How to Have a Good Day at Work

Last Updated: November 3, 2021

Relax and do your job despite the disturbance & other stuff that would easily make you lose your concentration. Once you have lost your concentration, things start to fall apart, leading to a bad day.

Part 1

Part 1 of 2:
Before Work

1
Get up early - for many people, the first 20 minutes of their day is the most stressful, reducing their energy for the rest of the day. You will get up just one hour early, allowing you to take things slow. Aim to leave the house half an hour early.
2
Don't skip breakfast. Have a nice cereal and some milk, or soy or almond milk. Skipping breakfast (or any other meals) does not lead to weight loss but some assume that to be true. Don't eat a slimming cereal though - have oats with real raspberries, or perhaps slices of banana.
3
Start your day well dressed, well groomed & most of all, with a big smile. Prepare, e.g. iron, your clothes the night before. Shave, or get your make up right. Days are better if people treat you better, and people treat you better if you look attractive, that you take good care of yourself.

Part 2

Part 2 of 2:
During Work

1
Arrive for work half an hour early. You left half an hour early, so you have time to get there without feeling rushed. Your boss will probably be happy to see this, and cut you some slack for the rest of the day.
2
Use that half hour. It's not your bosses time after all. Plan your day. Read company procedure for what is expected of you (your job description), or learn a new skill.^{[1]
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Expert Source

Lindsay Gordon
Career Coach
Expert Interview. 21 September 2021.} If you are a software project manager, you might want to read about accounting. If you work in retail, learn about how to fix the barcode computer when it goes wrong.
3
When someone asks you to do something, take a moment and listen. Keep a little A5 notepad, and make a note of it so you won't forget. Check about 4 times through the day to make sure you haven't missed something urgent.
4
Don't get angry or stressed, even over small things, it only makes your day unpleasant. Unexpected and unwanted things happen, that's life, and the people around you understand that. The most important thing to do is manage failure. Make sure the relevant supervisor knows about the risk before it happens, and take a step back to come up with a rescue plan. Own the solution.
5
Be assertive, but avoid conflict. By understanding peoples motives, and thinking about the reasons why they are causing conflict, you can find mutually acceptable solutions. Their reasons may seem selfish to you - they don't want a time consuming task because they want to leave early for a date say. But conflict is likely to simply entrench their position or cause resentment. Find some advantage in the situation, e.g. "Sure, I'll do that today, and I hope it goes really well. By the way, I need to get away early on Friday, so could you help me with my stuff that day".
6
Plan on going home on time. Make sure everything is done with half an hour to spare, so your last half hour is just finishing up. If you always end up staying late because there is too much work, then often you will never finish everything of an evening. That means it can wait till tomorrow. Leave on time, and don't worry about the backlog. It just means that a 2nd person is needed, and when that becomes clear, maybe you will be promoted in charge of them.

Community Q&A

Question

How do I get the most out of my workday?

Lindsay Gordon
Career Coach
Lindsay Gordon is a Career Coach and the Owner of a Life of Options, a career coaching service for analytically minded people. With more than seven years of experience, she specializes in helping individuals who feel aimless or dissatisfied with work make the right choices for themselves. Lindsay has also been featured in many media publications like Business Insider, Thrive Global, and the How to Be Awesome at Your Job podcast. Lindsay holds a BS in Bioengineering from The Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering and a Core Strengths Coaching Certificate from San Francisco State University.

Lindsay Gordon

Career Coach

Expert Answer

Ask yourself 3 questions: "What did I learn?" "What did I initiate?" and "Who did I help?" Feel free to reflect on those questions at the end of the day, or mull over them at the beginning of the day.
Question

What should you do first at the beginning of a workday?

Lindsay Gordon
Career Coach
Lindsay Gordon is a Career Coach and the Owner of a Life of Options, a career coaching service for analytically minded people. With more than seven years of experience, she specializes in helping individuals who feel aimless or dissatisfied with work make the right choices for themselves. Lindsay has also been featured in many media publications like Business Insider, Thrive Global, and the How to Be Awesome at Your Job podcast. Lindsay holds a BS in Bioengineering from The Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering and a Core Strengths Coaching Certificate from San Francisco State University.

Lindsay Gordon

Career Coach

Expert Answer

Create a goal that revolves around your values. For instance, if growth is important to you, you can start off your goal with "Today I will have prioritized growth by..." Then, you can take a look at each day in your calendar and ask yourself "What meetings do I have? What projects will I be working on? How can I really build growth into the day that I have ahead of me?"
Question

How can I have more good days?

Lindsay Gordon
Career Coach
Lindsay Gordon is a Career Coach and the Owner of a Life of Options, a career coaching service for analytically minded people. With more than seven years of experience, she specializes in helping individuals who feel aimless or dissatisfied with work make the right choices for themselves. Lindsay has also been featured in many media publications like Business Insider, Thrive Global, and the How to Be Awesome at Your Job podcast. Lindsay holds a BS in Bioengineering from The Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering and a Core Strengths Coaching Certificate from San Francisco State University.

Lindsay Gordon

Career Coach

Expert Answer

Get in the habit of reflecting on your day—you can do this on a daily or weekly basis. Think about what days felt the best to you and why. As you reflect more and more, you can be really intentional about adding in those good, positive elements to your future workday.
Question

What should be done if I get too emotional at work?

Community Answer

Once you recognize that you've become overly emotional, take a deep slow breath, exhale slowly. Concentrate on the physical sensation of your breath. Then count slowly to ten .(Count in your head if counting out loud would cause problems.) Concentrate on the numbers and your breathing as you do it, using deep, slow, even breaths. Always get sufficient sleep -- if you aren't managing that, you emotions will be a lot harder to control and will veer toward negative expression when pressured. Eat healthily and get plenty of exercise as well.

Warnings

If an incident happens in the morning, don't let that overcome you because its the starting of the day, it will definitely collapse your work spirit.

Thanks!
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