Practice loving-kindness, sympathetic joy (mudita), compassion, and equanimity through meditation to cultivate love as a trainable skill, reduce negative emotions, and develop an evenness of mind.
Do not suppress emotions at work, as it negatively impacts cognitive performance (decision-making, memory) and causes physiological stress, making it crucial to allow yourself to feel and process them.
Treat negative emotions like overwhelm as important signals that something is wrong, prompting you to take action and address the underlying issue before it worsens, rather than suppressing them.
Learn to handle your own suffering and emotions, as failing to do so can lead to psychological ‘violence’ towards others in your orbit.
Make a regular practice of setting explicit intentions for specific situations, such as disconnecting from work during family time or fostering good work relationships, to act as a powerful reminder for mindfulness and guide your behavior.
Articulate your internal ‘stories’ and fears using phrases like ’the story I’m telling myself is…’ or ‘can I let my amygdala speak?’ to sort fact from fiction and negotiate with your own thinking errors.
Process your internal ‘stories’ and fears by articulating them to a trusted person, as externalizing these thoughts can make emotional processing significantly easier than internal rumination.
Practice job crafting by identifying your ‘signature strengths’ (e.g., love of learning, creativity) and intentionally building more activities that utilize these virtues into your daily work, making your job more valuable and enjoyable.
Reframe your job’s purpose to align with personal meaning and virtues, such as helping or cheering others up, even in roles that seem mundane, to make your work feel genuinely meaningful.
Build fun elements into mundane tasks or learning processes, such as creating a social study group or exploring interesting tangents, to feel more in control and enhance personal growth.
Engage in job crafting to make your daily work more enjoyable and less miserable, focusing on personal fulfillment rather than solely on career advancement.
Practice Mudita (sympathetic joy) meditation by picturing someone doing well and repeating phrases like ‘may your happiness increase,’ starting with easy targets and gradually moving to more challenging ones, to cultivate joy in others’ success.
Practice mindfulness to recognize when social comparison is occurring and negatively affecting your emotions, as this awareness is the first step to addressing its impact on your well-being.
Reframe social comparison by looking at those doing less well or by competing against your past self, rather than focusing on those above you, to cultivate a sense of accomplishment and improve your well-being.
Avoid the ‘second arrow’ by recognizing and letting go of secondary suffering (like anger or resentment) that you inflict upon yourself after an initial negative experience, as this reduces unnecessary emotional burden.
Make active decisions to take back your time, as research shows this is a path towards happiness and can prevent a worsening trajectory of time famine.
Consciously reframe money spent on time-saving services (like takeout or cleaning) as time gained, acknowledging the hours saved to reduce guilt and appreciate the benefit.
Create a ’time confetti to-do list’ for well-being, using small chunks of free time (e.g., 5-10 minutes) for activities like deep breaths or gratitude journaling, as these moments can significantly add up.
Actively choose leisure activities that promote flow, presence, and engagement, rather than passive consumption, to genuinely increase happiness during your free time.
Take breaks that are truly energizing by engaging in activities that are fun, playful, provide flow, and ideally involve other people to boost social connection, rather than just passively ‘plopping around’.
Take a full day off for real leisure, as studies suggest this can make you more productive by forcing prioritization of important tasks and reducing unproductive ‘churning’.
Create a consistent physical ritual at the end of your workday, such as covering your laptop or changing your clothes, to signal to your brain that work is over and facilitate a clear separation from home life.
Institute family dinner as a consistent, ritualized event at a set time to create a clear and helpful dividing line between the workday and personal life.
Use transition times like your commute or the first few minutes at home to practice deep breaths or a quick meditation, creating a mindful separation between work and personal life.
When setting intentions for projects, include not only the desired outcome but also the manner of execution, such as maintaining emotional stability or positive relationships, to guide your behavior.
Find activities to do with your children that are also challenging and fun for you, such as learning an instrument together, to make playtime more engaging for adults and foster connection.
Learn new hobbies or skills alongside your children, fostering parent-kid bonding, personal growth, and a fun identity outside of work, while also modeling adult learning and enjoyment.
Download the 10% Happier app and join the free 7-day Work Life Challenge starting November 8th, which includes daily conversations with mindfulness teachers and guided meditations to reorient your relationship with work and life.
Download the 10% with Dan Harris app and sign up for a 14-day trial to access guided meditations, weekly live Zoom community sessions, and ad-free podcast episodes.