I think and write a lot about stress. I think it’s probably because I’m always stressed out. I wake up to 50 or so e-mails in the morning, handle calls and internal and external meetings in the mornings, and then work through projects and problems in the afternoons and evenings. Even in the evening and over the weekends, my mind is still consumed with work, whether I’m in front of my MacBook or not. It’s not that I’m complaining or impassioned about my work, it’s that I’m passionate to a fault, passionate to a point where I feel like I can’t breathe sometimes without the weight of work on my chest. It’s part being the owner and CEO of a busy small business in a down economy, part the cost of high-intensity projects.

My life drives my work and my work is driving my life. This year, I’ve been working round-the-clock to reduce stress and to nix avoidable stressful elements and activities out of my life. Whether via time management, additional resources, narrowing focus, or saying “no” to certain projects, the goal has been to filter what comes in so that what comes out is the highest quality from the right paradigm. Why does it seem that though there is light at the end of the tunnel, stress is still as prevalent as ever?

There’s certainly some things that are unavoidable. Deadlines. Employee illness. The economy. In my opinion, you have to put your head up and dive right in to the task to chip the bulk of the stress away by sheer force. Other times, you have to prioritize stresses, dealing with the biggest problems first. And still other times, you have to call on the troops or step back to gain perspective on the situation.

If you’re a high-strung individual, a perfectionist, struggle with OCD tendencies, or always feel stressed out, don’t just try to shoot for vacations or allocate time for doing nothing at all. It doesn’t always work for me and may not always work for you. Instead, funnel your energy into a distracting and rewarding activity. Maybe hanging out with some friends over drinks, visiting a theme park, or sky-diving. The point is, funnel your energy towards exercise, activities, and distractions when you need a break. Otherwise, you’re time spent “relaxing” and doing nothing will turn into you sitting on the couch feeling even more overwhelmed and held by a downward spiral of negative energy, while your pile of stress feels like it’s growing by the minute while you’re not doing anything about it!

If you have stress in common with me, let’s both take solace in that we can overcome and persevere. As humans, we have a remarkable ability to supersede our own fears and worries. Stress and worry are byproducts of passion, commitment, values, and hard work. It’s our natural response to help us elevate to deal with problems. In the words of Devlyn Steele of ToolsToLife, “remove ‘problems’ from your vocabulary; problems are simply opportunities.” Opportunities to get a new job, step up to the plate and earn respect, get involved in a better relationship, or learn something important.

Don’t just take my advice, here’s a few more ways of reducing your stress: 1, 2, 3, 4

-RB

Starting off the festivities, Thursday night was the fantastic Twiistup 4 at the Viceroy in Santa Monica, which certainly lived up to expectation, what with smart people, good conversation and walking on water (yes, it’s ok to be jealous).

Other highlights of the night included:

• BookRenter.com
  My only qualms with these guys is that they failed to show up when we needed them most. Where were you when shelling money we didn’t have for textbooks was a constant headache that had to be dealt with every semester?! Oh well, the cost of getting an education just got a little more affordable and the future’s certainly the better for it.
• AOL
  If you’ve been under the impression that AOL, like Microsoft, has over-stayed its welcome and is on its way out, something about the list of tools they have available on their ad network may lead you to want to rethink that position (apart from the phenomenal Winamp, other tools include Mapquest, Truveo, Bebo, userplane, goowy and sphere).
• ADISN.com
  Break-ups aren’t always bad events and these guys encourage you to break up with your ad network purely for your own good. Their “Break Up With Your Ad Network” cd is packed full of songs that make break-ups seem appealing and will certainly soften the break-up process.
• Phonevite
  Simply put, phone invitations on the go. Gone are the days when inviting the poker clan or changing event venues meant calling a looong list of people. Sign in, setup, record your message and you’re good to go! How many steps was that again
• Minggl
  Minggl is a social interaction manager that creates a relationship layer over the social web. The Minggl toolbar makes it easy to manage information, communication, and navigation across social networks
• ToolsToLife.com
  Voted the Twiistup Showoff Winner, this social networking website offers compelling self-improvement programs wrapped around a supportive social network. This site really excels in value-driven social networking and in our opinion represents the evolution of social networking in the coming days. We enjoyed speaking to Marketing Director Greg Johnson about this remarkable start-up.
• Twiddla.com
  A free, no-setup, web-based meeting playground. Mark up websites, graphics, and photos, or start brainstorming on a blank canvas. Browse the web with your friends or make that conference call more productive than ever. No plug-ins, downloads, or firewall voodoo – it’s all there, ready to go when you are. Browser-agnostic, user-friendly. WebEx, GoToMeeting, be warned!
• Project: Possibility
  Project: Possibility demoed under the banner of the USC innovation booth and is a nonprofit, community service project committed to creating groundbreaking open source software for persons with disabilities. Their mission is to inspire a community of persons with disabilities and software developers to work together and make a difference by inventing software that will unlock new areas of life for persons with disabilities, giving them access to experiences previously impossible to achieve.

We also enjoyed a compelling conversation with John Olsen of Liforia (stay tuned for this up-and-coming breakthrough concept in social networking) and doing an interview with Jennifer Stavros of TechZulu (and writer of a compelling sex/relationships blog to boot). Not to mention numerous free t-shirts, NeoHire’s hooka, and some interesting and enlightening conversations with some interesting people (you know who you are!).

Friday brought Social Media Camp and Mashable’s SummerMash. Talk about a full, long day!

Friday’s highlights brought along Erica O’Grady’s refreshing talk at Social Media Camp on what social networking is, where it’s going and the awesomeness of things like twitter (if you don’t use twitter, try it before you knock it and follow @ bushmanbill and @ epsilonc while you’re at it).

The following rabble-rousers also stood out during the weekend’s festivities:

• Freshbooks.com
  These guys have made invoices and time tracking sexy again (not that they ever were, but you get the point). Here’s a question for you: How the hell do you get 25 people to eat dinner with you because you run the website they use to invoice their clients? Here’s your answer: Give a shit, be passionate and make love to your customers (their words, not mine). Every time. We got the chance to hear them share about the way they work, their passion for invoices and how they listen to their customers. These guys wrote the book on engaging clients.
• Collarfree.com
  It’s true that by the time you read this, we’ll probably be rocking Collar Frees. And why not? They pay their designers well and offered us a 20% discount (because we went to Social Media Camp). They also use a cool voting style (a la HotorNot) and like Ayn Rand, which is never a bad thing.
• Yoono
  Now here’s a Firefox add-on you should not browse without. In a single browser sidebar, Yoono users can interact with the best of the Web more than ever before by discovering, communicating, and sharing with friends across multiple networks and platforms all in one place. You are now free to stop wasting time checking for updates and using up bandwidth by keeping multiple tabs open.
• RockNRollDating.com
  This upstart social network connects all you fans of punk, goth, metal, indie rock, stoner rock, jam bands, and you name it so you can find each other, catch live music, and perhaps even fall in love. Owner Daniel House explained the concept of the site to us and we think it rocks!T

The SummerMash was hosted at Rubicon Project’s trendy headquarters and featured the suave smooth social media celeb Pete Cashmore, a thirst-quenching open bar, and a swarm of tech hipsters. We also enjoyed chatting with the uber-funny Hayden Black of Goodnight Burbank and Abigail’s X-Rated Teen Diary.

SummerMash official pictures will be posted here and for SoCal tech/social media event interviews/coverage, check out TechZulu. And stay tuned for feedback on Digital Drinks happening today, July 21st and Social Media Club’s event on Monday, July 28th. We’ll be there so say hi if you see us and we’ll be writing updates about the events for those that don’t live in Tinseltown or can’t make the events. Until then, good afternoon, good evening, and good night!