What to Do at Work When You Aren’t at Your Best

The PR industry can be fast paced…and stressful. From client demands to account deadlines, there’s a lot on a PR pro’s plate. And given your office might be in the same place you live, it’s inevitable that the distractions of your personal life carry over into work.

Therefore, it’s important for you to know that you don’t have to feel and be at your best every day.

It certainly doesn’t feel that way though, especially when work doesn’t stop and people strive to hit their goals.

It’s OK to be tired, distracted, or frustrated. What’s important is taking time to label how you feel, accept these feelings, then think about how you adapt. Research out of UC Berkeley published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology shows that embracing darker moods can actually make you feel better.

“We found that people who habitually accept their negative emotions experience fewer negative emotions, which adds up to better psychological health,” said study senior author Iris Mauss.

The researchers suggest that by bottling up dark emotions or judging yourself harshly for having them, you end up feeling more psychologically stressed.

Accepting that you don’t feel your best is the first step. Improving your mood is next. That could mean focusing on a few things instead of trying to get a lot done, such as tackling smaller, less time-consuming tasks before taking on big ones. Or that could mean only focusing on one larger task. Definitely avoid multitasking—University of Houston researchers found that juggling multiple tasks at once can lead to feelings of sadness and fear. You should also consider making small adjustments to your day, such as taking time to eat a good lunch or unplugging for a bit and going for a walk.

Of course, we all still have a job to do, with deadlines and people counting on our work, but our ability to be self-aware and make even the smallest adjustment to our day is a superpower that we all possess.

See the original article by Trey Ditto on Medium.