If you're like my friends and family you probably fit into two buckets: Those who've been laid off and those who haven't but survived a round or two.

If you're one of those who've survived a round or two you probably flinch a bit when the boss calls you into her office. Wonder: "is it my turn?"

That's a tough way to live and it saps you of the optimism necessary to come up with creative ideas to help keep the business afloat. The worst thing you can do for your career is worry about getting laid off or, in you're an entrepreneur, just wonder when the other shoe will drop on your business.

We all fall into the depression trap. When I came back from the World Economic Forum I was in a funk. The world leaders and economists freaked me out. Why? Because they were almost always doom and gloom and didn't have any creative ideas to how we'd dig out of this hole. So, maybe this post is a bit for them.

I'm hoping to start a conversation about techniques you've found to help you get moving again after you've had some disappointments at work, or you've survived a round of layoffs and now are dealing with an increased workload and struggling to keep your spirits up.

I've been making the rounds of a bunch of optimistic companies in Silicon Valley and here's some techniques that I've gathered:

Clean your office and do a thorough reorganization. I did that just last week and it's amazing how much better I feel now that I've gotten rid of the clutter and got everything laid out in a much nicer arrangement. Some tips: if you haven't touched it in four months, get rid of it, or, at minimum, put it in a box and get it out of your sight. Think about your health, too, and try to bring your office up to good ergonomic standards.

Get a coach. I'm doing that myself. Tomorrow a coach from David Allen's company (he's the guy who wrote "Getting Things Done" will be here--I'll write about the tips I learned in a future blog). If you don't have money to hire a coach, seek out someone smart in your life who isn't connected with your job and see if they'll do some mentoring. Often people are very willing to do this and I've always learned something, even if it's just an evening session over beers talking about your career goals and such.

Change your music. As part of my office reorganization I finally hooked up that speaker system that I had purchased but hadn't installed. Along with that came some new music and some new podcasts. My mood is a lot more creative and thanks to the podcasts I'm actually learning some new things I can use to improve my productivity on my job.

Learn a new tool. If you spend all day long in Microsoft Excel, why don't you try out Zoho's Office Suite or Google's Spreadsheets. They will probably be frustrating to use, but you might see a way to increase your productivity and, even better, you will be ahead of the office and can show others how they can collaborate with you using these new technologies. Other things to try? Yammer, which, if you get your coworkers onto it will let you chat with them in a way that's similar to Facebook's status messages or Twitter. This will help get everyone working together. Or, try Basecamp or SocialText's new system. Trick is to find a new tool every week to keep your skills up to date, which will give you something to talk to your boss about and will keep your mind off of the probability of more layoffs.

Listen. This is tough cause it isn't fun to listen to people who are demanding you change or do more work. Bosses right now are under severe stress and are probably sending signals of what they need to do in the business in the next few weeks or else there'll be more layoffs. So, listen to the boss and see if you can help them fix the problems they are seeing. Other ways to listen? Go see customers you haven't seen in a while. Learn what's bugging them and fix it. Or, listen for a new need they are having and see if you can fill it.

Play an expense cutting game. Can you find a way to save the company some money? Right now if you can find ways to cut expenses you'll be a hero. When I worked at Microsoft I played this game, even during the good times -- I stayed with my friend in the Las Vegas hostel which saved Microsoft a couple hundred bucks. Of course, that was too much, I only lasted one evening there, but the next evening I shared a room with three guys, which still was saving money -- all while my coworkers were staying in $500 a night rooms by themselves. Anyway, this is a game I play with myself and it's generally paid off. Even now, I'm using $200 camcorders from Creative, Kodak, and Flip instead of the more expensive camcorders that most professional video crews are using.

Do one thing different every week. Find something that's "always been done that way" and see if you can find a new way to do it. You might not succeed, but this is how innovations happen and you might discover a much better way -- and a more productive way -- to do your job.

Look for a paradigm shift and jump on. The hottest companies in Silicon Valley are the ones like Playfish or AdMob. Playfish makes games for Facebook and AdMob built an advertising network for the iPhone. Both are doing well. Why? They hooked onto a paradigm shift that happened just last year. I notice that Google is getting more headlines lately because they've been shipping a ton of new services for cell phones. Their employees have learned that the easiest way to get a big bang is to hook onto a paradigm shift underway.

Go for a walk and start taking care of your health. I'm horrible at doing this, but when I get away from the computer for a while and take a walk I start thinking clearly again and get a new perspective on life.

Improve your diet. A few weeks back I learned I have an inherited kidney disease. My doctor said that I can no longer eat red meat or drink Diet Coke. Both things I loved -- when under stress I would love to go to In-n-Out and get a cheeseburger and Diet Coke. But now that I've been forced to give those up I find I'm more energetic and more creative.

Help out in a new way. The photo on this post is of Digg's CEO and founder Kevin Rose, who was moving chairs for an event. It reminds me that we all need to look for ways to help each other out and that no job should be beneath you. I remember walking into iLike in its early days and found the CEO on the floor putting together an air conditioner. Is that the kind of "can do" spirit that you are exuding? That's one way to avoid a layoff next time they start looking for ways to cut back.

Well, I know this isn't a fun time, but do you have some ways that you pick yourself up off the floor after the economy body slammed you and get going again? Please leave a comment and let's have a fun conversation.