Enrich your work day

Doing the 8 hour day, 5 days a week can be pretty draining but for some its a necessity even for a short period for time to get to were they want to be. I work as a Social care worker and love the helping others and social aspect of my work, however when I got pregnant I was put on health and safety placement in an office as the house I worked in was deemed too high risk. I found the transition back to 9-5 office life pretty hard and felt very out of sync with my naturally rhythms. But I made a conscious decision that these work days would not be days wished away and switched my mind to all the positive things I could still fit in. Below are some of the tools I used to stay positive, enjoy my days at a desk and make them as productive as possible.

Every experience is there to teach us something, in fact everyday has something to teach us we just have to remain open and let the good flow in.

Morning pages
This one of those tools that everyone should use, I learned about it from the book ‘The Artist Way’ by Julia Cameron (which is also a book everyone should read artist or not), which helps start your day on a positive note. Or if not a positive note the awareness that, ‘wow I’m cranky this morning, I need to flip that shit around or this whole days going to be suck’. Basically you buy yourself a A4 pad, note book anything you can write but make it a designated space for morning pages, and every morning preferable first thing (this was never the case with me, I always wrote on the train) put pen to paper and write. Its not a dairy, your not writing to be fancy, reflective or re-read later, your just writing free hand without caring what comes out. I love doing them as it acts as a brain dump, all my random thoughts and all my weird feels put down on paper, attention brought to them, now I could move on with my day. A fresh perspective with really powerful results after a couple of weeks.

Bring healthy options
A huge thing for me when I started back in the office was how much crap food there was constantly luring me. Theres always a box of chocolates in the office, ridicules amounts of biscuits in the kitchen and when your feeling shit about your day a quick chocolate fix always seems like a good idea. However really it just makes things worse, the sugar crashes and cravings are just anther thing I could do without affecting my mood. So again I put a bit or effort in and started to bring my own health snack options. Seems simple but I really made such a difference to how I felt both physically and mentally. I brought fresh fruit, dried fruit, nuts, seeds, my own herbal teas and of course always had water at my desk.

Incorporate exercise into your day
This can be hard when your already so busy and for me ridiculous tired. Its so hard to be motivated to exercise when you’ve already used all your motivation up just getting out of bed and into work. So for me I knew I had to make exercise part of my routine, a ‘have to’ rather than a ‘ill do it when I get home’. I decide I would do the 40 walk from my office to the train every evening (although there is a bus) this way its built into my routine and I always did it and felt so much better for it. Everyone knows the benefits of exercise I don’t think I need to explain the pros of an endorphin fix. Others in my office go to the 6.30am gym classes and rave about how it sets them up for the day, I can see how but for me sleep is my priority, do what works for you.

Fill your commute
If your driving or using public transport the greatest thing I started doing was viewing my commute as ‘me time’ rather than ‘wasted time’, maybe this just comes with being a parent and any alone quite time is a blessing. I always have a good book on the go, a podcast to listen to or if I just want to zone out music. My most recent addition as I near the end of my pregnancy is relaxation and hypnobirthing tracks as a prep for another birth, if it wasn’t for my commute I wouldn’t have time for all the this so its really a positive to my day.

Wind down & sleep well
Ive always found it hard to chill out after work, my mind would always be on auto drive and going 100 miles an hour with all the days business, thus affecting my sleep. A good evening routine, with limited technology and lots of self care always improves my week, theres always lavender in the oil burner or incense lit with a 10 o’clock in bed lights out rule. Since becoming parents were always up at least once a night with an early 6am start most days, we’ve learnt from expericene the most productive thing we can do with our evening is chill, get to bed early and sleep!

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