No matter if you’re a businessman running a startup company or a nurse taking care of newborns, we all put forth the best us when our work environment allows us to be happy and healthy. At home it’s much easier to find time to take care of yourself. But, when you’re at work, you often take a backseat to your boss or to customers. Studies have shown that happy employees are more likely to be productive. In fact, happy employees are said to be 12% more productive than those who aren’t. Your work happiness is impacted by a variety of factors. Keep reading to learn 5 tips to holistically improve your work life.
- Learn Time Management Skills
There’s nothing more soul-sucking than spending hours catching up on emails or struggling to find a spreadsheet that’s buried in a folder somewhere. When it comes to work, time management is crucial. Not knowing how to manage your time spent in the office can reduce your productivity, morale, and overall success as an employee.
To get the most out of your time, chunk off time to complete certain tasks. Plan to check email at the top of every hour for 15 minutes. Use a personal calendar to let others know when you’ll be busy working on a project. With proper time management, you can get more done throughout the day, without the stress of feeling overloaded.
You can also achieve better time management by:
- Setting daily goals
- Knowing what you need to achieve tomorrow
- Keeping a list of any dependencies, issues, roadblocks, etc.
- Embrace Downtime
Let’s face it: we aren’t built like the Energizer Bunny. Despite our want to keep going and going, we all have our breaking point. One of the most important parts of creating an enjoyable work environment is to plan for downtime. You don’t want to overload and over-stress yourself with hours upon hours of work. Find ways to incorporate downtime into your schedule.
No matter if it’s spending an hour at the gym, eating lunch outside, or practicing 30 minutes of meditation, the idea is to give your mind and body a break from the stress and fast-paced mode that is work.
- Engage & Team Build
Work life is much more tolerable when you’re engaged and can openly communicate with your peers. Team building and morale boosting activities are a must for an enjoyable work experience. Set aside time to spend with coworkers outside of the office. Grab a drink at a local bar or volunteer at the local community center. This allows you to better connect with and trust your coworkers. In turn, you’ll have a more effective and efficient work relationship.
- Leave Work at Work
For most of us, this is easier said than done, but when you walk out of the office, be sure that you’ve left work at work. This means not checking your work email from home or emailing back and forth with your boss until the wee hours of the morning. Of course, some jobs require you to be in constant communication. But if your job doesn’t require your full-time attention, now is a good time to practice leaving work at work. This allows you to unwind and focus on your personal life.
There’s nothing worse than bringing home the stress and frustration that you endure at work. Proper work/life balance requires that you separate the two. Otherwise you’ll find that work slowly but surely starts to impact your home life.
- Focus on Your Health
If you’re like a good chunk of employees, you spend a lot of your time at a desk staring at a computer screen. We all know that sitting can cause all sorts of health issues, including increased risk of obesity, heart disease, and other serious health issues. No matter if you’re 5 or 50lbs overweight, carrying excess weight combined with sitting for hours can be a deadly combination.
To improve your health, consider a weight loss program targeted for busy workers like yourself. Business Bellies embraces the idea of losing fat to achieve a healthier, happier, and more productive you. The company offers a variety of programs, including a 30 day reset as well as a stress management program. Both are designed to help you achieve a healthier weight and therefore a healthier lifestyle both in and outside of work.
Conclusion
Any successful employee must first focus on themselves. From your physical health to your work environment, there are all sorts of factors that impact your performance. Use these 5 tips to create a better work environment that is conducive to health and happiness.
Which tip are you most likely to embrace? How can your current work life and environment be improved? Share your story with us below!
