How to Have a Good Day: Harness the Power of Behavioral Science to Transform Your Working Life pdfdrive com

Distancing.
“What do we want to be able to say about how we handled this
situation when we look back in a year’s time?”
Rewarding questions.
“When we’ve dealt with problems in the past, what’s
worked well?” Or “What can we learn from this situation?” Or “What really
matters most right now?”
Positive task framing.
“Set aside the current situation for a moment. What’s
our ideal outcome here?” And “What’s the best first step to take right now?”
M
OVING
 O
N
To practice the techniques from this chapter, pick a recent negative event
that still annoys or upsets you when you think about it.

---

Reappraise the situation.
What are the 
true facts
? What are you
assuming
? (Are any of those assumptions personal, pervasive, or
permanent?) What would be an 
alternative
way of explaining the facts?
What evidence might support that alternative interpretation?
Ditch your sunk costs.
For a situation that’s failing to improve despite
your efforts, ignore sunk costs and look only at the future costs and
benefits of investing more versus walking away. In the benefits of
walking away, include what you’ve learned from the experience.
Find a way through when someone screws up.
Avoid putting the
person deeper into defensive mode: acknowledge they may not have
intended to screw up; talk about their actions, not their character; focus
on solutions, not on blame (for now). Use 
distancing
techniques and
rewarding questions
(from 
Chapter 17
) to reduce stress levels. Then
work back from the ideal outcome you both want, using the 
positive
framing
technique (from 
Chapter 13
) to keep everyone in discovery
mode as you solve the problem.

---

NINETEEN
Staying Strong
When we’re under pressure, facing uncertainty, conflict, or disappointment at
work, it’s not uncommon to grit our teeth and try to push through it without
much regard for our physical well-being. We might decide we just don’t have
time to exercise, or to give ourselves a moment of calm, or to get the sleep we
know our bodies really need. But at this point in the book, you’re aware that our
physical condition directly affects the way we think and feel. When we’re tired
and out of touch with our physical selves, we make poorer decisions in all we
say and do, and we get more wound up by regular stressors.
I’ve touched on the benefits of better understanding our mind-body loops
earlier in the book, especially in