Work takes up a large portion of your day, so how you feel about it affects your everyday mood, motivation, productivity, and outlook in life.
How you increase productivity at work affects your overall well being and state of mind which affects your happiness in your current job.
- Lend a helping hand
While healthy competition is helpful for motivation and bringing out your potential, it is important to help out a colleague in need of help, or to teach and share your talents to newbies.
Even if your help is not always noticed, do not let it discourage you from making it a habit. You will do well-making friends and connections throughout your career. Fostering emerging talent will also earn you loyal, highly-skilled people.
2. Keep things organised and clean
Studies show that living surrounded by clutter leads to depression and higher stress levels. How you organise your working space also affects your performance and the quality of your output.
Here are some steps to a cleaner, more organised work environment:
Utilise your calendar and sticky notes to keep track of your daily tasks and progress so you can adjust accordingly and finish your work. Allocate a few minutes of your break daily to clean and reorganise your work area.
3. Remind yourself of your goals
Think long term and look at the bigger picture. Remember why you took that job in the first place. Do you need to pay the bills? Are you saving up for a business idea or investment? Are you doing the work to train yourself and learn about the industry?
Focus on it when getting to work becomes a difficult chore. Treat the struggles, failures, and mistakes as your training ground in order to be highly skilled and knowledgeable in your field.
4. Set standards for yourself
It does not do well to stress yourself too much; however, never get too comfortable and laidback. Keep aiming high and pushing yourself to do your best and contribute as much as you can.
Learn to find the joy in being productive and doing great work, even if it means doing tasks you do not really like or enjoy.
5. Keep yourself grounded
You are unhappy with your job because you think you deserve something better than your current job. While this might be a sign to look for a new job, there are some who take this sense of entitlement too far.
What’s problematic is false entitlement can sink you lower than get you high up your career ladder.
6. Keep yourself busy
Unhappiness in the workplace can come from over-thinking and boredom. One solution is to keep yourself occupied with your tasks and projects.
Even when you are stuck in a job you hate, see the value in the experience itself and how it can hone your skills and patience and make you stronger, both as a professional and as an individual.
If you find that your work is not that time-consuming and leaves you time to spare, find a hobby you enjoy and practise it during your free time.
7. Build healthy relationships with co-workers/employees
Even when you despair going to work and doing things you find boring, having friends at work can motivate you to get through the day.
Tips on improving your relationships at work:
Be positive. Keep encouraging and praise them when credit is due. Provide constructive criticisms, not the ones that are only meant to put them down.
Remember that communication works two ways: you not only talk, but listen. Many seem to find the latter much more difficult, but if you want to minimise misunderstandings and arguments, hearing what others have to say is highly important.
It will greatly affect how you work together and how you produce your outputs individually.
8. Exercise regularly
Exercising is more than a way of losing weight, getting fit and keeping your body in shape. When you exercise, your body produces and releases brain-derived neurotrophic factors. This protein enhances your learning process and memory.
Working out increases your alertness and allows better blood circulation to your brain. It also helps improve your mental health as it triggers the production of “happy chemicals” in your body and reduces stress levels significantly. If you want to lessen your sick leaves, exercising can also help you at that.
Exercising means improved physical and mental health and enhanced sleep, better sleep means a better mood and more energy at work, and better mood and higher levels of energy and creativity lead to increased productivity.
This article first appeared in The New Savvy.
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