photo:ohhcouture

 

Spending a year on placement, I’m only getting a little taste of the nine to five. With a return to the lazy, unstructured University experience still awaiting me. As a result, I’m often asked how excited I am to leave the corporate world and go back to the laid-back, student lifestyle. Well, actually not excited at all.

Lack of structure is a thing I’ve always struggled with. I didn’t realize how much I needed it until I fell in love with working nine to five.

Don’t believe I could love it? Still believe all the negative associations that Dolly Parton brought to light in her iconic song about working nine to five? Here’s why you should join me and fall in love with it too.

Structure means productivity
Ever had one of those ‘working from home days’ where you’ve ended up twenty episodes in on Netflix? Haven’t we all? The idea of working at home is great, but there are often far too many distractions for you to be productive. To actually get stuff done, an office environment with set working hours might just be exactly what you need.

Set hours can help with workload
Outside of nine to five there are no real boundaries for how long you can work. It is easy to overwork when there are no set hours in place. The nine to five can help you with finding the work-life balance you should be striving to achieve.

Routine can be great for motivation
We are creatures of routine. Our lives have been made up of routine, from school to the fact that we eat breakfast, lunch and dinner in that order. Although we often we feel as though we need a break from it, we need routine in our lives to remain motivated and be as productive as possible.

So how do you fall in love with 9 to 5? Some of us will just never love it. Because we’re in the wrong environment, or we’re born leaders created to start our own companies (even so the 9 to five when you work for yourself can be amazing). In which case, it’s sometimes good to know when to quit. But, if you’re on the fence, here are a few ways to fall in love with your 9 to 5 again.

1. Communicate with leaders 

Ask your managers and leaders what their goals are, why they’re excited about this job and what their motivation is. You aren’t prying, you just want to refocus your own goals around them. Communicating with them regularly will give you a boost of excitement to keep going.

2. Change what you can control 

You can control things that are making you unhappy, so a word with your manager or an attempt at making peace with your co-workers can go a long way.

3. Take on more responsibilities

Yes I’m recommending increasing your workload because with an increase in responsibility comes an increase in pay and maybe even a more senior role. Job satisfaction comes from being truly passionate about all you have to do.

4. Create a vision board

Sometimes all you need is to envision your happiness and figure out how your job fits into it all. We recommend creating a vision board to get it all together and motivate yourself.

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