Some love variation, some love routines. Some love having a lot going on at the same time, others don’t. Some love starting projects, others love finishing projects. Some feel free when there are rules, others feel limited and constrained by rules.
If you value routines and work in an environment that changes rapidly it’s likely that you will be exhausted a huge part of your time at work. If you appreciate working on many different projects but can only work on one at a time you could find yourself being demotivated and exhausted.
The combination is important, not the style.
Which is better? Neither of course! Below are 5 questions that you can ask yourself to discover if your natural style matches your environment, or if you have a mismatch. Discovering a mismatch is the first step to making a change to yourself or your environment which in turn can help you be more happy at work.
Discover yourself
If you’d like to discover how well your style and your environment match each other, answer the following questions before reading the rest of the blog post.
- Which of the two styles (variation or routine) do you identify yourself with the most?
- What does your environment ask from you?
- Which activities* that you do at work gives your energy?
- Which activities* that you do at work drains your energy?
- Which of the activities do You personally have to do?
*examples of activities are: reading mail, creating reports, planning, coffee breaks with colleages, 1:1 with my manager, product demos, user testing etc etc.
Potential insights
Your answer to these questions could give you insight into why you feel so low, grumpy, or even mad at work. Or you could discover that you’re avoiding urgent and important work, simply because it’s energy draining.
You are looking for the differences between Q(question)1 and Q2, and Q3 and Q4. You are also looking for how many of the activities you do in Q4 that you personally have to do and that you cannot delegate i.e. your main responsibilities. If you have more activities in Q4 than Q3 and you can’t delegate it might be time to speak to your manager or to look for new opportunities.
Self awareness allows you to own the strategy for your life and behavior.
Without self awareness we’re operating on autopilot. We don’t know how we affect other people and how other people affect us. Without self awareness we don’t own the strategy of our behavior and live.
Now look at your answers.
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- What have you learned about yourself and your environment?
- What change do you need to make to be more happy at work?
Feel free to contact me if you’d like to talk more about your findings.