how to love your job

the first rule to this would obviously be to chose a job that is at least remotely interesting to you. but sadly even then the occasional frustration can’t be avoided. here are a few suggestions for counteracting that and getting real satisfaction from the occupation you spend a major part of your time on. and even though i don’t always manage to drive to work with a big smile on my face, these tips make it easier to make the best of it.

1. tolerate your colleagues, they have to tolerate you too. just try to remember that nobody’s perfect, not even you. that makes enduring all the little annoying habits of the people around you more manageable.

2. get to know your colleagues. first of all you’re going to spend a significant amount of time with them, and that is a lot more agreeable when „good morning“ and „see you tomorrow“ is not all you say to each other all day. having a social life with lots of human interaction is important and it’s good to incorporate that into your job. also the better you know someone the more likely it is that you will find something loveable about them. and last but not least it will also have a positive effect on working together with them.

3. be good at what you do and keep getting better. never stop learning and changing, don’t get too comfortable. it is tempting to think that after a couple of months you have seen it all, but if you make the effort there is always something to get better at, always an interesting question to ask. and how could a challenging job ever be a boring job?

4. be prepared to work more and stay longer than you absolutely have to. get noticed. but don’t forget that a good horse jumps only as high as it has to. which means that staying until midnight and finishing a task that no one will look at until the following week and that is the only thing you have to do until then is obviously not what i mean. but sometimes putting in a little extra effort or anticipating something that is going to come up and preparing for it without being asked to is never a bad idea. it will get you appreciated and being appreciated makes working more fun.

5. also don’t just see your job as a way to make money, a prerequisite for surviving. you spend too much time on it for that. instead be aware of the advantages your job offers you. be thankful for it, never take it for granted. try to find something meaningful in what you do. if you can’t, skip to point 10.

6. don’t see mistakes as failures but as opportunities to learn. be active about getting feedback instead of avoiding it. embrace even negative critiques – after all they are the ones that can really help you get better at what you do. also never be mad at someone for criticizing your work. it’s a lot easier to just say: „you did that really well“ and then correct it secretly than to make the effort to point out mitakes and suggest improvements. if someone takes that time be grateful. and don’t try to explain why you did something the way you did it. i am pretty sure that no one cares to hear the reasons for something that is not right and i also don’t think that anyone doubts that some consideration has gone into the work you’ve done – it’s just not satisfying which is why it has to be corrected.

7. don’t worry about potential problems until they become a reality. this is something i really have to work on. once i have handed in something i wrote i tend to worry that it won’t be good enough. or when i am asked into a personal meeting i get all nervous that it might be about a mistake i made. this keeps my mind off the task at hand and keeps me from doing the best job i can. also it’s bad for my nerves and for my mood. and in the end most of the times things aren’t as bad as i imagined. so what i will have to do is stop making up worst case scenarios and just calmly wait and see what is going to happen, maybe even try to think of something good that might come up. and while this is important in a job it’s something that’s probably helpful in all kinds of situations.

8. make your spare time count. there might be little, but sometimes less is more. since i started working my spare time really matters to me which is why i waste less of it sleeping in, being hungover or watching stupid sitcoms. of course i still do that, but i also try to find things that give me something to look forward to in advance as well as something nice to look back on during the following week at work. setting specific dates for these special occasions with friends helps tremendously, for example: attend a monthly reading, watch germany’s next topmodel together every thursday, always have sushi together the last wednesday of the month, always go to a pilates class together on sundays. something i intend to improve upon in the future is using my week nights more. it’s often a drag to go out after work but once you do it’s always worth it. and going to sleep at ten is just a waste of time.

9. have „how to work better“ by fischli & weiss as your desktop image. try to read it and think about what it means from time to time.

how to work better

10. recognize the moment when it’s time to move on. don’t stay to long out of convenience.

of course that is just my opinion and i am by no means an expert on this topic – but still maybe some of the suggestions can be of a little help. or do you completely disagree with one of the points? what do you do to make your work more enjoyable?