Dr Samyak Tiwari

How to Stay Positive at Work: 9 Effective Strategies

Hello there fellow internet surfer! We see that you have asked How To Stay Positive At Work to Google and it has redirected you to this article. That’s wonderful, glad to have you here. 

It’s common to be struck with a bout of pessimism specially due to the current scenario of a global pandemic that has messed up the work-home lifestyle. The pandemic has led to increased stress and anxiety among people, especially the working force. It is, thus, of immense importance to take care of your well-being and find ways to keep yourself positive. So today we bring to you 9 Effective Strategies on How to Stay Positive at Work. So without further ado let’s get started.


1. Leave your work at the Office

How to stay positive at work
How To Stay Positive At Work: Create boundaries and be ruthless in maintaining them.

Your time is important and finite. Make sure you spend time with the most important people in your life: your family and loved ones. Don’t let the hullabaloo of the office follow you home. Leave the office work at the office.

The pandemic has prompted work from home for many people and thus has blurred the already-hazy line between work and home. This creates anxiety about the workload. Try setting a “switch-off” time, a time after which you won’t work anymore. Switch off your workspace after that time and come back on all the pending work the next day. For example: You can set the switch off time after dinner so that you don’t keep checking your emails at your bed. Don’t indulge in any work related activities after dinner.

It is difficult to not think about your work as it forms a big part of your identity but trust us, making boundaries between your work and home will boost your productivity and make you more excited about work.

2. Give yourself a break

How to stay positive at work
How To Stay Positive At Work: Taking a short break after every 1 hour has been scientifically shown to boost productivity.

Continuing work can wear you out and make you lose focus and motivation. That is not good for your wellbeing. Take a short break after every hour. Step away from your work and stretch a little. You and your boss might feel that you’re shirking away from work but seriously you’ll be thankful to yourself for taking a break.

3. Keep Learning

How to stay positive at work
How To Stay Positive At Work: Learning doesn’t stop at school. So make sure you learn something everyday.

Learning doesn’t end after school. Your work gives you many opportunities to learn and grow, it is up to you if you grab them or not. Always be eager to learn new things. This will help build your résumé. Learn from your co-workers, bosses and seniors. This will also help you establish a reputation of being a learner among your colleagues and boss.

4. Be friendly with your Co-workers

How to stay positive at work
How To Stay Positive At Work: The simple act of greeting a co-worker can cut stress and boost your well-being.

Have a friendly communication with your co-workers. You do not necessarily have to know every little detail about them, a simple friendly greeting or asking how they’re doing would do too. This will make you and your co-workers more supported and cut stress levels. 

5. Tweak Your workspace

How to stay positive at work
How To Stay Positive At Work: organising your work desk to make it more accommodating and personal can make your workspace more inviting.

No matter what type of workspace you have: a cubicle, a small table amidst a crowd, or a big room, try making it comfortable and motivating. You can paste motivational posters, or keep your spouse’s picture on the table, or bring accessories of your favourite Sitcom, whatever motivates you and boosts your well-being. Even simply using a coffee mug instead of the mundane styrofoam cups can refresh you and keep you motivated. Do give this a try if you can’t figure out just how to stay positive at work.

6. Develop a Consistent Morning Routine

How to stay positive at work
How To Stay Positive At Work: Developing a consistent morning routine relaxes the mind.

Our brain relishes automation, and Habits are the brain’s way of automating tasks. Developing a consistent morning routine helps free up the cognitive burden of deciding everything that you do in the morning. This relaxes the mind and gives a positive start to your day.

We are not asking you to plan on doing things that you should do in the morning, like exercise or meditation. Rather we are asking you to do what you love consistently every morning. It could be as simple as watching your favourite TV show while having your breakfast. Also try removing or at least reducing “bad” morning habits like checking your phone first thing in the morning. 

7. Practice Gratitude

How to stay positive at work
How To Stay Positive At Work: Practising Gratitude can help you live a longer and happier life.

Gratitude is simply taking time to think about all the positive things in your life Rather than ruminating on the negatives. It sounds simple but research has shown several benefits of Gratitude including increasing your life expectancy. We humans are natural negative thinkers. That is the reason why it is so easy to get lost in a negative thought and become anxious.

The practice of gratitude ensures that we consciously acknowledge all the good things in our life and let our brain mull over it instead of the usual negative chatter. If there is one thing you take from this article on How to stay positive at work, it should be this: practice gratitude.

8. Adopt Healthy Habits

How to stay positive at work
How To Stay Positive At Work: Adopting healthy lifestyle habits like exercising and meditation is an excellent way to be more positive.

 We all have heard the age-old adage that a healthy mind resides in a healthy body. The more you take care of your body the better you’ll feel mentally too. So make sure that you give your body proper sleep. Healthy diet and regular exercise is also important. Studies show that mere ten minutes of meditation can calm people down. So make sure to add that to your daily schedule. Also, laugh and smile more. Smiling releases endorphins that boost your well being. One study says that smiling can help boost your immunity too.

9. Avoid Negative People

How to stay positive at work
How To Stay Positive At Work: Say no to toxic and gossipy people who suck your energy and positivity.

Last but not the least on our list of effective strategies on How to stay positive at work, we have a very important one: stay away from negative people. As you develop friendships with your co-workers, navigate towards positive people and steer away from disgruntled and gossipy people. Of course be friendly to everyone but don’t spend too much time with such people. They will wear you off. 

So that’s all folks. We hope you liked this article on How To Stay Positive at work. If you’re interested you can try additional resources given below. Thank you for reading this article and we’ll see you in the next one. Till then, bye!

Additional Resources on How to stay Positive at Work

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