research

We're all about having a healthy work-life balance, but it's inevitable to have ups and downs. If you're struggling to cope with workplace stress, you might be cheered by this Harvard Business Review article, which says you can make your stress work to your advantage. Shawn Achor, HBR writer, says:

"Stress can cause the human brain to use more of its capabilities, improve memory and intelligence, increase productivity, and even speed recovery from things like knee surgery. Research indicates that stress, even at high levels, creates greater mental toughness, deeper relationships, heightened awareness, new perspectives, a sense of mastery, a greater appreciation for life, a heightened sense of meaning, and strengthened priorities."

We hear all about the negatives of stress but rarely hear about some of the better effects. Not to mention, it's easy to tap into the benefits of stress — you just need to view it as enhancing rather than debilitating.

The results of this research don't mean that we should all strive for more stress at work. Instead, we should try to channel that energy into something that will have a more productive outcome. For example, if work issues are weighing you down, clean your house as a way of harnessing the energy of your frustrations and putting it to good use. Other great outlets include exercising and organizing your clutter.

Apparently, there is statistical evidence that shows you have a higher chance of ending up in certain types of jobs depending on your birth month, a study by the Office for National Statistics in the UK finds. The month you're born in can have some effect on life outcomes. The reason for that isn't due to horoscopes, but seasonal interferences, according to Oxford neuroscientist Russell Foster.

“It seems absurd the month in which you are born can affect life chances, but how long you live, how tall you are, how well you do at school, your body mass index as an adult, your morning-versus-evening preference and how likely you are to develop a range of diseases are all correlated to some extent with the time of year in which you emerge from the womb,” Foster says.

Here are some of the characteristics or careers of people born in different months:

• January: Debt collectors and general practitioners
• February: Artists and traffic wardens.
• March: Pilots and musicians.
• April: Dictators.
• May: Politicians.
• June: CEOs and Nobel prize winners.
• July: Bricklayers, train drivers, and artists.
• August: Bricklayers and US presidents.
• September: Athletes and physicists.
• October: Centenarians or people who live really long lives.
• November: Serial killers and schizophrenics.
• December: Dentists and messiahs.

As a September baby, the list isn't very accurate because the only athletic ability I seem to have is working out my mouth muscles during meals. Do these examples ring true for you?

Strawberries aren't just delicious; they may also help fight certain kinds of cancer. A preliminary study suggests that strawberries could potentially prevent esophageal cancer.

Oncologists at Ohio State University showed that freeze-dried strawberries, when dissolved in a glass of water twice a day for six months, slowed the growth of precancerous lesions among subjects. Although the study employed the use of freeze-dried strawberries, researchers suggested people can still benefit from eating fresh strawberries on a daily basis.

These findings challenge a European study that shows higher fruit intake doesn't change cancer risk. Still, I'll take an excuse to eat more strawberries; they're delicious and in season. Would added health benefits inspire you to eat more fruit?

A lot of people figure that since retirement is eons away, they have more than enough time to start saving for it. This might cause them to push it off to yet another day.

Stanford researchers have nipped this procrastination problem in the bud by experimenting with a virtual reality world which assigns an avatar to participants that looks and acts like an older, more aged version of themselves. Findings show that young participants whose avatars were aged said they would save twice the amount of their peers who didn't view elderly versions of themselves.

This might mean more creative ways to incentivize people to save. For example, the Wall Street Journal suggests the possibility of retirement advisers morphing their client's picture in order to encourage them to put more money in their 401k.

If you want to test out this theory on yourself, you can check out the neat little app called AgingBooth (99 cents) on iTunes. As you can see from the picture in this post — I tried it out for myself. I'm not sure what kind of effect it'll have on my attitude towards saving, but I definitely feel an immediate urge to take better care of my skin.

When you tweet, who are you talking to? New research from Yahoo looks at Twitter's 20,000 top users (which it calls "elite users"), who make up about half of the content on Twitter. Researchers broke down these 20,000 users into four categories: celebrities, bloggers, media outlets, and organizations.

Interestingly, research found that while media organizations make up the most Twitter content (think links to articles and content), their tweets only account for about 15 percent of what ordinary Twitter users are reading (though they have been proven to heavily influence trending topics).

Additionally, the research found that users within the four popular categories often interacted only with other users in that category — celebs interact most with other celebs, media organizations with other media organizations. The one major exception: bloggers tended to retweet content across a variety of categories. It also found that world news, US news, and sports news were the most popular tweets and also those with the widest reach.

Most of you — 84 percent — said that March Madness betting is all in good fun, in a recent poll. But did you know that the enjoyment you get while watching the college basketball games will be reduced if you're betting on the outcome? In fact, it even "ruins it for many people," says Stephen Nowlis, professor of marketing at Washington University. Fortune cites Nowlis:

It's basic psychology, he says: lay down a bet for a team to win, and you'll feel jittery and anxious as you watch. We are our own worst enemies.

Everyone may have conflicting opinions about Nowlis's theory. Those who participate (but aren't in it to win) in a betting pool can probably laugh off their losses more easily than those who take it seriously. If you have money on the line, seeing your favored team losing will probably hit you more negatively. What do you think — does betting take the fun away from March Madness?

When times are bad, quitting your job (even if you hate it) isn't an option. After all, how are you going to pay off your bills without income? Even though a steady pay will ease some of the stress in your life, an Australian study found that the mental health of people working "bad jobs" is worse or on par with those who are unemployed.

A factor that contributes to job dissatisfaction is feeling insecure about your job position, according to family and community medicine professor Joseph Grzywacz, who teaches at the Wake Forest Medical School. We've seen how rough the life of temping can be through the adventures of SavvySugar Community member lilmissjobhunter. She recently faced a tough blow when she discovered that her employer didn't even consider hiring her full-time although she put a lot of hope and energy into her temp job. Going forward, job insecurity is going to be more prevalent as most of the new jobs being added are for temp work.

If a company wants to work to create a happier work environment, it should create more flexible leave policies, says Grzywacz. And as an employee, it doesn't hurt to ask for more vacation days if you need a break — read my tips on how to negotiate for more PTO.

If you hate your job, do you find it weighing down on you mentally? And how do you deal with it?

Next time you're trying to figure out which stock will give you the best ROI or return on investment, maybe you'd better ask your neighborhood pigeon. Rats will do, too.

Past research from Dartmouth showed that the rodents and birds made better predictions of random events than humans. But how do you shed your human inhibitions and pick stocks like an animal? First of all, just because everyone is buying something, don't get caught up in it and jump on the bandwagon. Try your best to not let outside influences affect you. Next, don't overthink it. Humans are overconfident in their ability to interpret patterns, so don't let your insistence on being right cloud your judgment.