TEL AVIV – The air-raid sirens woke me up in the morning. My eyes flashed open in bed in my top-floor apartment here in Israel’s high-tech capital as the warning sounds echoed throughout the neighborhood and signaled that I had fifteen seconds to take shelter in my building’s stairwell.

The former journalist in me wanted to capture the moment, so I hit “record” on my smartphone and ran to safety. One minute later, the sirens stopped – and then I heard, what Israelis call, “the boom.” Followed by four more in rapid succession. The Israeli military had taken out five rockets that had been close to the center of the city after having been fired from the Gaza Strip. (You can listen to my audio file here.)

I am not writing this article to discuss politics and Middle East affairs. There are many places online to do that. People on any side: Please do not be provocative in the comments below. Here, I wanted to reflect on some ways that “Operation Protective Edge” has affected my work life as air-raid sirens and mid-air interception explosions are happening several times a day here.

Identify the actual severity. Journalism was my first career before I moved into digital marketing in the aftermath of the Great Recession and the decline of print media. So, I can confirm that a lot of news reports – especially in a lot of what passes for “news” today – are sensationalized and distorted. I would not be surprised if people around the world think that missiles are raining down on Tel Aviv and destroying everything in sight.

But that’s not actually the case. As stressful and psychologically harmful as it is to hear air-raid sirens and explosions in the sky every few hours, there is very little physical damage. According to the Israeli government, roughly 90 percent of incoming rockets from Gaza are intercepted by Israel’s Iron Dome anti-missile technology (pictured above) – as you can see in this example news report on You Tube:

Most of the rest land in uninhabited, open areas – the Israeli military tracks the incoming trajectories and lets those ones fall because each Iron Dome intercept costs approximately $100,000.

Have Crisis Plans in Advance. What the level of this situation’s severity means is that the current actions – at least as of the time of writing – are not extremely perilous to Israelis. People are not fleeing the country. Work here, for the most part, continues normally – except that staffs may need to head to the bomb shelters in their buildings every few hours for a few minutes. It is important to do an accurate risk assessment in any situation and understand the exact severity free of any fear or sensationalistic news reports.

If the situation were to deteriorate further here, businesses may want to pay employees to take taxis to work rather than public transportation. Perhaps they would encourage everyone to work from home. It is important to have crisis plans in advance for any potential situation.

Adjust and Pivot. When terrorists started using suicide bombings during the Second Intifada of the early 2000s, there were common tactics. They would usually explode themselves on the first floors of malls or at the front of buses after boarding. So, parents would tell their children to hang out only on the upper floors of malls, and people would try to sit at the back of buses.

Here in Tel Aviv today, I often meet with current and potential clients at cafes. (Israel has a wonderful café culture that is explained more in-depth in this Jerusalem Post article in English.) Usually, we would sit at outside tables on the sidewalk. Right now, however, we move to inside the buildings as far away from the windows as possible because of the possible rockets. Some people I know are walking more or taking taxis to work or meetings. Personally, I still take the bus – there has not been a successful suicide bombing since 2008.

Go Mobile. The Internet, cloud technology, and more has enabled people to work from practically anywhere. When rockets started heading towards Tel Aviv for the first time – during the previous war with Gaza in late 2012 – friends of mine invited me to stay with them in Jerusalem (roughly 45 minutes east). So, I packed a small bag, my laptop, and a notebook and caught the last bus to the Holy City before public transportation closed for the Sabbath on Friday evening. I worked from my friend’s couch for two weeks. Right now, Israelis are also using various mobile apps to get warnings of incoming fire.

Don’t Fall Victim to Bad Habits

Whenever such events happen wherever you are in the world, I’d suggest keeping these tips in mind:

Keep a Sense of Humor. A 2012 YouTube video “Sh*t That Tel Aviv People Say During an Attack” has been making the Israeli rounds on Facebook again (the video is in Hebrew with English subtitles). Try to laugh as much as possible – actually, that’s a good rule for life in general. Live Healthily. It’s all too easy to resort to crutches such as cigarettes, alcohol, drugs, or junk food during times of stress. Stay healthy and active as much as possible. I still take walks around my Tel Aviv neighborhood – but always keeping close to buildings to enter when the sirens go off. Keep Connected to Loved Ones. Whenever I get a notification that sirens have sounded in a friend’s city, I send a quick text message to make sure that he or she is OK. I’ll make a call or send a message once a day to others just to make sure that they are all right in general. Millions of Israelis are doing the same thing. Let Employees Take Sanity Time Off. If you are a boss, keep the long-term picture in mind. Putting off some tasks in exchange for preserving the mental health of your staffers will benefit you in the long run.

Unfortunately, there are too many parts of the world in which people cannot live and work easily most of time. I’d love to hear what people do at work during periods of extreme stress – please feel free to comment and discuss below!

Samuel Scott is Senior Director of SEO & Digital Marketing for The Cline Group. You can see more of his thoughts on Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn, and Facebook. Scott’s personal website is here, and he is a contributor to Moz.