1. Schedule a realistic day. When you think about what you “need” to do that day, and create a mental list, only it will really take you a week to do the things on your list, the list and the frustration stays in your head.

2. Be Flexible. Do you really have to do everything perfectly, or it is acceptable to compromise and move on with the rest of your day.

3. Let it go. Once you realize that the problem is about as fixed as it is going to get, or you can’t fix it at that time, let it go. Obsessing about the unfixable ties up mental energy for things that you could be getting accomplished.

4. Clarify conversations. Ask questions to make sure that you really understood what the other person said or meant. Take a few seconds to repeat back directions or expectations. This can save you hours of wasted time and wasted emotional energy.

5. Don’t rely on your memory. We all laugh about having senior moments LONG before memory loss is physically a problem. Overloaded “short term” information is a good way to mix up, forget it and cause a memory crash.

6. Be present in the moment. When you are with someone, be mentally present with that person and no one else. When you are doing a project, concentrate on that project and getting it completed. If you are multi-tasking, be aware of when your efficiency starts to slip and you need to rethink what you are doing.

7. Get the unpleasantness done first. If you know there is a task that is not your favorite, get it done so that the unpleasant “need to get to it” task doesn’t stay in your head while you are trying to do a more pleasant task.

8. Be physically organized. Nothing is more frustrating than spending time looking for the keys, or a file, and panicking about not finding whatever you can’t find. Of course, this goes along with being flexible, and recognizing that sometimes things that get lost are lost…

9. Schedule some emotional down time. Whether this is doing something you enjoy with someone else, or time spent by yourself, recharging your emotional energy is critical to being able to get through the next day’s requirement of focus and emotional energy. You can only run on empty for so long.

10. Look for that one good thing in whatever situation you are in!