Well-being at work is an ongoing, daily and important task for us all. It isn’t easy to prioritise ourselves, over our workload and everything else life throws at us. Not to mention our responsibilities to our families, partners and friends. It can also sometimes be better for our mental health to prioritise our work so that we don’t become overwhelmed.
With this in mind, HubGem is looking at tips for well-being at work, under the themes of planning, stress reduction and moving. This first article is focussing on planning- we hope you enjoy it!
We’ve all heard of “dreaming big” and been given instructions to visualise our success to make It. But does this create any real change? Self-help books such as ‘The Secret’ have been giving us motivational speeches for years, about how positive visualisation can be the way forward. However, more recent research may suggest otherwise. In the book ‘Rethinking Positive Thinking,’ author Gabrielle Oettingen states that positive visualisation can feel nice, but isn’t enough to reach our goals.
The focus of her book is how visualisation needs to be paired with planning and the acceptance of obstacles that may arise. In short, don’t just plan for your dreams, plan about how you will overcome anything in your way too! There is a great acronym for this, called WOOP. The four-step plan consists of:
At work, we can utilise these long-term planning tools to help us with our career goals. If you’re looking for a promotion or a career change, this may seem far off or impossible when it's just a dream in your mind. If you don’t have a goal to aim for, you’re likely going to drift. Having a plan can encourage you with more confidence in your future and more motivation to achieve your daily tasks.
In your monthly meeting, if you come to your manager with a plan of not just what you want to achieve, but how you’re going to get there, this will be far easier for them to help you succeed. To read more about long-term planning and how setting long-term goals can help you get there, please click here.
For big-picture thinkers, it’s all about long-term planning! But Rome wasn’t built in a day, and in order to achieve anything, big goals need to be cut into chunks that are sustainable. I like to work with the brain’s natural motivator, dopamine, to help me complete tasks.
Dopamine is a neurotransmitter key to creating feelings such as accomplishment and happiness. In conditions such as ADHD, there is insufficient natural dopamine and noradrenaline in the brain, making it difficult to sustain focus and complete tasks. However, this can be managed with brain hacks like completing to-do lists, changing your desk location and mini meditations.
It may also be difficult to sustain motivation when working from home. Some people have more task-oriented personalities, whereas others are more relationship oriented. To find out which you are, think about taking the 16 personalities quiz for a quick answer. Extraverted and emotional types are more likely to be geared towards relationship-oriented rewards, whereas introverted and logical types are geared towards tasks. Knowing what motivates you can help you learn to motivate yourself during your workday. Bear in mind, that this isn’t clear cut, and you can be motivated by both tasks and friendships at work.
For task-oriented types, to create more dopamine in your daily work life, think about using tools such as Microsoft To-Do, or just writing your daily tasks on a document. The act of ticking these off throughout the day will create a snowball effect, where you will find yourself more motivated for the next task. Additionally, cutting down tasks into microtasks can make large projects seem more manageable over time.
Another useful tip is to use your Calendar as a task entry device. I’ve started to block out what I want to do that day in my calendar in advance. This is called time-blocking. Making too many decisions throughout the day exhausts your will- power and makes it harder to focus on the things you need to achieve. Now, I don’t need to make many decisions throughout the day, and people can’t book me for meetings when I’m not free!
For relationship-oriented types, make sure you bring people on board for projects. Book meetings where you can brainstorm ideas, and make sure to catch up with at least one member of your team a week. This is also possible for fully remote jobs, like HubGem. HubGem prioritises weekly meetings, making sure that everyone is in the loop and still feels a part of the wider team. Additionally, we use the Donut integration on our Slack channels that pair us with a team member to catch up with.
If online screen people don’t cut it for you, call up a friend. Do you have any friends who also work from home? Perhaps they are feeling like they need company too. You could work at the home of another friend once a week or just go for a walk with them at lunchtime. Additionally, there are co-working spaces available across the globe, that may help you meet new people and get that extra burst of motivation at work.
Either way, short-term planning at work can be beneficial along with the knowledge of what motivates you. In remote jobs, this is important because there is no one watching over your shoulder, which makes you more responsible for your time.
HubGem is dedicated to creating the best work environment for its employees. Flexibility is key, along with the understanding that each employee is an individual with distinct needs and motivations. We understand that life comes first, so if you need a break, you can just update your manager and make up the time elsewhere. Employees can start working between 7 am and 9 am and can end between 4 pm and 6 pm. This arrangement allows morning and evening people to flourish and use their autonomy to know what works for them.
Every quarter, each employee is allowed a Wednesday afternoon off to spend time doing well-being-related activities. This could be anything, from cleaning the whole house, to going on a long walk, to simply heading to the gym or spending time with loved ones.
On top of this, we have a Wellbeing Slack Channel, well-being check-ins and a free Headspace membership!
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