When you’re having a ‘bad day’ it helps to remember that tomorrow can be better. Every 24 hours we’re given a new opportunity to start fresh, leaving everything that was terrible about yesterday back there in the past.
But even the most optimistic of new days can quickly spiral out of control and see you declaring yourself stuck having yet another ‘bad day’ before you’ve even had your morning coffee.
Prevention is always better than a cure. Stop a potentially great day from becoming a bad one with the following tips.
- Think good things from the beginning.
There’s always at least one possibility available in a new day that can make you feel positive about what’s to come from the moment you wake. Start the day with a fresh perspective of whatever went on yesterday and remember the glass is half full, rather than half empty, at least until somebody tips the rest out on you.
- Don’t check your emails until you’re actually on the clock.
It’s so tempting as you’re hitting snooze on your phone alarm clock to scan down to that little mail icon to see what’s come in overnight. But reading such emails while you’re still half asleep could have you risking a number of problems: such as forgetting to action them later on, or getting yourself into a tizzy about how much there is to do before you’ve even stepped out of bed. Relax a little. The emails can wait and have a better chance of being appropriately and rationally dealt with once you’ve fully crossed into work mode.
- Write a doable, but ambitious, list
Write a to-do list and use it to guide you through your day. Keep it ambitiously motivating, but realistic enough that you have a 50/50 chance of getting through it. There’s no satisfaction in getting to the bottom of a list that was too basic and doable from the moment you wrote it. Give yourself a challenge. Some days you’ll succeed, others days you won’t. But at least you’ll know that EVERY day you tried.
- Eat and drink well
You know that lethargic, guilty feeling you get when you eat too much disgusting food? Avoid it by eating just as much but replacing the amount with foods that actually do you good rather than merely fill you up. Keep a large bottle of iced water (with lemon if possible to make it more appealing) close to you and remember to hydrate before you dehydrate.
- Celebrate something every day
So you didn’t get as much planned as you’d hoped and feel you wasted your time putting out fires. The fact those fires were contained is still worth celebrating. Or perhaps you got talking with your colleagues and enjoying yourself too much to have been as productive as you’d planned. In that case, take the fact you had a little fun as another reason to celebrate. The other option is to find something you learnt from the day — be it via the mistake you made or fact you didn’t get as much done as you’d have liked — to take into the next day, and to celebrate the fact you’re still learning. Yep, you can always find a way to win.