Making your job more purposeful doesn’t always mean finding a new one. The key often lies in ‘nudging’ your job closer to what you really want. This is ‘job crafting’.

“Job crafting involves reengineering three key elements of our jobs,” Hall explains:

Our tasks

“Spend more time on the tasks you enjoy doing and try to reduce or eliminate the ones that don’t. Start by keeping a note of which tasks in your job give you energy and make you feel fulfilled, and which don’t. For the tasks that don’t, look at how you can eliminate or automate the work. Perhaps one of your colleagues would trade tasks with you so you each get something you enjoy more.”

Our relationships

“Try to improve the quality of your relationships at work. Think about how you spend time with people at work and how they make you feel. Invest more time with people who give you energy and are pleased with your successes. Focus on the impact of your work on others to bring more meaning to what you do.”

Our attitude

“Your attitude shapes your experience, if you expect work to be a drudge, your brain will seek out examples of when it is, and they are sure to be there. However, if you reframe your ideas about work to be more positive, focus on what your work and income help you do in other areas of your life, and on the opportunities to grow, learn and make a difference at work, then you train your brain to pay attention to these more positive aspects, and you will find you notice them more.”

Feeling unfulfilled at work? This is how to re-engineer your job to give you purpose