What will do you do today? Will you arrive in an unfamiliar new city? Will you complete several tasks in a project? Will you solve an employee’s dilemma from the other side of the globe? No matter your challenge, managing stress is a crucial ingredient for your success.
Stress management is an important component of business travel. Fortunately, it has also received a lot of attention in digital culture. Computer, tablet, and smartphone apps provide access to mindfulness training (Calm), happiness exercises based on scientific research (Happify), and even access to mental health counseling.
Meanwhile, many everyday apps can also support stress management in the day-to-day lives of their users. Here are several:
Forest
There are many Internet-blocking apps out there, but Forest takes a novel approach. When you want to put down your phone, you set a length of time, and plant a virtual tree of your choice. This tree grows while Forest is open, and dies if you close the app before time is up. Each tree you grow becomes part of your forest, earning virtual coins toward planting real trees in five African countries via Trees for the Future.
Travelear
Travelear uses 3D binaural engineering to create soundscapes from sites around the globe. Headphones make the soundscapes into immersive experiences. Take a ride through the London Underground, visit a beach in Skiathos, weather a thunderstorm in Honolulu, and many others. Choose from a list, or from a global map.
Pocket
Reserving one cloud-based service specifically for stress management can make it a valuable and powerful tool. Pocket is available in all popular operating systems and accessible from hundreds of apps, but its purpose is simple. Notes, images, links, articles, videos, files, emails can all can be saved in Pocket, and retrieved later. Other services to consider as havens for your stress-free reading, viewing, and listening include Google Keep, Evernote, and Microsoft OneNote.
Written by Erin Fitzgerald, GMS, International Content Manager
