Bored at Work? Try Something New!

By Kiernan King, Toppel Peer Advisor

It just isn’t how it used to be anymore. You were once excited to wake up early, put on that new uniform and make a difference!

Now your alarm howls, you roll out of bed with ten minutes to spare and speed to work hoping you’re not late, or do you even care that you are? You find yourself going through the motions and can’t seem to understand what keeps driving you to come back each day.

Here’s how to get back to your roots and fix it. Let’s try something new:

1. Get To Know the People You Work With Better.

Employees feel positively about expectations and opportunities in a job they apply for yet might feel like they’re alone even in a crowded room of coworkers during lunch break. Contributions need to be recognized, opinions need to be heard, employees need to be cared for.

To do so, start building new relationships with those who have interests similar to yours. Ask them where they are from; geographical questions are some of the easiest way to make a connection with someone you’re meeting for the first time.

2. Change Your Space

Staring at grey cubical walls all day can be rather un-inspirational. Perhaps ask your boss if he or she would consider giving the employees a budget to spruce up the environment to make it more conducive to creativity. Doing so would be a great work activity and would also allow freedom of expression which not only de-stresses but also fills the office with color and can uplift the mood.

3. Incorporate Social Media in Your Workday

If you tweet one good thing that happens every day, soon you’ll have a running log of happy, positive messages. When you’re feeling down, you can go back through these and laugh at the memories they evoke. These little messages can serve as reminders that your office is actually more fun than you think!

4. Stress…Who Needs It?

Exercise has tremendous impacts on mental, emotional and physical well-being and fighting stress proactively involves incorporating exercise in your daily routine. Play sand volleyball, get a game of pickup basketball going, even try yoga! Also, make sure you’re getting at least seven to eight hours of sleep each night. Coming to work tired and lethargic will only add to the stress of getting all your work done without a full nights rest.

5. Take on New Challenges

When you began with your company, everything seemed like new challenges that you were excited to take on and enjoyed being a problem solver. After some time there, those obstacles become more commonplace and frustrating. Talk to your boss and see if you can start a new project or cross-train in another department. Volunteer to help a coworker with a difficult task, helping someone else achieve his or her goals may re-instill a sense of purpose. 

So is it possible to love your job again or are you ready to call it quits? If you change the way you think about a given situation you begin to change the way you feel about it.