Easy steps to stay positive at work

Having a positive attitude towards life is totally essential to having a positive career and vice versa. Life is too short for worries and issues that so many people experience at work!

Whatever issues you may be experiencing now at work, there is always a solution.  Whether it is a demanding boss or whether you are the boss and you want to learn how to better manage your team, there is always a positive way to go about it.  And what may very well be the best thing about it, is that positivity is highly contagious so even just a little effort on your part, and it’s guaranteed that positivity will multiply and be returned.

Another common issue many of us face in our work days is that we feel we simply do not have the energy to keep up.  There is often a sleep component in that many of us do not get adequate sleep, but aside from that this issue often has an emotional root and can include things like stress, an inability to properly prioritize, focus issues, poor communication and/or interactions with people at work or just finding more effective ways to get things done with less energy expended.

Studies also show that taking our brains out of work for just a couple minutes every now and then throughout the day and doing something fun or mindless is incredibly healthy to keeping a positive attitude at work.

There are 168 hours in a week and roughly 42-56 are spent sleeping. So, if we take out the sleeping hours and only consider the waking hours and if we assume that most of us spend a minimum of 40 hours at work each week, that is the equivalent of 33% of our time!  In other words, a THIRD of our daily lives! Those hours should be awesome where we feel positive and where we are driven to contribute to the world and our communities in positive ways.  So, don’t just wait for the clock to hit quittin’ time.

Ways to stay positive at work:

1. Avoid people that suck up your time.
2. Work on bettering your communication skills.
3. Take small breaks every so often to move your body, drink water, eat healthy snacks.
4. Keep focused on the tasks at hand.
5. Work on your time management.
6. Plan out your day.
7. Don’t over-commit yourself.
8. Don’t over-promise.
9. Wake up early enough to get yourself together in the morning without rushing.
10. Prioritize your work.
11. Identify exactly what stresses you at work and make a plan to work through it.
12. Work on your self-awareness.
13. Recognize when you are starting to feel stressed and address the cause.
14. Bring your sense of humor with you.
15. Keep an organized work space.
16. Avoid being reactive.
17. Eat foods throughout the day that will energize you and keep you going.  Do not eat foods that spike your blood sugar.
18. Get plenty of sleep.
19. Consult with co-workers, staff and managers on the best way to approach things.
20. Break down your work into smaller tasks.
21. Close your door / open your door, depending on what you are seeking to accomplish in that moment.
22. Take responsibility for your wellbeing.
23. Remember that you simply cannot control everything and sometimes you must simply “go with the flow.”
24. Recognize where time is wasted throughout your day.
25. If your work environment truly feels miserable, figure out whether it is the work environment or you and what changes to make.

~ HealthPositive