How to set yourself up for a great day …

 

Photo by Nathan Dumlao on Unsplash.com

Photo by Nathan Dumlao on Unsplash.com

Your morning mood can affect your whole work day. Here are some tips to have a good one!

Start the day in a happy way
Researchers found that we found that the start-of-the-day mood lasts longer than people think and impacts job performance. They found that people who started their day in a positive frame of mind or a calm way, maintained that mindset. Furthermore, their interactions with clients/customers tended to enhance their mood.

On the flip side, the findings were that people who started the day in a negative mood tended to stay in it. They often felt even worse by the end of the day, despite interactions with positive customers.

Positive vibes enhance performance
Not only were people’s moods were enhanced by positive frame of mind. Work performance was also enhanced. This was seen in higher quality service output and better communication in terms of articulation and accuracy of language expression. By contrast, people with a negative frame of mind were found to take more frequent work breaks to deal with the stress of the day. As a result, their productivity was seen to drop by as much as 10%.

What can you do to harness this knowledge?
Find a way to “set your mood” at the start of the day. Perhaps you need a deliberate act of setting your mindset for the day. This could be done personally or with your work team, setting them up to succeed from the start. The researchers coined this term “intentional transition”.

Intentional transition is achieved by taking steps to lose your negativity before arriving at work.
(Rothbard, 2016)

Ways to make your intentional transition 
Suggestions for making this transition include:

  • taking alternative routes to work
  • giving yourself a pep talk
  • stopping for coffee
  • listening to inspiring music, or
  • taking a deep breath before walking in the door, to focus on making the most of the new day

I would love to hear how you you start your day in a happy way? Please comment below.

Source: Rothbard, Nancy. 2016. “How Your Morning Mood Affects Your Whole Workday” in Harvard Business Review. 21 July 2016.

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