Ideas for making your day better

All of us, no matter what our current occupation, have good days and bad days at work.  The author Caroline Webb has distilled her experience as a management consultant and her research in behavioral science and psychology to give us seven building blocks on How to Have a Good Day.

First of all, it helps to understand what is meant by having a good day. Some of the ingredients include: feeling productive, confidence in your work, knowing you have the support of others and feeling more energized than exhausted at the end of the day.  So how do we ensure that we have more good days?  The author includes a chart that explains the process of having a good day: starting with priorities and increasing productivity, followed by having meaningful interactions, putting your most creative self forward while having a visible impact and at the same time being to overcome adversity and remain energetic.  Easier said than done, right?

The subtitle of the book is "Harness the Power of Behavioral Science to Transform your Working Life" so the author looks at some scientific research into how the brain works and how we can go about re-programming it (if necessary).  The three main themes that are quoted are deliberate vs. automatic, threat vs. reward, and mind vs. body.  By looking at these three areas, we can become more mindful and deliberate in choosing how we respond to events throughout our day.

My favorite chapter was definitely "Boosting Your Brainpower."  It gives many concrete ways that you can improve your attitude and concentration in order to best attack any task.  I plan to look back on these techniques when I'm wrestling with a difficult problem to get some perspective on ways to approach it which might make it seem more manageable.  Even things such as getting enough sleep and a few short bursts of moderate exercise every day are helpful and suggestions that I'm sure we all can follow!

Disclaimer:  I received a copy of How to Have a Good Day from Blogging for Books in exchange for this review