Are you feeling unsatisfied with your job? Perhaps you are experiencing a sense of disengagement? Even if you are working in your dream job, learning to be satisfied can take time. It involves a process of self-discovery, hard-work and perseverance. Here are 7 ways to achieve job satisfaction in your job.
1. Do Something Every Day That Makes You Happy
Doing something every day that makes you happy helps you to overcome weariness and increases job satisfaction. It can be something as simple as making your bed each morning before work, having coffee with colleagues or buying fresh flowers. Perhaps your walk to work in the morning helps to boost your energy for the day or the after work gym session helps to clear your mind. Whatever it is, try to discover small things about your day that make you happy and integrate them into your daily routine. Happy people are more productive, motivated and creative at work.
2. Learn To Delegate
Delegating responsibilities can have a big impact on your productivity. Learning to delegate can take practice and there are a few key considerations that must be made. Firstly, you need to decide what can be delegated. This can be the difficult part and involves reviewing the material/task in detail before handing it over.
Next, you need to find the best person to delegate to. You want to delegate to someone who you are confident will carry out the task to the best of their abilities and who will feel comfortable approaching you if there is an issue. You need to have an understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of your team.
Also, you need to be honest about the task and be able to communicate the key deliverables clearly. Delegating can help you achieve better job satisfaction as you have more time to concentrate on important tasks, therefore, reducing stress and time spent on one project.
3. Avoid Multi-Tasking
Studies have proven that multi-tasking can negatively affect your memory, increase your stress levels and cause more mistakes and inaccuracies in a given task. This can inevitably lead to lower satisfaction in your job. What works best is to dedicate time to one task or activity and giving it all of your focus. If you are struggling to perform all your tasks at work look at what you can delegate, as discussed above or speak to your line manager who can help take some of the workload from you.
4. Be A Lifelong Student
Continuous learning will help you both professionally and personally. Learning something new regularly will help keep your knowledge up to date, your skills fresh and your brain in a state of readiness. This will help you be more productive in your daily job and therefore more satisfied overall.
You should use every opportunity to learn, either through formal or informal means. This includes academic study, training, seminars and conferences as well as reading industry reports and white papers.
5. Foster relationships and build a network
Look at the relationships you can cultivate with the people who you work with. Although you can’t force a friendship at work, you can create the environment for these connections to form. Getting involved with activities at work can help, like organizing team lunches, group projects or after work drinks. Friendships at work play an important role in achieving satisfaction.
Also, having a network of support professionals can help you achieve a higher level of job satisfaction. There are three networks that are important to examine when deciding how to do this:
- Operational
- Personal
- Strategic
The operational network encompasses those who you currently work with and help you perform your job. These are your colleagues, project team members, managers, customers and suppliers. Your personal network includes those that are not directly related to your job but may work in the same company, sector or industry as you. And your strategic network includes those outside of your industry who can help give you professional advice and provide you with opportunities to develop.