Work can be a struggle for even the happiest, most outgoing people. The stress and demands of the workday can wear many down and make life more difficult and complicated than it needs to be. If you struggle to get motivated at work and generally feel worse there than you do anywhere else, there are a few things you can do to improve your mood and productivity. Here are seven habits you can form to make you happier at work.
Move Around
Stress is sneaky and can affect you in unforeseen ways. One element of stress is the way it can “pile up,” making you more and more stressed as you sit at your desk, clicking through your workday. To help mitigate stress and avoid feeling anxious at work, you should take frequent breaks.
Moving around helps pump blood through your system and is healthy way to activate your brain and muscles, which keeps stress at bay and keeps your body feeling healthier and happier. Whenever you start to feel stressed or worn down, simply move around the office or take a quick walk outside.
Block Out Response Times
One of the most focus-destroying tasks is responding to e-mails, especially those which are non-essential. You can help yourself focus more readily by blocking out time to respond to such e-mails, improving your concentration and giving you a more robust and concentrated workday.
Cutting out time to scroll through e-mails and respond to those which are important but not urgent will give you a natural little break throughout the day while letting you get important work done. Blocking out time will also give you incentive to finish other work first so that you can check your e-mail and respond to inquiries.
Curate a Playlist
While not every work environment is suited to listening to music while you work, popping in your headphones and listening to some of your favorite songs will go a long way in improving your mood and making you more productive.
While your comprehension may wane while listening to music, your general endurance and ability to focus on one task for a longer period will improve. If you work in an environment where listening to music is not frowned upon or out of the norm, consider making a “focusing playlist” and listening to it while at work.
Eat And Drink Regularly
Other undervalued tasks at work are eating and drinking. Eating and drinking give you the needed energy and nutrients to focus on the task at hand and work out your problems in a timely and controlled manner. Eating will also stave off hunger before lunch, which is guaranteed to put you in a better mood throughout the day and help you focus.
Hunger pangs can often distract workers and keep their mind on other things (like lunch) but eating and drinking throughout the day will mitigate these and allow you to concentrate. It’s never healthy to ignore your hunger at work, as this can actually lead to stress and panic attacks more readily.
Exercise Before Work
Many workers enjoy a nice cup of coffee, or multiple cups, before they arrive at work. While there’s nothing wrong with a cup of joe a few times a week, caffeine dependence can have negative effects on your body.
Instead of drinking a cup of coffee everyday before heading into work, you should consider stopping by the gym to exercise or simply taking a walk or jog around your neighborhood. Exercise will get your endorphins running and make you more alert and awake before you go into work, and it will also have multiple positive health outcomes on your body.
Always Clarify
One of the easiest ways to improve your life at work is clarify any task you’re given. Your managers and coworkers may mean well, but misunderstandings can still arise that complicate your workflow and make you less productive.
To avoid the stress of such misunderstandings, you should always double check instructions and never assume anything you haven’t already been told. Being upfront with your colleagues and bosses may seem a tad rude at first, but it will ultimately pay off down the road when you know exactly what you’re doing and how to do it.
Delegate Whenever Possible
Not every employee is in a position to delegate tasks that mean less to them or that they’re simply not suited for, but if you’re in a role which allows you to delegate, you should take full advantage of that position. Workers today are incredibly specialized, and odds are there’s someone at your workplace who can do the job assigned to you in a quicker and more efficient manner.
You should find multiple colleagues who are great at other tasks and, at the very least, ask for their help or input on objectives you don’t fully understand, or you’re not perfectly suited for. Asking for help is free and will greatly help you with the task at hand.