Traffic is one of the stressors of Filipinos when they travel for work or go home. You have to adjust your time and route. Once you reach 5 or 6 pm time, you’ll have difficulty in commuting. According to BGC survey, Metro Manila ranks third in south-east Asia in terms of cities with the worst traffic.  Even if you own a vehicle or ride a metro, you can’t escape traffic. The good news is you can make ways to reduce stress from traffic and still arrive on time.    Eat healthy foods The way you eat controls your body’s physiological response to situations being at the centre of hordes of vehicles. Some foods can help your body cope with stressful and anxiety-causing situations while others exacerbate your stress levels.  Stress-reducing foods Stress causing drinks and foods Avocado Salty foods Asparagus White flour Berries Processed meats (hotdogs, jerkies, sausages) Oily fish (sardines, salmon) High sugar foods (soft drink, processed fruit juice) Oatmeal with berries and fruits Caffeinated drinks Seeds (sunflower, squash, chia) Fried foods Nuts (Almond, Peanuts - technically legumes, walnuts, hazelnuts) Aged, cultured and fermented foods (contains histamine that can trigger anxiety in susceptible people) Teas (Lagundi, Peppermint, chamomile) Processed carbs (white bread, white flour) Leafy greens   Herbs such as rosemary, thyme, sage, dill.     QUICK FACTS   Get enough sleep The number of sleep can affect your concentration span and eventually work performance. According to some internet sources, sleep deprivation can slowly kill a person and his/her career. Some of the side effects of lack of sleep include hallucination, lack of concentration, risks of type 2 diabetes, impaired immune system, risks of stroke and heart disease, poor vision, headaches, migraines, weight gain and colds. Here’s a video of what happens if you stopped sleeping. A good or enough sleep leads to preparedness for tomorrow’s working day. The recommended sleep depends on your age. Age group                                            Amount of sleep needed Infants                                            14 - 17 hours per day 12 months                                      10 hours per night, and                                      1 - 2 hours for an afternoon nap 2 years                                            11 - 12 hours per night and                                                          1 - 2 hours for an afternoon nap Teenagers (14 to 17 years)             8 - 10 hours Adults (18 to 64 years)                    7 to 8 hours   Listen to Music  Research showed that music influences physiological variables such as heart rate, respiration, blood pressure, EEG measurements, galvanic skin response and body temperature. In fact, music can cause your skin to show goosebumps - also called aesthetic chills, skin orgasm and musical chills. Applied to traffic, music may give drivers and commuters with stimulation while undergoing the monotonous task - getting used to traffic jams. According to research from the University of Parma (Italy), University of São Paulo  (Brazil), and University of Oxford Brookes, listening to music decreases stress caused by traffic. They made the study by asking the volunteers to drive on the busy streets of Marilia town in northwestern Sao Paulo. The volunteers were fitted with sensors that can detect heart rate variability.  Another research showed that relaxing music can reduce anxiety. A survey reported that out of 2,000 drivers, those fans of classical and pop music are relaxed drivers compared to those who listen to rock and metal music. The researchers recommended listening to instrumental or classical music to reduce stress while driving or commuting.  Some of the relaxing music: Romantic music by Bach, Chopin, Liszt & Ravel Bossa nova instrumentals Jazz music  Benefits of music while commuting/driving: Eases your boredom Helps in passing time   Listen to Podcast Podcasts are audio files of discussions (one or two more people) discussing news, review, facts of the day, mysteries, Q & A, documentaries and stories. Listening to podcasts can help you become a better listener, more emphatic, and imaginative. You’ll increase your knowledge and skills through language learning and self-improvement podcasts. Like listening to music, podcasts can help you get away with traffic boredom while inside a bus and car.  You can listen to podcasts via live streaming (uses data) or wifi through these apps: Apple Podcasts Breaker Castaway 2 Castbox Laughable  Overcast Pocket Casts Podbean Radioben Soundcloud Spotify Stitcher TuneIn Radio Self-improvement Career Language learning Horror  TED Radio Hour Being boss with Kathleen Shannon & Emily Thompson Japanese The Nosleep Podcasts Inspire Nation The School of Greatness with Lewis Howes Filipino Haunted Places Optimal Living Daily The Charged Life with Brendon Burchard English Return Home Lead to win Earn your Happy Podcast Spanish  Generation Why The School of Greatness Time4Coffee with Andrea Koppel French The Strange and Unusual Podcast Changeability   German Unspookable Good Life Project     Let’s Not Meet       Unobscured   Plan ahead of time You can reduce being caught in traffic jams or getting late by: Use an alternate route - Follow a safe road or street that are less congested. For the same destination, you can use the second or third route instead of the usual/common route for commuting. For example, when you want to go to Cainta from Ortigas (a high traffic route) use Cubao - Libis - Floodway or Cubao - Marcos-Highway - Sta. Lucia.  Use a smartphone app - You can download various apps such as Google, Yandex, Bing and Waze apps. Travel during the off-peak period - If your work is flexible or falls within the off-peak period - between 10 am to 4 pm.   Use and learn through apps   Walk towards your workplace If you are only a few kilometres (2 or less) and you like to exercise, you can beat traffic by walking. Numerous internet articles and websites point to the benefits of walking. An added bonus, walking is a low-intensity exercise that doesn’t need expensive equipment, difficult workouts, training or a strong will to continue. Here are the benefits: Reduces visceral fat (abdominal fat) Increases cardiovascular (heart) and pulmonary (lung) fitness Improves management of medical conditions in people who have diabetes and cardiovascular problems. Improves creative thinking  Strengthens leg muscles Boosts Immunity Burns calories Extends your life span Notes:  Bring extra clothing for work Wear comfortable and loose clothing Wear comfortable and sturdy shoes. Bring a water bottle to stay hydrated. Add 30 minutes to 1-hour allowance before the start of your work. This prevents a stressful situation when you’re hurrying up and running because you have only 10 minutes left before the start of your work. The above benefits of walking can improve your mood and therefore your work productivity. 

Productivity is one's capability of doing things and tasks quite efficiently. In other words, it is the capacity of a man to get things done, finished, and accomplished productively. It is more than simply checking off a to-do list. It is a unique ability to get things done smarter, faster, and cheaper. It is a known fact of being a game-changer for the people that are working. The ability to be productive is necessary for all of us. Every job, task, and responsibility requires a productive mindset to achieve a positive outcome. Relying on willpower and self-control will only get you so far. Both of these attributes are quickly depleted; in which case, the ability to remain productive quickly dissolves, as with any skill, knowledge without practice is worthless. Mono-Task How do you eat pizza? Well, you eat a pizza slice-by-slice, piece-by-piece. You don’t devour the whole damn food.  One of the most useful ways of improving one’s productivity is the ability to understand concentration. Concentrating only on one thing is one of the most efficient ways of improving productivity. The ability to multi-task was a life ever myth. Even research studies show that the human brain is not physiologically capable of processing multiple tasks at a time, most especially with complex tasks. Focusing on one task at a time is a better way of ensuring each task is done well. Focus on the moment (mindfulness) Practice mindfulness to continue to improve productivity. Awareness of your thoughts might seem like a negative when practicing productivity, but in reality, focusing your attention on the present moment will evidently help with concentration, reducing stress, and improving decision making and focus.  The benefits of practicing mindfulness will come naturally as you incorporate it into your work processes. Get some sleep It is essential for a brain to stay healthy, and sleeping is one of the many ways of doing so. Despite what other people say, everyone performs much better with a good amount of sleep each night. Sleep is not just for resting, but it’s also the time for the brain to repair itself; as it improves one’s mood and the ability to focus. Also, short periods of sleep show benefits in improving alertness and productivity, according to some UCLA professors. Experts say that a 20-minute nap is the “perfect” maximum time of a power nap for providing alertness and energy. Adding that this time window limits the brain to lighter stages of non-rapid eye movement sleep, which then makes it easier for someone to not get lazy and be back into work mode much less difficult and an extra bit of alertness. Read more For most people nowadays, reading a book is boring. They want their information fast and concise. And it feels like they neglect the benefits of reading itself and just proceed with an easier and unproductive way.  Well, it turns out that most of us are missing some productive boosting benefits that reading actually gives. In fact, there’s evidence that reading can help relieve stress, develop deeper focus, and enhance creativity—all of which can help to be more productive. Stress kills productivity (manage stress) Whoever says that people work at their best under pressure and stress is an absolute BS. It is more likely or not that they just procrastinated or are merely ignorant of the issue ahead. The work that was done under pressure is not your best. You only think that you did well is because of the stress hormones kicking in. Stress opportunities and occurrence will always be there. It will always be abundant. And so, rather than avoiding them, I say embrace them. And then only that is when Stress will not stress you out.  

To start things off, we know that every right-minded person prioritizes their needs over what they actually want, and it is critical for those who practice the right responsibility, budgeting, and planning. However, even though it is fair to put the "needs" at the top of your list, the "wants" should not be ignored. For in our life, it is also a "need" to satisfy our "wants" every once in a while, as we can also enjoy the fruits of our own labor. You can’t just work, work, work, and work even more, and besides working hard and no play is boring or will eventually get boring. When all you have in life is work and no play, well, there will come a time that you will feel this enormous hole that whispers, telling you that something is off.  And eventually, your soul will crave for plays and you will sabotage the hard work that you yourself had been protecting and carefully preserving for quite a long time now. Also, if you go with your life living inside the world of your works, without taking a break or rewarding yourself, you may and will suffer burnout. Resulting in you quickly losing motivation and will let you feel out of balance. Plus, it is actually scientifically proven that treating oneself helps the brain to release a chemical coined “dopamine”, which makes a person feel ecstatic, good, and happy. And as a result, it will head start a momentum of motivation and drive to do tasks even more creatively and efficiently, as doing these tasks now makes you feel somehow good about yourself. As what other people would always say "always love yourself first", and yeah, in a sense they are right. For we only have oneself in this world and it is a MUST to be there for yourself because no one else will ever be. So go for that spa massage, take that 20 minutes to watch Netflix or any show that you want to watch, sit back and play your favorite game, buy those shoes, buy that dress you have been lusting after, eat junk foods, and just enjoy life while you are young and you can.   Do it for yourself. You’ve earned it! And don’t even think twice! But at the same time, be wise when you reward yourself. While it is important to do such an act of recognizing one's effort or achievement, not all rewards are the right rewards; hence you must go for the right and just treats to further create a positive reinforcement upon your well-being. Because in reality, more often or not, we always forget that we are much more capable than we give ourselves credit for. We are all working hard day by day, week by week, month by month and we have to be responsible for our emotional and spiritual selves as well as our finances. Getting enough rest added by activities of relaxation is among the number of many ways to feedback into your well-being. Because holding in that stress will take a toll on your mental, emotional and physical health in such time, and it is also your job and it is also your responsibility to reward yourself with a job well done. And of course, lastly, it is your job to reward yourself with the respect you deserve. And while most of us focus on appreciating others or getting appreciation from others, we often neglect and remember to appreciate our own selves. So it is right and just to reward ourselves as often as we can, as it will leverage our performance in work, our mood and attitude on dealing with things and build new good habits that will further help us reach the goals we desire to achieve. And I think that is why it is quite important for us to celebrate the job well done that all of us have put in.