Imagine you woke up in the morning, went to the kitchen and spilt your perfectly made cup of coffee over your white trousers. Then put both contact lenses in the same eye. You stuck into a traffic jam and was late for the meeting with your boss. You burst in his cabinet with a brown spot on your pants, blinking with one eye and the whole management team stared at you paralyzed with shock. When you finally arrived at your workplace, you found out that your computer was broken and all the data was lost. You lost an important client because the presentation you had been preparing for two weeks is buried in your broken computer. After all, you came home, upset and neurotic, and had a desperate quarrel with your wife. Everything ended up with you going to sleep on the sofa in the hall. When you started falling asleep, a coil spring bumped into your body.
Sounds like a scenario for a horror story. However, all of us had terrible day at least several times. If you didn’t, you're one bad day away from being me. Some of us even suffer from every other bad day at work.
Those who don’t maintain the work-life balance, are at higher risk of having a rough day. According to the research held by National Institute of health, working more than 55 hours per week puts you under higher risk of depression and anxiety. Those employees who are expected to be available in their off-hours struggle from higher stress and cortisol levels throughout a day. The Guardian, rising up a problem of extra hours at work, told about a bank intern who has died after working 72 hours in a row. According to official statistics in 2017, 39% of people work extra hours in the USA, and 40% of workers often answer their e-mail during the family dinner. If you’re one of them here is a piece of advice on how to protect yourself from a terrible day and how to cope with it when it finally happened.
Get ready to cope with troubles
We can’t predict the future but we might get ready for unexpected situations. So, if you feel like you’re going to have a bed time, follow these rules:
1. Do sports
Sports lets you to burn extra energy, especially when it comes to negative feelings. Let them go out of your body in a useful and healthy way.
2. Meditate
Meditation is often called sports for mind. It helps you to calm your busy mind and make it concentrated and productive, states the Conscious Lifestyle.
3. Arrive earlier to you workplace
This will improve your preparation for a working day. Do small tasks that may distract you during the day and be on time for meetings.
4. Make a task list
It will help you to sort out important tasks, concentrate on most urgent ones and let you remember everything you need to do, in such a way preventing you from a horrible day.
5. Plan your meetings in advance
Prepare for the meeting, including searching the information, planning your speech, arranging place and time. Don’t stress yourself more organizing everything in the last minute.
6. Multitasking is a myth
Less than 5% of people can concentrate on several tasks at a time. For this reason, do not force your mind to make extra efforts. Instead, plan your time, considering the fact that some tasks may take more time than you arranged.
7. Let your boss know about important issues
Let your co-workers know if you suffer from difficulties in your private life that may influence your performance. If the reason is serious, they will take in mind your conditions and insure you in urgent situations.
8. Don’t get distracted
Especially by solving personal problems during the working day. It can influence your mood, take your time and distract from performing your duties provoking a hard day at work.
9. Avoid much caffeine and sugar
Despite the myth that caffeine can boost your productivity, everything is good when moderate. Too much sugar and caffeine can make you sleepy and inactive. Besides, it can cause addiction.
10. Change your job
If you spend your days in toxic environment and feel yourself on the edge of work burnout, without any chance to change the situation, you’d better consider changing your job.
What to do when you have a bad day?
When everything already went wrong and when you’re having just the worst day at work, just make a deep breath and try the following tips:
1. Chill out
Try to find the place where to stay alone and let your emotions out. But make sure that your boss is on a good distance from you.
2. Calculate good things happened
Try to think about all good things happened to you – maybe you’re exaggerating and it is not such a horrible day as you thought it is.
3. Limit your complains
Don’t waist your time on useless complains. Just move on and your day will get better.
4. Do something you’ll enjoy
We are sure that there are some duties you like the most. Start doing them if you need to distract from failures and take pleasure from work.
5. Turn on the music
Put your headphones on to listen to your favorite song. It’ll trigger your good mood and self-confidence.
6. Smile
If you’re having a bad day, just smile, even if you don’t want to. Psychologists say it is a good way to obtain a positive attitude. Even if it may be difficult at the beginning, every minute your smile will become more and more natural. Don’t you believe? Just try.
7. Go for a walk
Use your lunch break to go for a walk, breathe fresh air and distract from office environment.
8. Think how you can fix your mistake
If you made a mistake, don’t fall into stress. Instead, think about how you can correct it and you’ll feel better.
9. Don’t take it on your own account
If someone was rude with you, don’t take it on your own account – other people can have rough day at the office too. Think about an excuse they may have and don’t get upset.
10. There will be a new day tomorrow
Don’t turn your bad day into a bad week and a bad month. Think about tomorrow – all your bad days will end and you will make fun of the situations happened to you.
How to recover from a bad day?
Even if you had the worst day at work, it is absolutely unnecessary to bring it to your house. Here are a few tips on how to bounce back from a frustrating day.
1. Talk to a friend
If your working day is over and you feel bad coming back home, call your trusted friend, go to the bar and holding a glass of beer tell him about having a shit day and what an asshole your boss is.
2. Watch a funny video or a film
If you want to get distracted from a tough day at work, there’s no better way than to watch something funny. It will help you to put the stress away and let yourself relax.
3. Cry if you need to
Don’t hide your emotions inside. It is better to cry if you want to, than to hide your tears and explode later with an uncontrolled fit of hysteria.
4. Eat something tasty
Rejoice yourself with something delicious after a rough day at work. Stop your diet for a piece of tasty cake or a well-prepared steak.
5. Go into your hobbies
Spend your time doing things that bring you pleasure. Make the happy ending, even if you had a bad day.
6. Do something you put off
It’s finally the best time to repair the broken shelf or replace the bulb in the pantry. The feeling of a completed task will cover the bad feelings you got at work.
We wish you to have only good and sunny days in your life and always stay cheerful and positive.
