WASHINGTON, D.C., USA — We've all been there: feeling the “Sunday night scaries,” dreading the thought of Monday morning or counting down the hours until we can finally log off yet, another, Zoom meeting. And while remote work has it's perks, studies still show that employee happiness is really low (1 in 4 feel unhappy at work and 81% of unhappy employees fake happiness with their colleagues).
According Carson Tate, Managing Partner at Working Simply and author of Own It. Love It. Make It Work: How to Make Any Job Your Dream Job there are three surprising – yet simple – things you can do to make increase your happiness at work.
Procrastination
Procrastination is one of the key things someone can do to help them feel happier at work and helps you cull your to do list. How often have you looked at your to do list and seen for the hundredth time a task or project that has been there for weeks or months? Your procrastination around this item is informative.
- When procrastination strikes, ask yourself these 5 questions
- How important is this task or project?
- Will it enable you to achieve a goal?
- Will it help you realize a strategic priority?
- Does it drive revenue?
- Does it require your unique skills, experiences and talents?
Tackling the overwhelming project
The hard work that is typically fraught with anxiety and stress – can actually be a driver of happiness.
The overwhelming project, the promotion that would require you to learn a new market segment or the opportunity to transfer to your firm’s London office all require hard work. And, hard work is typically fraught anxiety and stress, not happiness.
However, it is in the hard work, or what Tate calls challenging or stretch opportunities, that we most often experience flow. Flow is the optimal state between too much stress and boredom. Tate says, Dr. Martin Seligman, a psychologist, asserts that the flow state is one of the three main drivers of human happiness. When it gets too easy or too comfortable, you’re probably not in the flow.
Ask yourself:
- What aspects of your work are too easy?
- Where have you become too comfortable in your role?
- How can you challenge yourself and create an opportunity to learn and grow?
Creating routines for everyday tasks
Something boring, like creating a set of routines for tasks you do everyday, will increase your happiness.
Conventional thinking says that routines are boring. So, how can something boring make you happier? Well, it’s not the routine tasks that make you happier, it is the time you gain when you routinize your tasks. Time you can spend on professional projects that energize and excite you, or with family and friends or pursing personal interests.
When you develop routines for the tasks you do the most frequently, they embed in your brain and create a pattern. As a result, you spend less time and attention on those tasks.
For more tips from Carson Tate follow her on Instagram.