How to approach work more simply: rules and advice from a psychologist: Labuda.blog

When it's too good

How can you learn to approach work more simply? In order to perceive work activity more simply, you need the ability to correctly distribute life priorities. There are workaholics who consider their professional output to be the most important aspect of life. Very rarely do people of this type care about anything other than what they love. Fortunately, these are isolated cases. And most people need to communicate with friends, build personal relationships, take care of their health and relax.

The problem of workaholism exists all over the world, but it is unevenly distributed.

Interesting fact! A clinic has been created in Japan that specializes in the rehabilitation of people suffering from addiction to their professional activities. Patients are helped to overcome nervous disorders that were caused by regular overwork.

Don't waste words

As a rule, taciturnity betrays a serious and responsible person. Such people do not boast of their achievements, abilities and capabilities. They don't need to prove anything to others. And even more so, a responsible person will not waste words. To develop responsibility, you need to stop making promises to people if you can't keep them. It is better to say this directly than to create the image of an all-powerful hero who can cope with any request. Although in reality this is far from the case. By throwing words into the wind, you create a bad reputation for yourself in the eyes of other people.

Work to earn money

You need to take a simpler approach to work, but it happens that people forget trivial things. Most often, the employer facilitates this. It is beneficial for many managers to keep employees who will work for the idea, without counting on additional payments and bonuses.

People who have a clear understanding that they are working to get paid, and not just to work, are more difficult to fall under the influence of unscrupulous employers. It is unusual for this category of the population to stay at work all the time, forgetting about their family obligations or personal relationships, even when they are underpaid for overtime. A person who values his work will not hold on to a place where he earns little. He will easily choose the best option with more attractive working conditions and high wages.

What can you do to make your work easier? The advice that psychologists give on this issue is based on the fact that a person understands the following: when he works for money, he has no emotional attachment to work, and he treats it more simply. People who are ready to sacrifice themselves for the sake of an idea very rarely realize that they are becoming “slaves.” Over time, such a person will begin to perceive very painfully the mistakes made during his professional activities. Such people are often very dependent on the opinions of others. They may come to work sick, often stay in the office late, and neglect their own health and their family.

About overly responsible people

But there is another extreme - excessive responsibility, which, by the way, is characteristic of quite a lot of people. For example, it often affects individuals with a shy character. Individuals who lack self-confidence and have low self-esteem often project their fears into the future. For example, they are often afraid to call or take the first step before meeting an interesting person, because they are pre-set to refuse and think that the potential interlocutor will not communicate with them due to being busy, unwilling to build relationships and communicate with them. Thus, they take responsibility for the feelings, thoughts and actions of other people in advance, thereby programming themselves for failure.

If we talk about excessive responsibility in general, then at its core, it is actually the same as irresponsible behavior, since a person thinks about others, but stops thinking about himself, taking care of himself and his needs.

Your responsibilities are specified in the employment contract

What's the easiest way to deal with work that's eating you up? Review your responsibilities; perhaps you are doing work for your colleagues. Very often, many organizations exploit workers in order to save on staff costs. Of course, it is easier to distribute the responsibilities of a vacant position among everyone than to hire another employee and pay him a salary. Especially when people don’t mind and do the work for someone else for free.

Often, management argues that overtime and working on holidays and weekends are “production necessity”, seasonal sales peaks, and so on.

Try to analyze the situation from the outside. Let's say workers have made repairs in your house. Will you demand that they do construction work for free because you can’t wait to move in, but don’t have the money to pay for the services yet?

No! You understand perfectly well that these are your problems, not the builders. Why then do you allow management to use you as free labor? It is not your fault that your organization's staff cannot cope with high sales volumes. It's not your problem. To do this, it is necessary to hire new employees, and not overload the core staff, who already have enough work.

Follow the rule

What is the easiest way to approach work and not worry? Please remember that you are not responsible for anything that goes beyond the scope of the employment contract that you signed upon employment. You should not be delayed by other employees. As soon as the working day ends, all your business at the enterprise is considered completed.

And remember that your family and loved ones need you much more than some managers, shareholders and bosses.

At every enterprise, emergency situations may occur when you really need to stay late. But when this happens regularly, they take advantage of you and don’t consider it necessary to pay.

Stop being afraid of management

Yes, this point is perhaps the most difficult. Few people are not timid in the face of the above and are at a loss when answering a request to work more than their time. But we must remember that our superiors are people just like us. Only they got a different position.

Often, they themselves are shy in front of the employees of the company or enterprise. It is for this reason that the same subordination was created, behind which all the authorities are hiding. Stop being afraid and talk frankly with your manager. Tell him what you're most upset about is why you think he's taking advantage of your work.

Here is a real life case (by the way, this is observed in many enterprises).

“A friend of mine graduated from college and got a job at a company. During the interview, he showed what he was capable of, and he had plenty of talent. So, during the interview, he was promised one salary, but after the job he began to receive about 15% less. The difference, you understand, is quite significant.

I wouldn’t mind immediately going up and talking to the authorities, but my friend was afraid to do this. When he thought about this, something terrible was happening in his soul. He hated himself for being afraid to come up and find out the question, and at the same time he hated his superiors. So more than a year passed and at this moment he dared. In response, he heard words of misunderstanding, complete ignorance and disrespect. All he had to do was change jobs. But you could have raised the issue in the first month and walked away, far away from such unscrupulous employers.”

Therefore, do not waste time; in the case of a meager salary, it only plays against you, but in favor of your management. Let it be scary for you, the main thing is that the demands are legal. They promised one salary, let them pay it. The contract specifies certain days off and vacation, everything must be fulfilled! Well, what can your manager do with you if your demands are completely legal and he must comply with them? Fire - no, he has no right. Unless, after the negative result of the conversation, it is better for you to leave and not return.

I'm afraid of ruining my relationship with management

How can you learn to approach work more simply? Remember that no leader respects timid and soft-bodied people who do not know how to defend their rights. If you obey every request from your superiors and are afraid to refuse a request, then you will never gain respect from the person towards you.

You will not ruin your relationship with management if you demand only what is legally due to you. Take your work life easier. Remember that you got a job, not hired to be a slave. If “slavery” is considered completely legal in your company, then perhaps you should consider changing your workplace.

How to stay calm?

Nervousness in the workplace is created by the person himself , not by those around him. To maintain calm, you need to change your attitude towards what is happening. First you need to plan your day so as not to waste energy on trifles.

First of all, you need to do the difficult tasks, and leave the simpler ones at the end of the day, since by the evening fatigue already accumulates and it is difficult to concentrate on the final result.

Thus, you can stay calm with the right settings:

Do not delve into interpersonal troubles , do not gossip.
Don't take criticism to heart . Only professional, not personal qualities are criticized.
Take management for what it is . You cannot change your boss, you can only adapt to him. If this is not possible, then the only option is to change your workplace.
Treats colleagues kindly , but does not form close friendships or office romances. Refrain from flattery and ingratiation.
Provide a comfortable workplace . Nothing should distract from work; the room should be warm and light.
Rest periodically . Doctors advise taking a break every 2 hours. You can get up, do short exercises, have a snack and drink tea.
Be sure to go for lunch . A hungry employee cannot perform his duties efficiently.
Don’t be afraid to ask for advice or help from more experienced colleagues.
Don't think about home problems and difficulties. In most cases, it is personal issues that create nervousness at work.
If there is a serious problem in the family, then it is better to ask for a day off than to worry and be nervous all day.
Take sick leave in case of illness. You cannot do work with a sore head, fever, etc. Firstly, the rest of the team members will become infected, secondly, the health of the employee himself will deteriorate, and thirdly, the work will be performed poorly, which will create a reason for nervousness.

Free up time

How can you approach work more easily and not let troubles pass you by? It takes time to do anything other than work. And when a person is fixated on his work activity, he does not have a free minute left.

Try not to get distracted at work. Complete your tasks as productively as possible without leaving your tails for evenings or weekends. Of course, it is simply impossible to work without breaks for 8–9 hours. In order to focus on your work as much as possible, you need to take a 5-minute break every half hour.
Gain knowledge of time management. This will allow you to separate things by importance and urgency. Moreover, proper time management techniques help to complete work on time without accumulating a huge number of unfinished tasks.
Use organizers. Using special applications, you can analyze how much time you spend and on what. Subsequently, you can make adjustments to get rid of extraneous activities that take up a lot of time during the day.

Take a rest

How to approach work more easily? Psychology, which studies human behavior in professional activities, confirms the fact that a negative attitude towards one’s work occurs in cases of heavy workload. People may feel that they are irritated by how busy they are. It is important to remember that even a favorite activity can cause negative emotions if you devote maximum time to it.

Wise managers always send an employee on vacation for a few days when they see that the person is really tired. The fact is that professional burnout negatively affects work results. Therefore, sometimes subordinates have to be forced to go on vacation.

Make time to learn new things. Elements of play should be present in your research.

Taking things too seriously can lead to overwork. If we don't learn anything new, we stop in place, which over time leads to a loss of strength and mood. But on the other hand, learning something new can be scary. In this case, a playful learning style is very suitable, it does not take much time, you can do art, music, singing, dancing, drawing, poetry, and no matter how good or bad you do it, you will enjoy it. Since you are not looking for money and fame, you are doing this to find out what is inside of you, allowing your soul to grow.

This applies to all of us, allowing us not to limit ourselves to one area of activity, but to explore many areas of life. Ultimately, the experience we gain can help us in our main work, give us new ideas, or get us off the ground.

Look for the positive

How to approach work more easily? Very often people feel that they have chosen the wrong organization for their professional activities. This is perhaps the most common reason for constant dissatisfaction and tension with your workplace. You need to understand that no job is 100% perfect. Even if someone does what they love, they still encounter moments that bring them discomfort.

To have a simpler attitude towards your place of work, you should analyze all the positive aspects. It can be:

Decent salary level in comparison with similar vacancies offered on the labor market.
Stability and confidence in the future. That is, your company was founded quite a long time ago and has a good reputation. And you can be sure that tomorrow there will be no sharp staff reduction or liquidation of the enterprise. This is especially important for people who are paying off loans or mortgages.
The location of the organization is close to home. You don't need to waste your precious time in traffic jams. And the free 1–2 hours can be spent on relaxation, family or loved ones.
Good team. You are confident that in a difficult situation your colleagues will always support you. Moreover, in your team there are no people capable of doing something mean.
Perhaps you have a flexible or flexible work schedule.
There is room for improvement. You have a large enterprise where there is an opportunity to get a promotion.
Every time the company organizes corporate parties, trips or holidays for the children of employees.
Excellent medical care covered by insurance.

What to do with adverse circumstances

Of course, it could be different. For example, let's say you have a terrible boss who believes that in order to advance in your career, you must remain mostly silent, bring him coffee every morning, and do all the minor work he throws at you. So you check his inbox and get a promotion.

But how will these skills help you in the long run? Will this improve your professional qualities? Will it make you a good candidate for a position at another company? Of course not. Maybe you will rise through the ranks, and then the bosses will change and you will simply be thrown out.

And then it turns out that you have no skills other than the ability to bring coffee and sort out other people's mail, and it will be very difficult for you to find a job with the same high salary.

So don't ask yourself, "What can I do to get promoted?" in another way: “What skills do I need to develop to bring more value to the company or society?”

Even if your employees never get promoted, your business is falling apart, and all external indicators of success - title and salary - leave much to be desired, your skills will not go away.

No matter where you go, your skills and experience will go with you. That's why you shouldn't worry if your career isn't taking off quickly. Maybe a salary reduction and demotion will open the way to new knowledge and opportunities for you?

Don't be afraid of losing your job

People tend to get used to stability. This is especially true for those who work at the same enterprise for several years. If you live in a big city, then you have many options where the salary and working conditions may be much more attractive than at your current place of work.

Don't be afraid of losing your place. There is always a chance to find another job. Moreover, for many people, dismissal becomes not a grief, but a chance to find a more decent place of work. This is important to remember! Since a person who constantly follows the lead of his superiors, and also performs duties not specified in his employment contract, sooner or later burns out. Often such people live in constant stress and worry. Unfortunately, it is not easy for them to understand how to approach work more simply.

Stop being upset about problems at work

He who does not work does not make mistakes. If you have a failure, there is no point in worrying, because it has already happened. Better learn from your mistakes and don’t let them stress you out or suppress new beginnings. We are more afraid not so much of mistakes as of being reprimanded for them by our superiors. So what? Everyone is being scolded! From childhood we had to explain to our parents why we did this or that wrong. It's about the same thing here, only on an adult scale. Well, he’ll say a couple of “kind things” to you, maybe even more rudely. No one has died from them yet, but you will have to “hack” your nose.

The main thing is not to get fired, especially if the job is profitable and loved. And even more so, with an entry in the work book. This is like a negative recommendation; with it, it will be difficult for you to find at least any job in your specialty. Maximum – technical worker, cleaner.

As for the scale of the error, it is unlikely that it is that significant, unless you are a doctor or a driver. As a rule, one learns from mistakes. It is important that in the process of gaining experience, you carefully listen to the advice of more experienced mentors and colleagues and respect their recommendations. You cannot be self-confident, even if you graduated from a higher educational institution with honors. Theory without practice is nothing! You will have to learn your craft again, from the very beginning.

If you made a mistake, it does not mean that you are worthless. Don't be afraid to lose respect, everything will happen, but over time. What matters to your boss is not that you can make a mistake, but how you feel about your obligations.

Responsibility, dedication, desire to participate and increase profitability are what they are interested in in every employee. Therefore, if you made a mistake, a miscalculation, learn from what was perfect and move on! Someone whispers behind your back that you are not capable of anything - don’t pay attention - “The dog barks - the caravan moves on!” Enemies judge, but you improve!

Psychologist's advice

Listen to the advice of experts:

Remember that work should be fun. The fact that you have been sorting through papers for 5–10 years is not at all a reason to be proud of your position.
Reflect on what you really like.
Get out of your comfort zone regularly. Every person needs a reboot. It often happens that people tend to perceive their simple work as an exhausting activity over time. Sometimes it just seems that way.
Remember that it is better to do one thing well than to do ten things poorly.
If you can't take your work easier for some minor reason that you can't figure out, then most likely you're not getting what you expected from your work. For some, a good team is important; for others, money or career growth is important. To make work easier, a person must be sure that he fully satisfies his needs. So stop for a moment and think about what you primarily want to get out of your professional work.

What is the essence of a career?

If you had asked me at 22 about my career plans, I would have looked at you blankly and then changed the subject.
And this doesn’t mean that I didn’t think about work at all. I was ambitious, dreamed of gaining financial independence and was afraid of upsetting my parents. (They wanted me to become a doctor because it is a “very stable profession.” I think they are still upset that I didn’t go into medicine.) I was also hoping to find a job where you don’t look at hours, waiting for the day to end.

However, I didn’t think about it often. It was somehow awkward for me to even think seriously about a career. I really didn’t want to turn into a selfish suck-up who flattered her boss to get promoted.

Also, at 22, I got my first job at a startup where everything was moving too fast. There was no time to sit and think about the skills and experience you might need. Who cares about career talk when you're going to change the world?

But if you don't think about your career, you're leaving everything to chance. Maybe this will lead you to what you've always wanted. Or maybe not. So why rely on chance when you can control the process?

Here's a truth I wish I had known much sooner:

Your career is defined by skills and how you use them, not by outward signs of progress.

However, in society it is customary to judge a career by salary, position, bonuses or participation in prestigious events.

I often hear people say, “I want to climb the corporate ladder. What should I do?" This is a completely normal question, but I suspect there is a pattern behind it: career advancement = encouragement. I think this is wrong.

I think it's like saying you're a good friend because you were invited to a wedding. Of course, friends are usually invited to a wedding. But if you want to become a true friend, you won't ask for it. You will simply do everything to be him, and then you will probably receive an invitation envelope, even if you never dreamed of it.

It's the same with a career. If you focus primarily on improving your skills and bringing more value to your company or society as a whole, you will automatically climb the career ladder and your income will increase.

Tips for men and women

Representatives of the stronger sex should:

Remember that career is very important for men. Therefore, it is necessary to develop and learn throughout your life. Only a professional in his field will be able to approach his work more simply. Since he is sure that in case of reduction or dismissal he has nothing to fear.
Office romances often interfere with careers and also destroy family relationships. And men who fall into such networks are rarely able to take their work easier.

A woman must remember that:

Her main task is to succeed as a mother and wife. And you can always change your job.
There is no need to equate yourself with men. By acting exclusively as a woman, you have a greater chance of success.
Girls should avoid conflict situations at work, as they are more emotional and impressionable. And in order to approach work more simply, harmony in relationships with colleagues and superiors is important for the fair sex.

Tip #1: Remember your reasons for hiring

If you have already been convinced more than a dozen times of the massive shortcomings of your work, it is worth thinking about the positive aspects. Don’t believe that there are any in your work? Then remember the moment when you signed an employment contract at your current place.

Yes, you could argue that this was the only option available to you. Or the current position offered a fairly significant material reward. The reasons may be very different, but the fact that they exist is certainly important. And for sure, if you had missed this place, you would have had a hard time at that moment.