#1: Rise and Shine
Eat a good breakfast, even if you don’t normally feel like one. Countless studies have shown that a healthy breakfast sets you up for the day, and making sure you have some proper food when you get up will leave you less peckish later on. This is NOT an excuse for a big greasy fry-up five days a week, though. And as well as helping your energy supply, it can help your money supply. If you’re working in the city, snack foods can be very expensive.
#2: Use Your Headlines
Buy a paper for your bus or train journey, or listen to the radio in the car. Not only does it help you to focus on something other than the day ahead, but being up to date on the news and gossip is excellent for small talk by the water cooler. If your budget doesn’t stretch to a daily paper, remember that most of the major titles have their own website. But don’t kepe accessing them on company time, or the only reading you’ll be hearing will be the riot act!
#3: Sole Survivor
Wear comfortable shoes, especialy if you’re commuting across town on public transport. Male and female employees alike may also find that it’s hard to keep that shine on the early morning trek. There’s nothing wrong with wearing trainers on the way to work, as long as there’s a pair of smarter shoes ready to change into when you get there. Carry them in a bag and then keep them in your office drawer or locker.
#4: Welcome… To The Warzone
Most workplaces have their factions and cliques. Avoid all attempts to recruit you to one side or the other… in most cases maintaining strict neutrality proves to be the best course of action in the end. Refuse to geti nvolved with any backbiting or criticism of colleagues who are not around, even if you privately agree. You’ll increase the chance of people respecting you when you’re not around either.
#5: Say It Again, Sam
There’s an old saying that you can say you don’t know something… or you can prove you don’t know it! No matter how long you’ve been in a job, there’s only so much you can get right first time round, so don’t think that it’s a sign of weakness to ask questions and ask your superiors to go over information until you’re sure you’ve got it right. In most cases, far from being annoyed, they’ll be happy that you rate their thoughts highly enough to want to hear them again.
#6: Don’t Get Hung Up
Don’t give out your work number to too many family members and friends, or if you do, make it clear it’s for urgent calls only. If you do fancy a chat, try conducting it via e-mail at lunchbreak – but only if this doesn’t clash with the company policy on internet use. By the same token, when you DO chat to friends and family outside work hours, keep the subject of work to a minimum. That way you’ll actually benefit from the downtime and have something to look forward to when you’re back in the office.
#7: To Do… Or Not To Do
Whatever your current duties are, get into the habit of planning your work day by day. In an ideal world, this can be done in conjunction with colleagues or your boss, but it’s not unusual to start a new project and wait weeks for someone to have time to brief you properly. Getting used to planning on your own will help you to feel less lost, and ticking off a task on your to-do list will give you a great sense of achievement, and motivation to get the other tasks done too.
#8: Different Strokes
You don’t bond with everyone you meet in the outside world, so you shouldn’t expect to at work either. Your goal shouldn’t be to like everyone or have them like you, although it’s great if that’s the case, but to get on with everyone and work in an atmosphere of mutual respect. Treating people as you would like to be treated can sometimes produce amazing results from even the most difficult colleagues!
#9: Bully For You!
Bullying in the workplace can be just as common as bullying in school – and just as distressing too. It’s not a sign of weakness to seek help. After all, the bully is the one with the problem, not you. If it’s a colleague who’s making your life miserable, take it up with your boss. If it’s your boss who’s the culprit, check out www.bullyonline.org for lots of advice, support, and practical steps to take.
#10: All Work And No Play
New work projects may take up a lot of your time as you try to get into the swing of things. Explain this to friends and family, but try to carve outs ome time with them even during the busiest periods rather than neglecting them completely. However, if you’ve been in your job for a while and life is still all work and no play, you may need to talk to your manager about practical ways to organize your workload better.
#11: Keep Cool
Fill a two-liter bottle from the water cooler every morning, and keep it by your desk. Most of us drink too little water at the best of times, but combine that with a stuffy office and a little stress, and headaches and lethargy can easily creep in. Having water to hand so that you don’t have to keep making trips to the cooler should help with time management headaches too. Remember to empty the bottle by the end of the day, ready for refilling the next morning.
#12: Screen Test
If you use a computer for long periods at a time, make sure that you look away from the screen every fifteen to twenty minutes and focus on a distant ponit. Make sure also that the screen brightness is adjusted so that it’s right for your particular work environment, and that your seat is the right height for you to access both the screen and the keyboard without putting your back under undue strain. You might even try talking to your company about fitting ergonomic keyboards, if they haven’t already. If your comfort and safety aren’t a priority for the, the promise of increased productivity might just do the trick!
#13: Get Out And About
Rather than sweltering in a stuffy staffroom all lunchtime, refresh yourself by taking a walk, going to the gym, eating out or reading in the park. Even in an urban environment, it is possible to find green spaces tucked away where you least expect them. Make it your business this lunchtime to discover the oasis nearest to you. (And if you are spending time in the sun, make it your business to pack a sunscreen before you leave for work!)
#14: Tea For Two
Research shows that a single cup of coffee after lunch can provide a much-needed energy boost for the afternoon, but more than that could leave you jangling. Try tea, or even better, herbal tea instead. And do offer to make the coffee for your colleagues every so often, so that you can boost your popularity as well as your energy levels! Make sure that you drink water throughout the day as well. Besides being healthier for your insides, the trip to the cooler will give your legs a stretch too.
#15: The Paperless Office
You won’t ever be able to find what you’re looking for if your desk is overflowing with paperwork, so once in a while it’s a good idea to plan in a ‘clear your desk’ day. Be ruthless: file what you need and bin – or recycle – the rest. If you haven’t referred to a file or a memo in the past two days, the chances are it doesn’t need to be on your desk at all. The same applies to e-mails in your inbox… cyberspace clutter can be just as distracting as the paper kind.
#16: Getting Personal
Pin up a few pictures of family and friends, some of your favorite art, or jokes that make you smile… as long as this fits in with the code of your particular workplace. Creating a working environment that suits you will not only lift your spirits but your productivity as well. after all, it’s the individual talents of each worker that make your company operate best as a whole.
#17: Keep Up To Date
How many diaries, address books and calendars do you have? If possible, have just one place where you record your various appointments, or at least one central place that you transfer them to once you’ve jotted them in your diary, hand-held PC or on a scrap of paper. It will save you the hassle of booking yourself in two places at the same time… or, worse, not remembering where you’re supposed to be in the first place!
#18: Give It The Once Over
Try to handle each piece of paper that comes across your desk only once. Items that are dealt with immediately (even if the action is simply to bin them) are far less likely to end up contributing to the general mountain of clutter that slows up work on most office desks. And every time you manage to action or get rid of some paperwork without double-handling it, you will feel a glow of efficiency that works wonders for your general stress levels!
#19: No Chance
Be careful what you wish for… you might just get it. but wish for nothing and that’s exactly what you’ll get! Don’t leave anything in your career to chance. Put together a profile of your ideal career and employer, including everything from your ideal corporate structure to the management style, industry and corporate values system that appeals to you most. And remember, however big your dreams for yourself are, God’s dreams for you are bigger.
#20: Speak Up!
Don’t wait for your boss to initiate discussions about your job performance and expectations. Check regularly to find out how you’re doing and if your manager’s expectations are the same ones you’re working to. Besides potentially saving wasted effort and keeping you both on track, it shows a commitment to high standards that can’t fail to create a good impression within the company.
#21: Where Credit’s Due
Always give co-workers and subordinates credit for their contributions. Competition between colleagues is always fatal. Embracing an attitude of ‘I only win if you win, and then we all win together’ means that you not only get your fair share of recognition, but you’ll also have people ready to help out when things don’t go as well as expected. And if things really go pear-shaped, it’s always best to have people on your side, rather than viewing you as someone onto whom they can shift the blame.
#22: Heart To Heart
Many of us spend most of the week at work, and often in close proximity with each other, so it’s no surprise that workplace romances flourish. And as long as you’ve established that the object of your affections is free to engage in romance (and not just bored with their relationship at home), there’s no reason why you shouldn’t get to know each other better. But keep a strong demarcation between work and social time. All work and no play may make for dull boys and girls, but letting romance get in the way of work is a recipe for disaster.
#23: Heads Together
There’s no substitute for the wisdom of others, so it can be valuable to approach someone who has the skills and insight you lack. You’ll be surprised how flattered even a busy person will be when they see that you really value their opinion. Your mentor doesn’t have to be all-powerful or perfect, just someone who can help you to learn what you need. The same applies to you uif you are called to mentor someone else. Knowledge and experience are important, but support and encouragement are the most important skills of all.
#24: Fun And Games
Why wait for someone else to organize after-hours activities for you and your colleagues? The chance to interact on a non-work level can strengthen your working relationships, so why not take the plunge and become the life and soul of the office? From jazz concerts, to dinners, to special events, there are lots of great ways to relieve work-related stress. Often all you have to do is simply make the suggestion. And if the event goes well, it will encourage someone else to organize the next one!
#25: Fail Safe
Most of us will fail at some point in our careers. From Walt Disney to Richard Branson, every business success story has its downs as well as its ups. If you’reh aving a ‘down’, be honest about your share of the blame and take away whatever lessons you can learn from it. Soon you’ll be able to look back and realize that yesterday’s failures often carry the seeds of today’s success.
#26: A Learning Experience
Your industry is changing every day, so you should be too. A job where you’re not being stretched may feel comfortable, but if that feeling changes to boredom, you may find that you don’t have enough extra knowledge to move on to something else. If your job isn’t increasing your knowledge base, consider having extra training, or maybe just taking out a subscription to a trade magazine that will keep you up to speed on the latest developments.
#27: E-asy Does It
The great advantage of e-mail is that you can respond to any message instantly. The great danger of e-mail is that you can respond to any message instantly. If you get hot under the collar, by all means fire off an e-mail, but put it in the ‘waiting to be sent’ box until you cool down enough to work out whether it’s really the best way to deal with the issue. Remember too that the very ‘ease’ of e-mai means that if you really want to get a point across – for good or ill – a personal letter often carries a lot more weight.
#28: Be Passionate!
When you love what you do, you do it well. So if it’s at all possible, choose a career and a job that you know will be personally fulfilling. If that’s not possible right now, try to find at least some element of your work that you can feel passionate about. Often it’s this very thing that can carry you through until the next job comes along. And when the dream job comes up, how well do your existing job may be the factor that gets you the offer.
#29: A Pat On The Back
The rule ‘As you give, so shall ye receive’ is true in the office as well as in the offering box. Be quick to compliment and support others in their career goals and challenges, and you’ll build up a fund of goodwill you can draw on when you’ve got your own mountains to climb. Remember that those above you appreciate a kind word too; it’s never toadying if you are saying something for their benefit, not your own.
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