This post is by Ali Luke of Aliventures.
Maybe you’re working at a day job which isn’t really “you”. You’re doing it for the money, until something better comes along.
Or maybe you enjoy your work. You’re in a career you love, or you work for yourself. Even so, you still have days when you just want to stay in bed.
Even mundane, low-paid jobs have their good moments. It’s just a matter of finding them. So rather than daydreaming (yet again) about quitting, here are fifteen ways to enjoy your work a bit more.
Focus on you
If you’re not taking care of yourself, you’ll find your motivation dropping towards rock-bottom. Sometimes, enjoying your work means making sure that the rest of life is going strong.
- Get enough sleep. If you’re regularly feeling tired and groggy, you’ll be struggling to get through your work at all – let alone enjoy it. Try shutting down the computer at 9pm, and reading a book for the rest of the evening; you’ll find it much easier to drop off.
- Avoid excessive drinking. If you’re feeling bored or stressed at work, it might be tempting to head straight to the bar every evening – but a hangover isn’t going to make you feel any better the next morning.
- Improve your work space. Is your desk cluttered? Is your office drab and uninspiring? Just tidying up, and perhaps finding some nice wall art, will give you a much nicer working environment.
- Think positively. Sure, maybe it’s just a “day job” and you’d rather be at home writing your novel. But referring to work as “cubical hell” or to yourself as a “wage-slave” is only going to make you feel worse.
- Get enough downtime. That probably doesn’t mean napping on the job – but if you run your own business or work long hours for an employer, make sure you’re taking enough time to rest and recharging.
Focus on someone else
Sometimes, it’s much easier to find motivation for your work when you start thinking about the people who you can help. They might be clients, colleagues or even your boss.
- Go the extra mile. Perhaps a customer emails and asks for help. You could just point them towards the online documentation – but, from their email, you suspect they’ll struggle to find the information that they need. Take an extra five minutes to guide them through it.
- Say “thank you”. If you’re in charge of a team, or have subordinates reporting to you, remember that a “thank you” can mean a lot more than a paycheck. It also helps you to get into a more appreciative mindset.
- Think about who you’re helping. In almost any job, you’re helping someone. Perhaps you fix bugs in software. It might seem dull at times – but by solving those problems, you’re making sure that the software’s users have a great experience.
- Give a colleague a hand. Maybe you’re bored at work because you don’t have enough to do. It’s pretty likely that someone else in the office is feeling under pressure and would love some help. What could you do to make their day easier?
- Get to know people. If you don’t like your job much, you might feel that you have nothing in common with your workmates. Maybe they’re all a lot older (or younger) than you, or they seem boring. Give them a chance – they might turn out to be a lot more fun than you think.
Focus on Your Work
When your work is going badly, it’s going to be almost impossible to stay positive about your job. You’ll enjoy it more when you feel on top of things. Here’s how:
- Delegate properly. Hand over tasks which you don’t need to be doing, and give your colleague full responsibility – don’t micromanage. If you work for yourself, consider hiring someone to take on the jobs which you find difficult or tedious.
- Do your toughest work first. Have you ever put something off for weeks, and found that the longer you put it off, the harder it was to get started? By tackling the “tough” things (whatever you feel resistance to), you’ll make the rest of your day seem easy.
- Don’t go straight to your inbox. Do you really need to open your emails at 8.30am? Most people will be happy to wait a few hours for a reply. Get on with your important tasks before tackling emails – it’ll make your whole day go more smoothly.
- Give it your best. If you habitually do as little work as you can get away with, you’re probably not going to feel much sense of satisfaction. Put some effort in, however routine the task, and at least you’ll know that you did a good job (even if no-one else notices).
- Concentrate. All the distractions and interruptions in a typical office can eat up hours of valuable work time. Close Facebook and Twitter, turn off the new email notifications, and get on with your work – your day will go much more smoothly, and you’ll have a sense of accomplishment at the end of it all.
What are your favorite ways to make work more enjoyable? Share them with us in the comments!
Ali Luke works for herself as a writer and writing coach. Over on her blog Aliventures, she has two resource-packed posts for new freelancers and entrepreneurs: Freelance Writing: Ten Steps, Tons of Resources and Beyond Freelancing: The Shift to Entrepreneur.
About Guest Contributor
This is a great list Ali! So many people are in positions they don’t like, but for the minute have to stay there. This is a good list to help them through. I would lalso suggest considering an exit plan, even if that is just going back to school. Doing something to move forward will help a poor attitude.
Bernice
Reach out and take a hand
I’m with Bernice there—an exit plan does help you to see a light at the end of the tunnel.
Truly great advice.
I’d like to give my two cents here because, although many people refer to me as a “dating coach” (whatever that means), I give a whole lot of self help advice and I have a dayjob next to my coaching activities. Anyways, it all boils down to me working 60 hrs a week.
What I find is that, once you know what you would like to do AFTER what you’re doing right now? You not only create a clearer image for yourself of what it is you truly want, but it also gives you opportunities to learn on the job.
Example: the main way for me to communicate my advice is my blog, my dayjob is doing the marketing for a company, so I try and learn as much as possible about blog marketing and all related activities whenever I get the chance.
The result: I learn about what I need for the big exit. So don’t stop at “how the hell do I get out of here”, but think in terms of what your next step will be, and how you can use your current time to learn everything you can for making that next step an easy one AND for making it happen.
Thanks for adding that, Dennis! I think you make some great points about what’s coming next … when I had a day job, I learnt various techy things which really helped me (and continue to help me!) in my blogging.
No problem Ali!
And what kind of techy things are we talking about here? Because I can relate! How can I not with a dad, the major IT geek. Haha!
perfect ans.
Very nice thing to apply
I know this if off topic but I’m looking into starting my own weblog and was curious what all is needed to get setup?
I’m assuming having a blog like yours would cost a pretty penny?
I’m not very internet savvy so I’m not 100% sure.
Any tips or advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks
Thank you for the good writeup. It in fact was a amusement account it.
Look advanced to far added agreeable from you! By the way,
how could we communicate?
Hello there. Only planned to request a rapid problem.
Now i’m arranging my very own blog site and wish to understand in which you have
ones design? Was the item cost-free? As well as seemed to be this paid out?
I cannot manage to uncover something competitive with this blog, consequently preferably
it is possible to i want to recognize. Cheers. PS, my own apologies.
Uk is not our primary terminology.
Hi there. Just needed to ask a simple dilemma. Now i’m setting up my personal website and also would like
to know where you got your current design? Seemed to be the idea totally free?
Or ended up being that settled? Could not manage to
uncover whatever as good as this blog, therefore with any luck , it is possible
to let me realize. Many thanks. PS, our apologies.
British just isn’t my personal 1st vocabulary.
Hi Dear, are you actually visiting this site daily, if so afterward you
will without doubt take nice experience.
Una serie de estudios han probado los beneficios de consumir suplementos de L-Carnitina para adelgazar..
After looking into a handful of the articles on your web
page, I truly like your way of writing a blog. I book-marked it to my bookmark website list and will be checking back soon. Please visit my web site too and let me know your opinion.
La mujer gestante madre sustituta, quien efectúa un auténtico acto de amor altruista, recibe
en muchos casos una compensación económica que
cubre los gastos y molestias que padece por causa del
embarazo.
Subletting allows you to own various pieces of property, and profit off of each of them.
The moment you step into your fully built house,
you are legally viewed as having bought it, making you
qualified to get the credit. In the case of artificial
lighting, you can always install recessed lighting, or track lighting to achieve more
illumination in a room during the parts of the year when natural light is at a minimum.
La evolución es la consecuencia de las ideas Extenso catálogo de
moquetas de fibras vegetales – grecas y cenefas -.
You also have it downloaded for simpler access to more freebies possessions you can use amid your distractions and must simply look at the
Marvel Competition of Winners cheats.
And the one thing you don’t want to do is mess with someone who is using a drug like that.
Profitability of a business is directly proportionate to the
amount of working funds deployed by the bank. Combining CD
investment knowledge with the ability to get the highest CD bank rates will ensure you a great return on your money.
Es verdad que en su caso lo tienen mucho más simple…
mas si ellas pueden, nosotras asimismo., Suráfrica Ucrania y Esos embriones se trasfieren a la madre gestacional, la
que llevará a término los embriones que se desarrollen en su vientre., que solo lo permite
en Inglaterra y Escocia, en El concepto de la familia formada por 2 madres está por ser convertida en ley por primera vez en la historia.
y el mundo de maternidad subrogada fue en mil novecientos ochenta en Louisville,
al cargo del La actriz Sofia Vergara recurrió al vientre de una amiga muy cercana para ser madre nuevamente.,
Suráfrica y ciertos estados de El fuerte deseo
de ser madre de T. Gorro se dio de bruces con la más cruda de las realidades.
Siempre me interesó vincular el campo artístico con las
áreas de salud, desde la perspectiva de la prevención, y considero
la herramienta artística como invalorable a nivel emocional, psíquico
e inmunológico.
Creación de turnos sin límite, posibilidad de Cubrir (Plegar) turnos, rotación de turnos manual.
Y si la entrega es realizada con un servicio de Botones Uniformado , ¡la sorpresa va a ser mayúscula!
El día de san valentin se identifica por ser uno de los días mas románticos del año, donde por cada esquina
que pasamos respiramos amor y calma donde las parejas no saben que regalar y donde es necesario
tener una buena imagen para enviar en la mañana de ahí que comparto con ustedes estas nuevas imágenes romanticas para el día de san valentin a fin de que descargues y compartas.
Queda bien elegante, y vale la pena el ahínco de pintar los detalles con pincel.
Se trata de la marca que ha justo más récords a nivel mundial por su
precisión. y Rolex Industrie and Rolex Industrie S.A.
es una compañía suiza de relojes de pulsera y accesorios, creada tras la fusión en 2004,
de Montres Rolex Asimismo ofrecemos marcas exclusivas como
LIP, Meistersinger y Welder, marcas de relojes deportivos, marcas de
diseño, y más., El reloj tag heuer réplica es siempre homónimo de
confianza y de buen gusto automovilístico plasmado
en la muñeca de cada persona que luce uno, y es que la marca;
, Adquirir AAA réplica de relojes de calidad en Relojokco.
Esta vez te traemos fotografías de flores exóticas para que las descargues y decoren tu Fb tu WhatsApp.
El reloj de cuarzo es un reloj electrónico que
se caracteriza por poseer una pieza de cuarzo que sirve para producir los impulsos precisos a intervalos regulares que permitirán la medición del tiempo.
y Rolex Industrie and Rolex Industrie SA es una empresa
suiza de relojes de pulsera y accesorios, creada tras la fusión en dos
mil cuatro, de Montres Rolex En 1647, Christiaan Huygens aplicó a los
relojes de torre de pared el péndulo, cuyo descubrimiento se debe a Galileo El mismo físico aplicó en mil seiscientos sesenta y cinco el muelle de espiral a los relojes de bolsillo.
, Por su estabilidad y economía ha apartado a todos los demás géneros de reloj en las aplicaciones habituales.