7 Tips to Make Your Workday More Enjoyable
7 Tips to Make Your Workday More Enjoyable. If you’ve got an efficient routine at work, your workday will go faster. (Or at least it will feel faster; no matter how efficient you are it’s unlikely you’ll actually change the flow of time! But still, feeling faster is good enough.) This realization led to another: people want to improve their time at work. Here are seven tips I thought of on my lunch break to help you do just that:
1. Personalize your workspace:
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If you work in the same dull, grey space every day, chances are you’ll grow tired of it and inspiration / motivation will not be forthcoming.
This can easily be remedied by sticking up some photos, or excerpts from magazines, or putting a figurine on your desk, or a blu-tack dinosaur, or anything that will provide gentle distraction from the monotony.
2. Build rapport with your co-workers:
These are the people you’ll be with for 8 or 9 hours, 5 days a week. If they’re unknown, distant figures, you’ll have no one to talk to on breaks, no one to run ideas past before implementing them, and no one to mooch a ride home from.
If they’re approachable, friendly figures, you’ll be able to do all these things and more. All it takes is an occasional offer to make coffee, or maybe leaving some sweets / cake / cookies out for people to delve into.
3. Keep it varied!:
Slogging away at the same task for eight hours isn’t fun, unless you have a very, very enjoyable job. My guess is that most of us don’t have such a job, and so a good trick to keep the tedium at bay is to vary (as much as your job allows) what you’re doing every once in a while. Got some emails to send?
Do that in the middle of the big report you’re writing rather than at the end. This is also great for fighting off procrastination, as your wandering thoughts will be directed somewhere productive rather than leading you to Facebook.
4. Set yourself targets:
No doubt you’ll have targets already, but setting yourself smaller sub-targets can be a great way to motivate yourself to work and get the feeling that you’re achieving something tangible.
There’s a psychological phenomenon called Flow which involves becoming fully involved in a task, to the degree that you lose track of time and become more efficient; small, easily measurable (and achievable!) goals are one of the ways to hit this state.
5. Stay relaxed:
Stress makes everything seem harder and makes time drag even more than it probably already is. Don’t let it affect you: simple things like keeping hydrated (with water, not coffee / coke / juice), taking deep breaths, and maintaining a good posture can exponentially improve your mood whilst working.
6. Plan your breaks:
Time off the clock should be savored, but all too often it goes to waste as you read through some banal content that caught your interest earlier, or stare vacantly into space.
Plan a walk to a nearby sandwich shop for a nice lunch and think about something not related to work on the way. Maybe get a couple of jobs on your to-do list done as well? Then you’ll go back to work feeling good that you’ve invested your free time in a sensible, productive way.
7. Switch off before and after work:
Keeping a distinction between your work mindset and your home mindset is important. Try not to think about work too much while you’re at home, and vice versa; this will allow you to gain more from each part of your life.
When you’re in the car / bus / train on the way to work, read a book or do something else to keep your mind off the impending slog. When you’re at work, try to keep all thoughts of being at home at bay because they’ll distract you and amplify any boredom you’re experiencing.
Hopefully with these tips you’ll be able to enjoy your day at work just that little bit more!
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