How to Be Happier at Work
1. Say good morning to everyone. Social contact is cheering!
2. Check for eyestrain by putting your hand to your forehead in a salute. If your eyes feel relieved, your work space is too bright.
3. Sit up straight with your shoulders down and get a phone headset so you’re hands-free and not cricking your neck on calls.
4. Don’t always say “yes” on the phone; instead say, “I’ll get back to you.”
5. When possible talk to people in person, particularly when the topic is important or difficult.
6. Don’t let yourself get too hungry.
7. Do let yourself stay ignorant of things you don’t need to know. (i.e. you don’t have to get involved in all the office gossip or be debriefed on every single meeting.)
8. Go outside at least once a day, and, if possible, take a walk.
9. Invest in tools that make your workspace more seamless and pleasing to you—fun pens, fancy file folders, a hook to hang that headset on.
10. Make a friend—not just a casual acquaintance to talk about your latest Netflix binge with, but someone you can tell anything who has your back (and who you can also talk about your latest Netflix binge with). People who are happiest in their jobs report having a trusted friend.
11. Spend 10 minutes at the end of every day tidying up your workspace.
THE EXPERT:
Gretchen Rubin, author of The Happiness Project, Happier at Home, Better Than Before, The Four Tendencies, Outer Order, Inner Calm, host of the award-winning podcast Happier with Gretchen Rubin, and creator of the Better app. She shares insights, strategies, stories and tips that help people understand themselves and create a happier life.
THE EXPLANATION:
When deciding whether to say “yes” to something, imagine you’re accepting a job you’ll have to do next week. Don’t agree to something just because it seems so far off that it doesn’t feel onerous. FOR MORE ON HOW TO SAY NO SEE PAGE TK. And if you feel like you have no time, think hard about how you’re spending it. Are you scrolling through Instagram? Online browsing? Doing work that’s really other people’s responsibility?
Cleaning up our workspace a bit is a great way to transition from work to non-work time. (We talk a lot about the importance of giving children transitions, but adults need them just as much!) Put books back on the book shelf, pens in the pen cup, take that invoice to the mail box. It’s a peaceful way to put a cherry on the end of the day, and then in the morning you’re so much happier because there aren’t dirty coffee mugs piled up on your desk.
In general: Take ownership of your time, and get your work done in a manner that best suits your personality and behaviors. If that means getting in early or going to a quiet space, so be it. SEE PAGE TK FOR HOW TO MANAGE INTERRUPTIONS. Most important: connect with people. Smile, say hello, ask them about their life. If you feel like you’re on good terms with the people in your office, you’ll be happier each day.
BONUS:
Having a tidy space is important but beware of “procrasti-clearing, ” that sudden urge to clean that often strikes right when you’re trying to avoid doing something else. When something that doesn’t bother you—or usually never bothers you—suddenly feels like it must be dealt with before anything else, that’s a problem. “Oh my gosh now that I have this proposal to write, I can’t possibly move forward until all the books on my bookshelf are alphabetized.” Useful preparation, which is getting yourself organized and in the zone, is great; procrasti-clearing is a form of delay and often spirals out of control.
BONUS:
Rather than just focusing on to-do lists, make a ta-da list of all the things you accomplished today. Productivity can be very important to happiness whether that means being on top of the laundry or closing a huge deal, you want to feel as though you are in an atmosphere of growth, to see that you’re making progress, learning, teaching. A ta-da list helps you feel more cognizant of and satisfied with your day (you may feel like you did nothing but hey, look! you did do some things!) Ta-da lists are also a great exercise at the end of the year, if you have the discipline. (Whip out your calendar to help with this one). There may have been days or even weeks when you felt unproductive, but when you look back at a whole year it’s staggering to see how much you did do.