How to be happier at work

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(MoneyWatch) COMMENTARY Happiness is much in the news this week with the release of Gretchen Rubin's Happier at Home, her sequel to the book-turned-cultural phenomenon known as The Happiness Project. In her latest book, she spends a year pursuing domestic bliss. She re-examines her possessions, how she spends her time, how she interacts with her family members and comes up with lots of additions to the happiness toolkit. Go on adventures with each kid. Take up a new challenge. Become a tourist in your own neighborhood. Create shrines to happy memories.

It's all fascinating advice, but while we want our homes to be a refuge, we spend a lot of time at work, too. And so, the book got me thinking: Are there ways to do a happiness project in the office as well?

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I do believe that whatever you are doing now, professionally, you can make your work life better in a million ways. Happiness is ultimately a choice. Here are a few ways to choose it on the job:

1. Put something on your desk that makes you smile. Sure, the photos of your kids are great, but I'm guessing you start looking past them after they're there long enough. Switch them up every few months, and think outside the photo album. What about a bright orange flower? A print? (My mood is improved by several Wendy Hollender botanical drawings on my office walls).

2. Schedule something to savor during every workday. Maybe it's lunch at a new place, 15 minutes reading a good book on your break, or a phone call to an old colleague to catch up. Plan it in, so you can enjoy the anticipation as well.

3. Choose your projects carefully. Hopefully one of the benefits of climbing up your corporate ladder is getting to spend more of your time on things you want to do. When you're excited about a project, you're naturally more focused and cheery. Aim to be in that state most of the time. Seek these projects out and do what it takes to land them.

4. Challenge yourself. We are happiest when working right at the limits of our abilities, attempting things that are difficult but doable.

5. Get a grip on your time. Time wasters (random web surfing, instantly responding to email) are fun in the moment, but weigh you down like eating too much fast food. Fill your work hours with important things, and you'll naturally devote less time to things that don't matter.

6. Make friends. Try to grab coffee with someone new each week. Social ties are a strong component of happiness, and knowing people personally makes work less chilly.

7. Take the long view. You can perceive ambiguous comments as slights, and ruminate on them all day. Or you can remind yourself that you will have absolutely no memory of this incident two years from now. One mindset will definitely make you happier than the other.

8. Choose the bigger life. That's the tagline of Happier at Home, and as Rubin quotes Samuel Johnson, "Life is barren enough surely with all her trappings... let us therefore be cautious how we strip her." We often like to keep things simple. We like to avoid rocking the boat. But while trying to improve a popular product, or reform a storied culture is a huge risk, in the end, we only live once. You can hold your fire, but what are you saving your energy for? Spend out -- and you may just buy happiness.

[ETomGimbel]

Laura, all of these tips are spot on. Your sixth point - "make friends" - is something that is crucial to both your happiness at work and your career development. However, I think too often people get in the habit of coming in at 8 a.m. and leaving at 5 p.m., never capitalizing on the opportunity to socialize with coworkers. Relationships with your peers will help you stay engaged and satisfied and eventualy get promoted. I talk about work-life happiness on my blog if you're interested in further insight: http://pastfive.typepad.com/pastfive/2012/05/work-life-balance-doesnt-exist-aim-for-work-life-happiness.html

[RECESSitator]

What people need to realize is that mployee Happiness is everyone's responsibility; not just the employee. There are tons of things to do. For starters.....Institute a "Diary of The Happiest Employee on Earth" philosophy. Learn more about it here: http://******/GRHGL

[tramky]

There is an assumption in all of this that the management consists of rational people. Hate to puncture the balloon, but that is likely not the case. More likely is that management harbors a number of sociopaths, if not downright psychopaths, who should NEVER be involved with people.

These are usually people who, following the Peter Principle like clockwork, are promoted to their level of incompetence. They are hopelessly sociopathic, hopelessly incompetent, hopelessly toxic in the workplace. They WILL suck your soul dry, and will then kick the dusty remains. It is unlikely that you will establish a real career, that you will be a whole human being at your job. At some point, after you reach age 45 or 50, it will all run downhill and you will be attacked for what you know, for what you cost, for what your opinions are. You will become disliked, almost overnight. And your management will begin to work toward getting rid of you. And that will be some time before you are eligible for retirement and the benefits that accrue from all that work. No, no, they will act to get rid of you, and it won't be pretty. Oh, they will try to divert responsibility from themselves, but they ARE out out to get you.

[estabwary]

Go to Human Resources early when people say off the wall crap and they can't focus on their work. If HR won't nip it in the bud early, tell them it is a hostile work environment and you can't be efficient. Don't let these bimbos get away with it because they won't stop till you quit. And then they will do it to the next nice, focused, skilled person.

[rwsmith29456]

A happy employee will not be tolerated and must be dealt with.

[orion444100]

Regarding No. 7, a top editor at my old newspaper keeps a "permanent sh*t list" in his filing cabinet detailing every slight, its nature, who committed it and the date. I have seen this list, and it goes back more than 20 years.

[AlBlack52]

Well that is taking the long view I guess, but not in a good way. Just think how much better a person your editor would have been had he kept a rewards list of people who had done him a favour, worked well for him or saved his ass over the previous 20 years, so he could at some stage seek to return the favour.

[rmazin]

Another tactic to dampen the enthusiasm of naysayers is to respond, "What can you do to change the situation?" It creates a paradigm shift requiring their involvement.

[lvanderkam]

Sounds like a good idea - it's all good to complain, but actually doing something about a situation? Some people will run screaming.

[Jim_Schwartz_85]

#9: avoid negative, complaining whiners as much as you can. They are psychic vampires, soul suckers. One thing I found that seems to work is, after they have complained about something or someone, I say, "now say something positive (about that thing or person)". They will stop coming around. Apparently this puts a damper on their negativity. In other words, they seem to enjoy being unhappy.