Improving your wellbeing at work: A personal audit

The following questions are prompted to help you make a plan to improve your wellbeing:

 1) Diet

• What foods give me the right energy for my working day?
• What food or drink makes me feel tired?
• How can I make it easy to establish and keep good habits around what I eat?
• How can I make it more inconvenient to eat unhealthy foods or drink too much coffee?

2) Exercise

• How can I build more movement into my working day?
• How can I make sure I take breaks and get some exercise?
• Can I build more movement into my commute?
• What types of exercise do I enjoy? And can I make it a more regular habit?

3) Stress

• What are my main sources of stress?
• Which stressors can I do something about?
• What can I do to recover from stressful feelings? i.e. exercise, meditation, talking to people, taking a break to do something else.
• Am I getting enough sleep?

4) Relationships

• Which relationships at work make me feel stressed or anxious?
• Does anyone drain my energy?
• How can I avoid feeling drained or stressed when interacting with certain people?
• Is there a way I can change the dynamics of a relationship by behaving differently myself?
• Do I need to increase my understanding of others and how they like to work?

5) Workload

• Am I clear about my priorities?
• Are there any tasks I don’t actually need to do at all?
• Is there anything that can be delegated?
• Are there any tools which would minimise my workload?
• Am I organised enough to be clear about what needs to be done each day?
• Am I realistic about what can be achieved each day?

6) Habits

• Are there any habits I have which are unhelpful? E.g checking social media too much; drinking too much coffee
• Can I try replacing them with more helpful habits?
• How can I make it easier to keep to my new habits? E.g. buying healthy snack to bring to work; switching off my phone or blocking time-wasting websites.

7) Fulfilment

• Am I in the right job?
• Do my values align with what the company is aiming to do?
• Am I using my skills?
• Am I spending much more time alone or with other people than is ideal for me?
• Do I feel like I am progressing towards something?
• Am I learning and developing in my career?

8) Work environment

• What are my main distractions at work? How can I minimise them?
• Can I be flexible about where I work? Perhaps moving to different locations for creative work or something that requires concentration?
• Can I save time on commuting by working at home or somewhere nearby?
• Can I make any small changes to make my work environment more comfortable or productive?

You may now want to complete your own action plan like the example below: