Do you feel as if your work is everything? Do you feel wiped out at the end of the day or week? Are you getting to do the things you love to do, are you having fun?
The perfect work role should be a combination of fun, relaxation, exploration good relationships and challenges. Without that balance you put yourself at risk of burnout.

But it’s all very well to know what life should be like but not useful when you don’t know what will make it right. Here’s a brief exercise of self discovery that will show you how you like life to be. You can use the outcome as a first step to recognise your ideal working environment so that you’re happier and less stressed.

You’re going to remind yourself of all the work related things you do or have done that fulfil you in someway. Big or small, major or minor. Get them down on paper and include the things you enjoy, regard as a highlight. Include things that you’ve wanted to do but have put off.

Reel them off fast as you can no editing or deep consideration please.

Now review the list. On your first look throught what does it tell you about yourself? It can tell you about your traits the way you like life to be.

So check through whether your list is mostly of action oriented things. Or are they mostly people related? Perhaps they are things you do by yourself. Whatever is common will tell you a lot about yourself. Maybe you like to be near people but doing your own stuff, or you enjoy doing things together with company, or whether you thrive on being active and hate being bogged down with detail.

Now with these insights compare what’s happening in your working life right now. For exmple it could be that in your list there’s a lot of activities that include people. Does your work role allow for that, are you working in a team or on your own trying to do everything? Becoming aware of such traits is the first step to building your ideal working environment.

Much work related stress is caused when your work-life cuts you off from your natural traits. So reflect on what’s generally happening in your life especially at work. Does your general work pattern and routine include or exclude those patterns you’ve spotted in the exercise above? How can you introduce new working patterns in line with your discoveries?

Now you can start to plan changes to introduce your ideal working