3 Ways to Kick a Bad Day’s Ass
Have you ever woken up in the morning and you just knew it was going to be a bad day? You know, those days where you took extra long to get out of bed, so you had to rush while getting ready, didn’t have time for breakfast, and then you hit a ton of traffic on the way to work which made you even more late? I have too.
Usually these days that start off terrible don’t get much better. Because we were late we are rushing to get our work done on time, everyone seems to pile it on by annoying us and adding more work for us to do, and it just doesn’t stop until you get home at night and allow yourself to relax.
How would you like to be able to avoid these days from now on?
Check out these three ways to kick a bad day’s ass!
Get Out of Bed on Time
Most of you are reading this and thinking that getting out of bed on time is just common sense. But why weren’t you able to do it then? If you have trouble getting out of bed on time the odds are that you have a strategy that isn’t effective.
What most people do is they wake up, hit the snooze button a few times, and when they realize they are really going to be late, they make themselves feel so bad that they jump out of bed and start to rush to get ready. Not the best plan.
When you hear the alarm go off in the morning, a more effective way to make sure that you start your day on time is to think about the consequences of what will happen if you don’t. Think about how bad the day will be if you rush getting ready, don’t eat breakfast, end up late to work, stay in a bad mood all day and have to work late. This should be enough to make you want to avoid this bad day by simply getting out of bed on time.
This is the easiest way to avoid a bad day before it even starts.
Call the Office
I know that in the past, if I was running late to work or an appointment, the stress that I would have on the way was almost unbearable. I would play every worst-case scenario imaginable in my head from a client yelling at me to my boss firing me.
Usually this is not even close to what actually happens, but the stress that we build up is so intense, that even after we get to work and it’s not a big deal, we still feel like the worst-case scenario actually happened to us.
It can be tough to bounce back from a day where you actually feel like you were fired or reamed out by a client before you even get to work.
A great way to avoid this is to call ahead of time when you know you are going to be late. If you wake up late and realize that you won’t make it on time, call your client or your boss and simply apologize and tell them that you will be late, and let them know what time you expect to be in.
Most of the time people will be understanding about this because things happen and they have probably been late to a meeting or two in their life. To make them feel better you can even assure them that if getting your work done requires you staying late, you absolutely will.
If you can prevent yourself from dreaming up worst-case scenarios, your stress level will be much lower and you will not be in panic mode by the time you get to the office.
Put it in Perspective
If you are late to work, it is not the end of the world and you shouldn’t beat yourself up about it. Think about all of the good work that you have done since you’ve been there, and the value that you bring to the company. Does your value to the company outweigh the fact that you were late today? Then it probably isn’t anything to stress over.
If you look back and realize that you are late often, then maybe you should let yourself feel bad for a little, until you resolve to be on time from now on, and then you can let the bad feeling go.
Making yourself feel bad serves no purpose unless you are going to learn from it, and if you learn from it, there is no reason to continue feeling bad.
Next Time
The next time that you find yourself reaching for the snooze button, play your full day out in advance and see if it’s really worth it.
If you hit it anyway, at least you have two more chances to make your day better 
