If your child wakes from a bad dream or nightmare, be sure to respond quickly to her calls, and calmly and lovingly reassure her that you are there for her, and that she is safe. It can be tough for children to distinguish between the real feelings that they experience in their dreams and reality. Your calm presence will help relax your child, and will help her realize that she was just dreaming. Your child may be confused when he first wakes from a bad dream, and needs to know what just happened. He may be worried that there is still a bad guy in the house, for example, so you need to quickly help him figure out that he was dreaming. Tell him, "You had a bad dream, but I'm here, it's gone, and you're ok." Explain to your child that everyone has bad dreams, and that you know how scary they can be. Even though you want your child to get over her fear, be careful not to dismiss it, and let her know that it's ok to be scared and upset as a result of having a bad dream. With younger children in particular, you may have good results getting your child to fall back asleep if you prepare magic "potions" or "spells" to cast away the demons, monsters, or bad dreams. Prepare a monster spray (water in a decorated spray bottle) or good dream dust that you can sprinkle around the room. If after talking together and cuddling your child is still nervous about falling back to sleep, she may be calmed if you provide her with a special stuffed animal or toy whose special job it is to protect your child from bad dreams. Have a special talk with "Mr. Hippo," for example, and remind the toy that he needs to help your child have good dreams and chase away all of the bad dreams. If your child is nervous about falling back to sleep, take some time to talk about what she'd like to dream about instead. Create a story with your child as the "star" and her friends or toys as the other players in the dream: what are they going to do together when she falls back asleep? Add plenty of details, and don't rush the story. With luck, your child will fall asleep during the story and will continue it as she dreams. This can give your child something to focus on as he tries to fall back asleep, and can mask any "scary" sounding noises from a quiet house. Prompt him to think about the story the music is telling, or ask him to describe what he sees when he listens to the music: does he see a magic forest, or twinkling stars, for example? Help him come up with soothing visualizations to match the music, and he may become more relaxed and less likely to return to his bad dream. Your child may not be willing to share the scary details of his dream when he first wakes up, and you shouldn't press him if he's reluctant. See if he's ready to talk about it in the morning, though. This can also be a good opportunity for you to figure out if your child's bad dream was a normal occurrence or if it's a symptom of bigger problem, such as anxiety about school or friends or depression. During the day, your child may be open to talking about her bad dream in more detail. Encourage her to rewrite the dream with a happier ending, or to revise it so that she is able to defeat all of the monsters or bad guys. This can make her feel less vulnerable to her dreams in general and give her back a sense of control and power. If your child's bad dreams or nightmares become recurrent, you should check in with the pediatrician. Do this especially if your child's sleep is being negatively affected or if you see other emotional or behavioral problems. It may also be a good idea to see if your child has been struggling in school or is having problems with friends. This could be an underlying source of the bad dreams. Also, even if your child just seems to be going through a phase, it's a good idea to let her teacher know that she hasn't been sleeping as well lately in case it may be affecting her behavior or performance at school. Keeping her teacher in the loop can help protect your child from being subjected to added stress at school.
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One-sentence summary -- Be reassuring. Label the experience. Empathize with your child. Chase away the monsters (or the bad dreams). Provide your child with a protector. Try planning your child's dreams. Play soft, relaxing music. Talk to your child in the morning. Help your child rewrite her dreams. Talk to your child's doctor. Talk to your child's teachers and/or school counselors.

Find out when status reports are due, and carve out some time each day to work on your report. That way you won't be rushing to try to do it at the last minute. If you're working on an ongoing project, you can create a "template" for your status reports that you'll use each time. This will be much easier for your manager, because they'll know exactly where to find the information they need in each report. If you need to update figures included in the report before you turn it in, leave yourself reminders to do so. Organize your report so that the things you know are important to your manager are front and center. If you're unsure about your manager's style and preferences, ask to see examples of previous status reports that they liked. For example, if you know your manager likes to read a chronological story, you might start with a section headed "This Week's Progress," followed by another labeled "What's Next." If you're submitting a digital file of your report, you can include links to websites or even GIFs and videos, if appropriate. However, if you're submitting a hard copy, these elements won't be useful. You may also want to consider how your status report will be read. For example, if you're sending a digital file using email, you might want to make sure any visual elements can be viewed on a mobile device. and edit your report. Don't just rely on the spelling and grammar checkers in your word processing app. Keep your sentences short, and eliminate unnecessary words and repetition. Your writing should be concise and direct. Avoid using a lot of jargon, which can make it seem like you're trying to hide something or don't know what you're talking about. Read your report aloud. If you stumble over a sentence, that's a clue that your writing is not as clear as it could be. Some managers prefer visual cues as to how a project is doing so they can more quickly assess the project's status. Only include visual elements if you were specifically asked to do so, or if you think they would add something to the report. For example, you might put a green traffic light next to the budget, to indicate that costs were being managed well. If you're a little behind schedule, you would put a yellow light next to the scheduling section.
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One-sentence summary --
Start your report early to give yourself more time. Tailor your report to your manager's style. Optimize your report based on the method of delivery. Proofread Create visual elements, if desired.