5 Tips to Improve Your Mental Health to Boost Office Productivity

We all have mental health just as we have physical health – and like physical health we need to keep it in check. Considering how much time we spend at work, it’s no surprise that workplace environments and culture affect our wellbeing.

Here we have composed a list of tips that can help you to manage your mental health whilst at work.

1. Connect with your colleagues

It is strongly supported by evidence that social relationships contribute greatly to the promotion of mental wellbeing. As human beings, feeling close to our peers and feeling valued by them is a fundamental need.

As we spend so much of our time at work, it is important to socialise with colleagues to boost our own mental wellbeing – and theirs!

With this advice in mind, try new ways of socialising in your workplace:

– Ask how someone’s weekend was, and really listen to their response

– Converse with colleagues instead of solely corresponding via email

– Travel to work with colleagues via carpooling or public transport, or grab lunch together

– Put 10 minutes aside to find out how someone is managing in life

2. Make the most of your lunch break

Utilise the full duration of your lunch break to relax, socialise with colleagues, and even exercise.

We have all forgone some – or even the entirety – of our lunch breaks to crack on with work. Even though this feels productive or even vital at the time, it is certainly stressful and not conducive to better mental wellbeing.

Tackling the workload after having an enjoyable and refreshing lunch break can also increase our productivity and quality of work for the afternoon.

3. Try not to take work home with you

The workday may finish around 5pm, but our personal lives do not. Oftentimes, we have to cram in shopping, appointments, household chores, family and relaxation in the few hours we get between leaving work and bedtime.

It contributes greatly to positive mental wellbeing to forget about our work until 9am the next day, but we understand – from experience – that this is not always possible.

If you do need to bring work home, provide yourself a separate area to finish work in and stick to this – it will make switching off from work much easier.

4. Confidence is key

You are carving your own path as a professional in your field of work. You possess a wealth of knowledge, skills and experience in many complex topics, and each day you prove you’re an asset to your company.

Recognising and appreciating how far we’ve come in life via our own volition is not big-headed: it is an important and mindful technique that can develop our mental wellbeing.

When we are in the middle of our working lives, we easily forget how far we’ve come to make it to this point. How great did you feel when you first landed this job? Remind yourself of your past triumphs to help yourself to keep moving forward.

Communication is (also) key