A graphic of a pink and blue jacket with a tag that reads “Tailor me to make me more you”
For the past three years in our ‘101 Ways’ series, we’ve shared hundreds of examples of how people are taking the lead to shape their own roles. We’re constantly inspired by the creative ways individuals and teams tailor their work to fit them better.
Our list for 2026 brings together 101 different ideas to job craft, which are inspired real-life examples we’ve collected from workshops and challenges during the year.
If you’re new to the idea, job crafting is simply about making small, personalised tweaks to your job so it feels like a better fit. We usually see people craft in five main areas: Wellbeing, Purpose, Skill, Relationship, and Task Crafting.
Everything on this page are personal crafting examples, so while some might be perfect for you, others might not fit you and your interests. Use them as inspiration to start your own job crafting adventure!
Wellbeing Crafting
Boosting your physical and mental health through your daily work.
Examples:
Get outside: Adjust your working hours in the winter to spend more time working in the daylight, or get outdoors at lunchtime to get some light and movement.
Share wellbeing: Volunteer as a Wellbeing Champion within your organisation.
Find your focus: Wear noise-cancelling headphones to help focus on deep work in a shared office.
Digital downtime: Implement a 'Digital Detox' by disconnecting from all technology for an hour after finishing work.
The 'Fake' Commute: Start and end your day with a walk or a ritual to ease the transition between work and non-work life.
Mid-day movement: Try 10 minutes of stretching at lunchtime or a quick yoga session before work.
Smart snacks: Bring nutritious treats with you to work to keep your energy steady.
Meeting-free days: Try to keep one day a week clear of meetings so you can focus on priority tasks.
Fresh air meetings: Swap the boardroom for a 'walking meeting' once a week.
Desk spa: Personalise your space with plants, nice scents, or a few photos to make it feel calmer.
Move more: Try a standing desk or a walking pad for your workspace.
Step it up: Take the stairs instead of the lift whenever you can.
Tactical rest: Take a quick coffee break in the garden to recharge.
Be flexible: Use flexi-time to start and end work based on how your week is going.
The morning mood: Listen to your favourite podcast or album before starting work to put you in a good mood.
Active travel: Cycle or run to work to help you decompress.
Reading time: Rather than sitting at your computer and reading downloaded PDFs, give yourself 15 minutes a day to read a book instead.
Breathe: Start a daily gratitude journal where you are highlighting things that have gone well each day.
Calm sounds: Create a 'calm-down' playlist specifically for stressful days.
Coffee and chat: Walk to the canteen or local coffee shop with a colleague to catch up.
Purpose crafting
Purpose crafting is reframing how we think about our work in general including the value and significance it brings to us personally and others.
Examples:
Find the 'why': Reflect each day on the person you have helped the most through your role.
Reframe the 'boring' bits: See tasks like admin or costing out proposals as a way of looking after the business.
Meaningful extras: Volunteer for projects that matter to you, such as mentoring junior colleagues or working with charities.
Value check: At the end of the week, note down one way that you brought your personal values into your work.
Letter to self: Write a short letter to your future self about your career journey and goals.
Client connection: Ask to join more client meetings to see the real-world impact of your hard work.
Be a champion: Step up as an advocate for something you care about, like inclusion or sustainability.
Celebrate wins: Plan a small team event focused purely on celebrating achievements and impact.
Share the love: Start a club for a passion you have, like a running club, book club or a clothes swap shop.
Impact stories: Collect and share monthly stories about how your work has made a difference.
Future planning: Map out your dream role and explore how you might get there.
Random kindness: Take part in a random act of kindness challenge at work.
Value others: Become a mentor for women in tech or other underrepresented groups.
External impact: Create a case study after completing a project and share it on LinkedIn.
Customer care: Make a daily or weekly list of your best interactions with customers.
Learn the reach: Explore the impact of your role on the wider organisation.
Feedback challenge: Set yourself the challenge of giving a piece of positive or constructive feedback to someone each day for a month.
Work swap: Trade tasks with a colleague for a day to get a fresh perspective.
Reframing travel: View work travel as an opportunity to explore new places.
Self-expression: Share a short blog post about what you love about your work and why.
Skill Crafting
Learning new things and finding better ways to use your strengths.
Examples:
Shadow a pro: Ask to shadow a colleague doing a specific task you’d like to learn.
Face your fears: Say 'yes' to a scary project that pushes you out of your comfort zone.
Early bird: Arrive a few minutes before delivering a presentation so that you can minimise anxiety in the build up.
Speak up: Find an opportunity to present to a new group to enhance your public speaking skills.
Commute learning: Listen to a work-related podcast or an audiobook while travelling.
Play with AI: Protect time to experiment with new AI tools and present your findings to the team.
Lunch & learn: Host a casual session to teach your teammates something you’re an expert in.
Ask for input: Seek out constructive feedback from someone you don’t usually work with.
Stay curious: Subscribe to email alerts for new articles on a specific topic to stay current.
Take the lead: Volunteer to chair the next team meeting to practice your leadership skills.
Video confidence: Start a 30-day challenge to get more confident at making videos.
Watch and learn: Record an online call or presentation to watch back for your own learning and development.
Strengths-based tasks: Seek out projects that align specifically with your top strengths.
Reframe: Say “It's not possible to” rather than “I can’t” when dealing with customer complaints.
Buddy up: Buddy with a colleague in a different team to learn more about what they do.
Writing goals: Set a goal to write a certain number of blogs each quarter.
Superhero job: Imagine your job as a superhero and list your 'power-ups'.
Slow down: Slow down your reading to allow space to digest and reflect on one chapter at a time.
Reverse mentoring: Sign up for reverse mentoring where junior colleagues mentor senior staff.
Conference case: Identify a conference you want to attend and make a business case for it.
Relationship Crafting
Building better connections with the people you work with.
Examples:
Say thank you: Write a thank you note to a colleague at the end of each week.
Smaller details: Write down customer names phonetically so they’re always pronounced correctly.
Human moments: Allow time for informal 'chit chat' before meetings start.
Newbie welcome: Check in on a new starter to see how they are getting on.
Social spaces: Set up social-only channels on the company chat for non-work interests.
Be a mentor: Offer to mentor a new colleague to help them find their feet.
Protect your energy: Spend less time with people who tend to drain your energy levels.
Walk & talk: Rotate between desk-based and walking 1:1s to change the dynamic.
Life outside work: Ask someone about their passions outside of work.
Reconnect: Schedule regular (e.g. monthly) connection calls with colleagues who you don't work with regularly.
Friday catch-ups: Set up calls to chat with colleagues on a Friday afternoon if you feel disconnected.
Networking goal: Set a goal to initiate one new conversation each week.
In-person aim: Aim to have at least one in-person meeting with a colleague each week.
LinkedIn connection: Connect with 5 new people relevant to your work on LinkedIn each week.
LinkedIn cleanse: Cleanse your LinkedIn connection list to focus on quality connections.
Virtual coffee: Host a virtual coffee chat for remote team members.
Parent support: Start a meet-up for parents returning to work.
Address issues: Ask for support to address a challenging or negative working relationship.
Office pop-ins: Pop into someone else’s office just to see how they’re doing.
Team away day: Organise a team away day to strengthen bonds.
Task Crafting
Changing the 'what' and 'how' of your daily tasks to work smarter.
Examples:
Eat the frog: Do the hardest task first thing in the morning when your energy is highest.
Talk, don't type: Experiment with voice-to-text software for faster email and writing.
Time blocks: Try 'timeboxing' your day rather than relying on a never-ending to-do list.
Monday prep: Protect the first hour of the week to plan your tasks for the rest of the week.
Meeting trim: Shorten all meetings by 10 minutes to give everyone a breather.
Meeting reset: Cancel all long-standing meetings for a month to really understand which ones matter.
Just call: Call a colleague for a quick chat rather than sending a long email.
Friday admin: Do your admin on a Friday when the mood is more positive.
Smart reminders: Use digital tools to set automatic reminders for your tasks.
Visual planning: Map out team priorities in terms of urgency and importance.
Manage emails: Only check emails during specific times of the day.
Voice notes: Record voice notes for colleagues instead of typing long chats.
Collaboration: Work collaboratively using Google Docs instead of emailing Microsoft Word files.
Morning focus: Schedule meetings for the afternoons to keep mornings free for focused work.
Standardise: Simplify and standardise your status updates to save time.
AI notetaking: Play with AI for taking notes and meeting minutes and summarising actions.
Batch receipts: Use an app that automatically finds and organises your expense receipts.
Chunk it: Break down large jobs that you might otherwise put off into smaller steps.
Pomodoro: Use the pomodoro method for time management.
Reward yourself: Give yourself a small treat when you’ve finished a task you don't enjoy.
Job crafting example number 101:
Write down 3 good things at the end of the working day. You can note these somewhere or share them with someone (we share ours as a team on LinkedIn every Friday).
We hope that you found these examples inspiring and that you can try out job crafting for yourself.
Let us know how you craft your work and you might get to feature on a future post! Email us: [email protected]
