Exercise — Blog — Tailored Thinking | Make Work Better, Make Better Work

Numerous people want to improve their work. A challenge for many is knowing where to start. This blog shares a simple exercise starting point. It is focused on encouraging you to identify the elements of your job that you want to change and improve.

We created this small, practical exercise to demonstrate how you can make small changes that can have a big impact.

Stage 1 - Identifying what you want to change.

We encourage people to consider 5 questions around 5 themes to identify opportunities and areas for change, personalisation and improvement (displayed on the image above).

What do you want to grow / promote?
What do you want to takeaway / reduce?
What can you change / improve?
What do you want to maintain / persist and keep doing?
What do you want to pause / stop?

Stage 2 - Identifying the how.

Having identified the areas you want to change, the next step in the activity is to identify how you might do this.

To make the change sustainable and manageable we recommend you make one small change at a time. Approach any changes with curiosity and a mindset of experimentation.

The activity can be found here.

Why personalising work matters

Personalising your work around your personal strengths and preferences is called job crafting.

You can job craft by making small changes to your job to adapt and align your role with you as an individual.

Job crafting is a science backed concept. It helps you to thrive in your work, boosting engagement, wellbeing and overall happiness.

The idea is around boosting, growing and promoting the areas of your work that you enjoy and that give you energy.

For example, in Rob’s TED talk (5.45 - 6.48) he shared the example of a marketing director called Joanne. Having done this exercise, she identified that she wanted to grow and find more opportunities to informally connect with her colleagues. She did this (the How) by informally finding opportunities to connect with different members of her team each day.

Taking action

Three things you can do are:

click this link to access the exercise

identify what you want to change
set a specific goal which captures the change you are going to make

Stay in touch

We’d love to hear about your experiences with this exercise so please connect with us and let us know.

If you found this exercise of value then you may also enjoy our ‘Love and Loathe’ exercise.

An exercise to map and boost your energy at work.

People naturally have a sense of the activities and tasks at work that light them up and those that drain energy away from them.

Despite knowing what shapes our energy we often do very little about this. We just tend to get on with work; because well, we feel we have to.

We have normalised the idea that there are always going to be parts of our work that we don’t enjoy and that we will find draining and mundane.

But what if we changed the way we looked at these tasks and found ways to reduce, shape or reframe them?

And what if we found ways to do more of the things that light us up?

We want to help positively shape your energy at work for a happier and healthier you.

What is the exercise?

Love and loathe is an exercise we use at Tailored Thinking with individuals and teams.

The starting point is to identify 10-15 key activities that are core and important parts of your current roles and to reflect how much energy they give or take.

Why should you use it?

This mapping exercise enables people to reflect on, and see the interplay between their tasks and their energy load.

You will become more aware of how you’re spending your time at work and what fills you with energy and what does not.

This self awareness may change the way you think about tasks and how you carry them out. It’s a great starting point for job crafting.

Who is it made for?

Everyone! For most people, regardless of which industry you work in there are always going to be tasks we find more enjoyable than others. Likewise, there will be tasks we find that are less enjoyable, that may drain our energy.

If you’re someone who wants to boost your energy at work then this is the exercise for you.

What are the benefits of doing this exercise?

This exercise:

Enables you to consider the current allocation of personal resources of time and energy.
Highlights opportunities to shape and change your activities to maximise your energy.
Allows you to meet your needs for control, positive self-identity and connection with others.

If you’re interested in the love and loathe exercise and would like to find out more around the dynamics, we have produced a short guide on how to use it.

It will also give you the diagrams of the exercise that you could print out and use or simply copy.

You can download it here.

If you have any questions, queries or just fancied a chat about this then please do not hesitate to get in touch, we’d love to hear from you.

How to stimulate job crafting - an exercise for individuals and teams.