Dreaming of the Workday

You wake up, wipe the drool from your cheek, grimace at the state of your breath after catching a whiff before turning over ready to go back to sleep. You're content in the full day's work you've just completed. Just in case, you check your phone and see that it's 7 AM. You slowly realise that your sub-conscious hates you. Rather than the literally endless dream-scapes your psyche can provide for you, your idiot brain chose to play out the work day ahead. The day you're about to go and experience all over again, but this time, for realsies.

When you tell friends of this monumentally boring dream, they can often reply with a sarcastic comment on how boring you are, yeah alright, Gerald, sorry we can't all dream of trampolines and dragons. But it doesn't necessarily mean that you're an effective worker. It isn't an extension of taking your work home with you. In fact, it's more of the opposite.

If you're dreaming of work frequently then it's generally because you feel insecure or overawed by it. Whether it's a deadline you're worried about meeting, a task you can't seem to finish or are basically just dreading every day there, dreaming of work on a regular basis is usually indicative of a larger issue. Unless you're a professional food taster, dog-walker or Donald Trump's lawyer (seriously imagine how much repeat business they would get), there's always parts to a job you won't like. But is it possible to reduce these parts as you focus on the aspects that made you want to work there in the first place?

While prioritising tasks is a key part of numerous jobs, putting off work altogether is something very risky. If for an hour or a day, delaying action on something you can physically do now is a bad idea. Similarly to how people's idea of another can put them on a pedestal, thinking about a task that needs to be completed can make it ten times worse. Psyching yourself up to pick up a phone to a client is always recommended. Burn through that work with burst of energy. Perhaps order a coffee as you pore over a mountain of spreadsheets, or even treat yourself with a doughnut after. Setting these little goals with a reward or two is a key way of making those unenviable tasks become second nature.

If you're working late or staying at your desk through lunch, don't. Work your hours. No one is paying you more for that extra work and if anything, they'll think you can't manage your time well enough to fit it into your contracted hours. Yes, you might need to stay late once or twice on a tight deadline, but don't make a habit out of it.

If you're in a job where you've done things to this accord and more, but you are still persisting with those laborious work-based dreams then maybe there is a deeper issue afoot. Maybe you're in a job that isn't quite for you. Hard work is appreciated by those who witness it, but unless it's something you enjoy, you shouldn't be putting that much into it.

Take time throughout the day to enjoy yourself a little more, you'll be thankful when you start dreaming of hot air balloon trips with Ving Rhames again.