Can't focus? Take a break

Sharon McRill, owner of Ann Arbor-based Betty Brigade, recently returned from four days of lounging on the lanai, reading novels and sharing home-cooked meals with her husband at her mother's place outside Orlando.

She hadn't chosen to be there. Her employees ordered her to go.

"My staff told me I needed to be less stressed. They insisted I unplug for one full weekend a month — don't answer the phone, look at e-mail or get near a computer," said McRill, 44, a former Web developer whose business provides personal services for busy people. "We grabbed a cheap flight, and my mother took care of us. I came back revitalized."

Since she started taking her employees' advice in July, sales have gone up 20 percent, and her ability to draw up business plans and plot new services has improved. The time off helps her to be more productive and focused. These are useful qualities, considering the pressure she's under.

Plans are under way to franchise her business, begun in 2003, to investors in 15 states, and her 10-member staff is preparing to move to a larger Ann Arbor location. Betty Brigade is on track to bring in $250,000 in sales this year, McRrill said.

The change in habit required trusting her staff more, but it was worth it, she said.

"When I came down (to Florida), I could hardly talk, I was so exhausted," McRill said.

The irony for McRill is that one of the goals of her service is to help creative professionals gain back some of the time they spend on chores and errands. And she had left her previous job at Borders Group Inc. to seek something more creative and fun.

She needed to become her own best customer.

Northville-based Donna Marie, 58, is a certified psychotherapist who consults with businesspeople on dealing with stress. She said when people don't work with their fears in healthy ways, they can suffer a raft of physical problems and run the risk of turning to substance abuse.

"The simplest, most effective thing you can do for yourself is to breathe deeply and calm your emotions," said Marie, who offers a related CD called "Relaxations for Inner Peace" on her website, www.dealwithstresstoday.com. "Each time you take a trip inside yourself, you come away feeling different, feeling in touch with your power to handle situations."

Marie worked with Westland contractor Ken Kowalski, 46, for several months when his business, Upstairs Downstairs Remodeling, was struggling.

"Anyone with a hammer, a pencil and a tape measure competes against licensed contractors with 20 years' experience and a full portfolio of finished jobs," he said.

Taking some time out helped him, and he continues to use the lessons he learned from individual counseling, making a daily gratitude list and meditating to clear his mind of anxious thoughts.

"I laugh more, and I stop thinking so much about contracts I didn't win," Kowalski said.

Kowalski expects to earn $420,000 in 2010, up from $380,000 in 2009, thanks to dealing better with frustration. He uses down time to train his regular contractors in new construction techniques and better customer service. Referrals have picked up.

"When I notice myself getting anxious, getting behind schedule, I pull my truck off the road, into a parking lot and do a series of deep breathing exercises. It calms me considerably," Kowalski said. "When I'm calm and focused, I am receptive to my clients. It fosters a winning mental attitude."

Part of the job for Jennifer Litomisky, executive director and chief fundraiser at the Ronald McDonald House at Detroit Medical Center, is tasting food prepared for fundraising events. Between the fundraisers and the stress of trying to find ways to provide low-cost meals and lodging for more than 1,200 families, she lost track of her diet and saw her weight balloon to 262 pounds.

"Parents of gravely ill children depend on us to help them," Litomisky said.

She loved her job, but her energy couldn't keep up. She turned to exercise, and her iPhone, to get her energy back up.

Lose-It!, an iPhone app, helped her track the kinds and portions of food she ate, as well as the intensity of exercise. The same phone allowed her to respond to urgent work questions while paddling a kayak on Lake Huron.

In eight months, the 47-year-old dropped eight dress sizes and distributed her large-lady clothes to charity. She received positive feedback from board members, and grants that used to come in at $10,000 are now reaching $20,000.

"The bottom line is that I get to the office feeling really good about everything, physically and mentally. I have three times the energy to tackle my job," Litomisky said.

Sustained physical exercise activates endorphins in the brain, and the result is a brighter outlook, a livelier step and greater productivity, said Paul Neuburger, who works with writers, photographers and other creative professionals. He owns Heart Smart Personal Training in Oak Park, specializing in one-on-one workouts with people over 40.

"Ironically, exercise puts great stress on the body. By ceasing that stress you feel better, more relaxed than had you not exercised. Your body responds with better range of movement, so you look better and feel better," Neuburger said.

Busy Detroiters might want to stand up and listen. Portfolio.com, an online business magazine, in a September article ranked Detroit as the country's most stressful metropolitan area.