By Phoebe Farag Mikhail

Subscribe to my email newsletter and then comment below about your #happierlaborday to win a copy of either Outer Order, Inner Calm by Gretchen Rubin or No Hard Feelings by Liz Fosslien and Mollie West Duffy! Current subscribers need only comment.

Last year around Labor Day, Gretchen Rubin suggested on her Happier podcast to use Labor Day as an opportunity to reflect on work, and specifically, “What could I do to make my work life happier, healthier, more productive, and more creative? What do I want to accomplish in my year of work?” I love this idea of choosing this time of year to consider our work lives and do things to improve them. While September seems a natural “new start” for those who are staring school or have children starting school, in my tradition, the Coptic New Year falls in September, not January, making this literally a new year and a great time to take stock.

I’ve taken a few steps towards making my work life happier, healthier, more productive and more creative myself: buying my 2020 planner earlier to begin putting plans in it, organizing my workspace to make it easier to access the things I need, and resolving to read more poetry. I’ve reflected on how much I enjoyed and learned from the writing conferences I attended last June, and how I want to do more to engage with writing communities and connect to other writers.

The fact that we can ask ourselves these questions about our work, especially here in the United States, is due in no small part to the history of labor (and organized labor) itself. Weekends, overtime pay, sick leave, the Occupational Safety and Hazard Administration (OSHA) regulations, and other employee rights are due in no small part to the struggles of laborers and labor unions, with sometimes even deadly confrontations. Interestingly, the first recorded labor strike may have been in Egypt, when laborers building the tomb of Ramses III went on strike until they were paid.

In that spirit, I’d add to Rubin’s questions, “What can I do to help others also have happier, healthier, more productive, and more creative work lives?” One way is to help advocate for paid sick leave, which is not standard across the United States for many workers, forcing many to forgo payment, or even their jobs, if they get sick. The Paid Sick Days Coalition is a great resource for campaigns on this issue. I just sent a letter to my members of Congress, for example, to support the Healthy Families Act.

We can also help others by considering how our work, habits, and emotions can affect those immediately around us. This past year, I’ve read two books that have been helpful in this respect: Gretchen Rubin’s Outer Order, Inner Calm: Declutter and Organize to Make More Room for Happiness, and Liz Fosslien and Mollie West Duffy’s No Hard Feelings: The Secret Power of Embracing Emotions at Work. I have one copy of each book to give away to one of my readers.

Outer Order, Inner Calm: Declutter and Organize to Make More Room for Happiness by Gretchen Rubin is a great little book full of tips for how to be more organized. Unlike the more popular Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo, which advocates one specific approach to tidying and decluttering, Rubin’s approach is to consider that different methods might work best for different people. For example, rather than choosing whether or not to dispose of something by asking if it “sparks joy, “For people (like me) who don’t find that question particularly helpful, try, “Does this energize me?” For me, focusing on “energy” rather than “joy” provides more clarity.”

Rubin also offers a different perspective on stuff that employs more grace than the current minimalist frenzy:

“When your parents are driving you crazy because they’ve kept every piece of your schoolwork back to kindergarten, or when you’re driving yourself crazy because you can’t bring yourself to toss your husband’s ragged college T-shirts, remember: All this junk is an expression of love.”

It doesn’t mean you have to keep it, but it does address the sense of frustration one might feel when sorting box upon box of papers you wonder why they were being preserved in the first place.

In an era of shared workspace (even for those of us who work from home), keeping outer order isn’t just about our own inner calm, but the calm of our colleagues as well. If it’s difficult to stay motivated to keep a workspace in order for ourselves, perhaps the motivation of caring for others might help us do so.

No Hard Feelings: The Secret Power of Embracing Emotions at Work by Liz Fosslien and Mollie West Duffy manages to be both a serious book about managing emotions at work while also being a fun read, due to some wonderful and often humorous illustrations throughout the book. Don’t let the humorous drawings fool you–this book covers some serious but little addressed areas surrounding emotions at work. It doesn’t tell readers how to stifle their emotions at work, but rather, offers strategies and ideas for harnessing those feelings, learning from them, and expressing them effectively.

One useful section in No Hard Feelings addresses motivation, with concrete ideas for increasing motivation at work, even in the face of challenges. For example, research shows that workers are much more motivated at work when they have autonomy—and if you don’t have autonomy at work, the authors offer several ways to try to increase it. Another example is about finding meaning in your work, or what researcher Amy Wrzesniewski calls “job crafting.” Here is an example:

“Paquita Williams, a conductor for New York City’s MTA subway system, views herself as a caretaker for her passengers. When a power outage stopped Williams’s train underground, she walked through the subway cars cracking jokes to make passengers feel better.”

I’ve written a whole blog post about a crossing guard in my town who has turned his job into a source of joy for everyone who crosses his intersection, on foot or by car. To increase meaning at work, Fosslien and Duffy suggest noting positive moments at work to help find meaning, requesting more engaging work from your manager, connecting your work to a compelling purpose, and, my favorite, investing in positive relationships. These can include mentoring a newer employee or organizing a workplace event (although, perhaps, not the way Ron Swanson does it).

How do you hope to make your work life happier, healthier, more productive, and more creative for yourself and for others? Subscribe to my email newsletter, and then share your thoughts in the comments, and tell me which book (Outer Order, Inner Calm or No Hard Feelings) you would like to be entered for in the giveaway! Giveaway ends on September 13^th at 11:59 pm EST. US and Canada addresses only, please.

Some of the links above are affiliate links. If you choose to make a purchase via those links, I will receive a small commission for referring you at no extra cost to you. You are under no obligation to purchase the items through my links, but if you do, you will be helping support the cost of running this blog and providing you with the writing and reviews you enjoy. Your support is much appreciated!