed in what people are seeing as a low-budget bribe for user’s personal information. Even worse is that the near trillion dollar company couldn’t find it in themselves to offer more than $20, hence targeting a user audience more likely to grant access for such a modest fee. Teens. Around 95.4% of Americans participate in some manner of charitable giving every year, but those donations often include access to our most private information.

“Despite early reports, there was nothing ‘secret’ about this; it was literally called the Facebook Research App. It wasn’t ‘spying’ as all of the people who signed up to participate went through a clear on-boarding process asking for their permission and were paid to participate. Finally, less than 5 percent of the people who chose to participate in this market research program were teens. All of them with signed parental consent forms,” remarked a Facebook spokesperson.

Still, the damage is done. And given Facebook’s track record over the last year, the last thing they need is any more questionable data-handling scandals.

One astonished reply that reflects the comparative severity of Facebook’s data disaster epidemic was the tongue-in-cheek remark from SoFi’s VP of Communication, Jim Prosser:

“Only way this looks worse is if they had compensated the teens with Juul pods.”

Are you planning a construction project? Which is the best place to get construction equipment for sale? Undertaking a construction project requires the purchase of quality materials. To achieve this, you need to select the place to get construction equipment. It has partnered with well-known brands in the commercial construction industry.

Construction site safety requirements

Working on a construction site needs to be taken seriously to avoid putting yourself at risk. Having the right PPE is one of the construction site safety requirements. Ensure you don’t start working before getting the right induction. Keep the construction site clean. By all means, uphold the safety of everyone working on the construction site. Follow every construction safety guidelines and signs. Avoid working in an unsafe area and tampering with the equipment.

What does it take to become an international building company?

Rising an inch of a rank takes dedication and commitment to your work. For instance, in the construction industry, expanding and becoming an international building company takes various qualities. Such a company has a skilled and experienced team that offers high-quality services to clients. The company is in control of modern technology and equipment. To successfully become an international building company, you need to have robust risk management tips. Improve your services today.

To some, homeownership is more a list of chores than a collection of pleasurable activities. Everything that goes into making sure a home lasts a long time takes a reasonable amount of thought, planning, and preparation before execution. However you might see homeownership, the details that make a home last a long time should never be approached nor executed haphazardly.

If you have a pool or spa, you might consider that you’ll save money on composite surfaces that may only last five to 25 years, while more expensive glass tile surfaces can last indefinitely. You might also consider the work it would take to finish your basement to extend the comfortable usefulness and gathering spaces in your home.

One Canadian man — Joe Murray — brought a hobbyist’s approach to a basement project that attracted attention over time. He’s been recording progress on YouTube of him digging his basement since 2007, but his original project began in 2005 without being recorded. Rather than having professionals dig his basement in what would likely require the work of a day or two, he’s been doing it with mini remote-controlled construction equipment.

Yes, like miniature backhoes, dump trucks, bulldozers, and all the other traditional construction site machinery. Only smaller. While the U.S. home and garden market was slated to increase by $10 billion in 2018, Murray had different home project plans altogether. Very methodical plans that were certainly in no rush.

Obviously, the man is knowledgeable of construction and is doing this because he enjoys it. It’s therapeutic. While the global wellness industry swells to a net worth of $3.7 trillion and sells the benefits of milk thistle, maybe the world needs more basement digging RC construction tinkerers than fad diets and juice cleanses. Some food for thought.

“What better place to have an all-weather playground than under your house? It’s just a few steps away when I have time for it, it’s a comfy place to be when it’s -30C outside. I am in no hurry to finish,” Murray reported. He’s not wrong given the arctic temperatures this winter has thrown our way.

Since 2007, he’s been recording videos and streaming them on his YouTube channel LilGiantsConstrCo. He doesn’t really care about going viral or viewership, just having a place where the longitude of his hobby can be stored. People can watch if they want. He’s been an RC hobbyist since 1995 and the machinery he uses is both assembled and customized from kits and built by him from scratch.

His story popped up a while back in 2012, where he expressed interest in other bigger projects like digging a pond with channels. Again, true to his hobby rather than rushing into several ambitious tasks, he’s remained slowly working on his basement excavation to this day. No one knows when it’ll be finished except Joe Murray, but we’re willing to bet that after 14 years of working on it, finishing the project isn’t the point. It’s the joy of the journey — and the dig — along the way.

Many people are interested in basement renovation, but they don’t always turn their basements into rooms that are comfortable and decorated. Some people see basements as spaces that are purely functional. People who have washing machines in their basements may always feel that way, especially if there is not a lot of room for anything else. Setting up a sitting area with a running washing machine nearby usually won’t work. 

However, in a lot of homes, a basement is just a space that is going unused for no reason. People in these homes might be interested in different basement interior ideas this year. Some basement redesign ideas are fairly simple, and yet they will have a huge effect on the appearance of these spaces. People might get basement inspiration when they see some pictures of finished basements that look like gorgeous living rooms.andnbsp;

A basement in residential house might be fairly large. People could comfortably spend a lot of time there. Basement windows don’t usually let in a lot of light, but this won’t be a problem for everyone. Some people like the cozy feel of underground rooms like basements. The location of basements can sometimes just add to their visual appeal.andnbsp;

More:

basement diggers near me, rc diggers at work, guy excavating, remote control construction toys videos, basement excavation equipment, joe murray basement, man excavates basement with rc toys, basement toys, rc basement, rc digger.

If you’re a parent, you may be wondering how to keep your child athlete healthy this year — without becoming an overbearing helicopter parent. Luckily, we’ve got you covered.

If your child has been showing a growing interest in participating in sports lately and getting healthy, they certainly won’t be alone. Over 36 million kids in the U.S. play organized sports each year, and that number keeps growing. Joining a sport as a kid can be a great way to stay healthy, but there are always some health and injury risks as well if you’re not careful. Here are a few ways you can make sure your child stays safe when participating in a sport, team or otherwise.

Try New Training Methods

One of the biggest reasons child athletes find themselves burning out or even getting injured is due to overuse of certain body parts. This happens more often in certain sports than others; this is why you see many little league pitchers suffering from elbow injuries, as they’ve overused the muscles and joints involved in repeated fast pitching.

To avoid overusing certain muscles and areas of the body, encourage your child to try new training methods that will still help them get in shape without causing further damage. For kids needing to build muscle while also working on cardiovascular fitness, HIIT can be helpful. High-intensity interval training, or HIIT, workouts generally last about 30 minutes and are designed as full-body exercises, so no one part of the body gets burned out too quickly.

Get Proper Gear

The right equipment for a workout can make a huge difference in your child’s safety. With the wrong safety gear or even workout equipment, your child might be risking injury due to improper form or just simple accidents during a training session. When your child joins a new sport, help them do research on what equipment is involved so they can find the best equipment possible. If buying new equipment is too expensive, see if your child can borrow properly fitting equipment from a friend or classmate.

Allow For Recovery Time

Sometimes, injuries do happen; unfortunately, that’s just a part of many sports, as accidents can happen. If your child does get hurt while training, make sure you give them plenty of time to recover before letting them start training again. This will keep them from worsening an existing injury through overuse or poor form.

The amount of time your child will need to take off from their sport will depend on the nature of the injury. Bone fractures, for example, usually heal in two to ten weeks, while some injuries only need a few days to heal. Follow your doctor’s instructions for specific care following an injury, and wait the full amount of time recommended before allowing your kid to start practicing again.

Stick To Routine Checkups

If your child is active in sports on a regular basis, they should make frequent checkups a normal part of their healthcare routine. Visiting medical professionals regularly can help spot health issues that would develop from sports over time and make sure your child gets treatment before an injury has a chance to worsen. Don’t forget your dentist visits as well, as some sports can pose a risk to your child’s jaw and teeth. The AAPD recommends that kids and teens see a pediatric dentist every six months, but if your child is at risk of jaw or tooth damage, you may want to visit even more frequently.

As a parent, it can be difficult to know how to keep your kid safe as they start a new sport. However, these tips can let you stay confident that your kid will be happy, healthy, and safe while discovering their new hobby. Sports can be a great way for children to stay active, so encourage them to get involved whenever you get the chance.

Home remodeling can be a challenge for many families attempting to fix up their houses, but taking the time and effort to do so has the potential to greatly improve your home’s overall value. While most people think of a home remodel as a major project that involves changing their home drastically, this isn’t always the case. According to the Census Bureau, 30% of remodeling activity is major additions and alterations, 40% is minor additions and alterations, and 30% maintenance and repair. If you’re thinking about starting to remodel your home sometime soon, use these tips to handle your project as best as possible.

Remember The Market

Be careful when remodeling your home about what you choose to add, especially if you plan to sell your home sometime in the future. What might be valuable to you might actually hurt your home’s resell value. When remodeling, many people want to add elements to the home that they personally like, such as a pool in the backyard. However, personal preferences vary, and some additions to your home might actually make it harder to sell. Some types of remodeling are safer than others; a bathroom remodel is generally a fairly safe way to improve your home’s resell value. Bathroom remodeling is the job most requested in the United States, accounting for 78% of renovations.

Don’t Skip On Maintenance

Just because you’re adding on a new room to your home doesn’t mean you should neglect the other areas of your home that need updating as well. Keeping everything in your home up to date can help improve your home’s overall value, making any more expensive updates worth the investment overall. Be sure to check any appliances that would stay in the home if you were to resell the house, like water heaters or air conditioners. Air conditioners today use about 50% less energy than they did in 1990; that difference in efficiency is something a potential buyer is sure to notice, and even if you don’t sell the home, the upgrade will help you save on utility bills.

Keep Efficiency In Mind

As you’re adding new areas to your home or updating existing ones, do what you can to increase your home’s overall energy efficiency. Adding high-tech energy-saving materials might seem excessive now, but over time, these updates will pay for themselves in the energy bill reduction. When constructing new walls, use insulation with an appropriate R-value for the weather and temperature throughout the year. R-value is the measure of resistance to heat flow which is thermal resistance; generally speaking, a higher value is better for homes in colder areas. This will ensure your heating system doesn’t have to work quite as hard during the winter.

Stick To Your Budget

Most importantly, when planning your remodeling and renovations, be sure to set and stick to a budget. It can be easy to get carried away when planning ideas for your home, but sticking to a budget is essential to avoiding financial issues later on. Always budget for a bit more than you’ll actually need; this keeps you from getting stuck if something goes wrong and you need to account for additional repairs. If you need to reduce costs to leave yourself a bit of extra room in your budget, try looking at second-hand and salvage stores. These items are usually comparable to new components but can help you save money.

Don’t forget about your future plans! If it’s just you in your spouse in your home, remodeling projects can be fairly simple. But if a baby is on the way, you’re going to need to do a whole lot more planning!

Remodeling a home can be an overwhelming process, but with enough advance planning and keeping track of budgets, it doesn’t have to be. Before you start your remodel, use these tips to help the process go as smoothly as possible.

Nowadays, most people who are concerned about the environment are at least recycling. Most areas and cities now have recycling programs that are easily accessible, making it easier than ever to take steps towards leading a greener lifestyle. However, recycling only goes so far, especially if it’s something you only do at home. Here are a few easy ways to keep moving forward on your path to a greener lifestyle.

• Go paperless: Even if you recycle papers at home, you might not keep track quite as closely at the office. If you haven’t gone paperless yet, you’d be surprised how much paper you might be wasting at the office regularly. Estimates show that the average office worker in the U.S. uses about 10,000 sheets of paper per year. Rather than printing out that next report, see if you can go paperless and email it instead.
• Watch your water use: One of the easiest forms of consumption to forget about is your water use. Most people don’t pay attention to this vital resource on a daily basis, but that can lead to significant waste. A typical family of four uses 400 gallons of water per day. Keep track of how much water you’re using for showers, laundry, washing dishes, and so on, and if you can, invest in low-flow water fixtures.
• Keep up with home maintenance: Having kids at home can keep your schedule full, meaning it’s likely been a while since you’ve taken care of routine home maintenance. However, this can have a large impact on your energy consumption, particularly when it comes to your heating and cooling bills. Consider the facts that 90% of homes have HVAC systems and as much as 25% to 40% of the energy used for heating or cooling a home is wasted. This is because contaminants build up in the HVAC system over time, forcing it to work harder. The more often you maintain this system, the more efficient it will be.
• Purchase reusable alternatives: Even when you’re recycling what you can, a good amount of your home waste probably can be avoided. Why? Many homes purchase disposable items for convenience but forget the impact it can have on your waste creation. Look for simple alternatives to common disposable items in your home: use reusable water bottles instead of plastic, use fabric towels instead of paper towels, and so on.
• Be mindful when shopping: If you’re looking to buy something new, whether it’s furniture or clothing, there are likely eco-friendly options you haven’t considered. Try shopping at a thrift or second-hand store instead of a department store. You’ll be surprised by the prices, and you’ll be keeping perfectly good items from going to a landfill. Just be sure to pay it forward by donating your gently used items when you’re done with them, rather than throwing them away.
• Share resources: If you have friends that are also making the effort to go green with their families, try working together for certain tasks. Arrange a carpool for group outings, or agree to share certain items between homes that you don’t use every day. This way, you’re cutting down on resources spent between families, with as little impact as possible on your own daily life.

These switches will have little impact on your daily life but will go far when it comes to saving the environment. Just a few small adjustments on a day to day basis can be huge when trying to go green. Which of these tips do you see yourself and your family using?

Credit cards are a useful and (dare we say it) fun way to manage money while also building good credit. As a bonus, many credit cards also come with added perks, like cash back on entertainment spending or low interest rates for certain windows of time.

However, poorly-managed credit cards can become a financial nightmare. Rats make a useful comparison–in an ideal environment, two rats can breed and become 482 million rats in just three years. If left unattended, your credit card debt of a few hundred dollars can become thousands if not paid off responsibly.

If you’re a first-time cardholder, don’t let your rats breed. Here are five essential mistakes to avoid when managing a credit card, so that your savings, and not your debts, multiply:

1. Spending More than You Could With Your Paycheck

Young people are especially prone to overspending with credit cards, but anyone new to their credit card could fall into this trap. Rather than using the credit card to make reasonable purchases, many mistakenly use their card to buy more than they normally would. Whether you’re splurging on healthy groceries or splurging on video games matters little– you’re still living above your means, and racking up debt that’s out of your pay range.

To avoid this problem, try treating your credit card as a debit card for six months. Instead of paying at the end of the month, pay the bill online each time you use the card until you’ve grown accustomed to managing your spending.

2. Missing Payments

Everyone’s busy, and it can be easy to forget a payment. Unfortunately, late or missed payments have repercussions, including late fees. Missing repeatedly might even result in you being called by one of the nations’ 8,513 debt collection agencies, which can be embarrassing and downright frightening if you’ve never handled debt before.

To avoid forgetting or missing payments, Credit Karma recommends setting up payment reminders through your phone’s alarm system. Set repeating reminders for a few days before your bill is due, so that you have wiggle room for reviewing charges and transferring money before making your payment on time.

3. Focusing on Perks, and Forgetting Interest or Credit Utilization

We all love a good deal, but sometimes it can be hard to recognize one when we see it. Many credit cards tempt individuals to spend unnecessarily by offering misleading benefits. As creditcards.com points out, a card with too high an interest rate might be costing you more than cash rewards can compensate.

Instead of focusing on cash-back bonuses, use your first credit card to learn about the concepts of interest, personal credit, and credit utilization. Remember to follow FICO’s advice of keeping your credit utilization ratio below 30% of your original limit to build your credit score, and not your credit debt.

Managing a credit card is a huge step towards financial independence and smart fiscal management. However, credit cards are fickle friends, and credit companies love to profit off the misinformed. If you’re thinking about opening your first credit card, be sure to avoid these three critical mistakes. Rather than a rat-like pile of growing debt, you’ll instead reap the rewards of a well-managed credit card.

Any type or amount of physical activity reduces the health risks associated with sitting, new research shows. According to a new study of 8,000 middle-aged and older adults, substituting 30 minutes of sitting with physical activity of any kind can reduce the risk of early death by 35%.

The study, published in the American Journal of Epidemiology, found that movement is important for better health regardless of the intensity or amount of time spent moving.

“Our findings underscore an important public health message that physical activity of any intensity provides health benefits,” said the lead author of the study Dr. Keith Diaz. Diaz is the assistant professor of behavioral medicine at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons.

“If you have a job or lifestyle that involves a lot of sitting, you can lower your risk of early death by moving more often, for as long as you want and as your ability allows,” said Diaz, “whether that means taking an hour-long high-intensity spin class or choosing lower-intensity activities, like walking.”

Less than one-third of children get 25 minutes of physical activity three times a week, and one in four adults spends over eight hours a day sitting. Adults who sit for an hour or more at a time without interruption are at greater risk of early death compared to those who got up and moved during that same amount of time.

Adults who sat for less than 30 minutes at a time or less had the lowest risk of early death. This suggests that taking movement breaks every 30 minutes can lower your risk of chronic health conditions and early death.

Diaz’s study included 7,999 participants age 45 and older. The participants took part in a nationwide analysis of racial and regional disparities in strokes between 2009 and 2013.

Participants wore activity monitors for four days. During that time, their physical activity and the intensity of those activities were recorded. Diaz and researchers then analyzed the death rate of the participants after four years in 2017.

Researchers found that when adults replaced 30 minutes of sitting with low-intensity physical activity they reduced their risk of dying by 17%. Moderate physical activity could reduce their risk by 35%. Even short bursts of activity (one to two minutes) showed health benefits.

Although researchers found that increased physical activity could reduce the risk of dying from any cause, Diaz and his team didn’t look into specific health-related outcomes.

“In our next study, we plan to look at the risk of specific cardiovascular outcomes, such as heart attack, heart failure, and cardiovascular-related deaths, associated with physical activity versus sedentary behavior,” said Diaz.

Previous studies on specific health-related issues show that inactivity can be a major risk factor. For instance, the average woman in the U.S. has a one-in-eight lifetime risk of being diagnosed with breast cancer. That risk increases when a woman is physically inactive.

Fortunately, a new breath test for cancer screening is currently undergoing clinical trials. The test involves measuring a patient’s breath for volatile organic compound (VOC) emissions. VOCs are typically found in gasoline, wood, coal, and paint (but not in powder coatings).

VOCs can also be found in human breath, but they change when a person has cancer. The new breath test aims to identify these changes to diagnose cancer. But it’s still vital to reduce your risk of cancer and other chronic health conditions by staying physically active and eating well.

It’s also essential to get enough sleep. Sleep deprivation can be just as damaging as little physical activity. On average, school-aged children only receive 9.5 hours of sleep and adults only receive 6.8 hours.

Sleep deprivation can increase your risk for chronic health conditions such as cardiovascular problems, heart disease, diabetes, and stroke.

That said, to reduce your risk of early death, experts recommend moving more frequently, getting the recommended amount of sleep, and eating a healthier diet.

“Getting up and exercising 10 minutes a day will help you mentally,” said Jimmy McCurry, owner of Progressive Performance gym. “Will it help your muscle mass grow or density? We need a longer duration for that.”