Turn a bad day around
Image: Roman Samborskyi/Shutterstock

Having a bad day? Here’s how to turn it around

15 Sep 2017

We can all suffer from a bad day at work from time to time. That doesn’t mean you can’t turn it around.

As the old adage goes, what goes up, must come down. Unfortunately, that applies to good things as well as bad things.

We’ve all experienced a bad day from time to time. You missed your bus, forgot your wallet, lost your phone, stepped in a puddle, missed a deadline, made a mistake – the list is endless.

If a few things go wrong at once, particularly at work, we can be forgiven for falling into a downward spiral of feeling terrible about ourselves.

It can even be tempting to declare the entire day a write-off before noon. But giving into the negativity of your bad day will only allow it to get worse.

When you’re in a bad mood, you become less productive, less focused, more likely to make mistakes and more susceptible to health issues, particularly due to stress.

Positivity is the sword with which you must fend off the negativity that comes with a really bad day. And, while it may sound easier said than done, it’s not if you know how to do it.

When you’re ready to declare the day a bad one, it’s time to take a step back, take a few deep breaths, count to 10 and relax.

Step one is evaluating how bad the situation is, and managing it is step two, whether that’s compartmentalising that dreadful trip to work and moving on, or rectifying the mistake you made at work.

The key is to manage one problem at a time without allowing it to bleed into other parts of your day.

From there, you can begin to change your outlook. You should also take the time to do something that will relax you or make you happy.

Give yourself permission to cheer yourself up and treat yourself to help you get through what could have turned into a bad day, and strive to turn it into a good one.

For more tips on how to turn a bad day around, check out the infographic below.

Having a bad day

Infographic: Headway Capital

Jenny Darmody
By Jenny Darmody

Jenny Darmody became the editor of Silicon Republic in 2023, having worked as the deputy editor since February 2020. When she’s not writing about the science and tech industry, she’s writing short stories and attempting novels. She continuously buys more books than she can read in a lifetime and pretty stationery is her kryptonite. She also believes seagulls to be the root of all evil and her baking is the stuff of legends.

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