I've been studying work culture and how we can be happier at work.

Work has become this sort of colossal game of Jenga where we're trying to add things

on top or still keep everything standing up and stable. I've put together some

thoughts on ways that we can make our lives a lot less stressful.

Half of all people who have checked their emails outside of work hours show signs of high

levels of stress. The very easiest thing you can do to reduce your stress levels

from work is take the number off your email app that single act is the

simplest thing we can do to reduce our stress levels.

The second best change that anyone can make is to take a lunch break. The habit of eating 'al desco' has

become so common now it's contributing to an increase in our stress levels and

I understand when you're sitting at your desk you're thinking you've got a

hundred emails left walking away and taking a break can feel really

counter-intuitive but scientists have found the best way to ensure that you

feel energised is to take that pause. You might want to try a monk mode morning.

More and more of us are finally get hard to get things done because of all the

interruptions. A guy called Cal Newport who's a professor at Georgetown

University in Washington, he wrote a book called Deep Work and one of the ideas he

gave was that we should think about having a monk mode morning.

Well monk mode is where we go somewhere that is silent, there's no interruptions, we maybe

get a block of ninety minutes work done, maybe twice a week, then we go to the

office as normal, added advantages we've missed the commute, and got our emails

and our meetings done.

Some interesting research from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology

shows that one of the best ways to increase workplace

creativity is to increase the amount of chat, and actually that can be chat about

last night's TV that can be chat about what's happening in sports games because

normally those conversations then lead to work discussions. It's a strange thing

that by encouraging people to have more chats we're actually going to be

achieving more at work. But the research seems to suggest that the most creative

offices are the ones that chat the most. Ben Waber, one of the researchers,

said that one of the best ways to increase creativity in your office is to

move the location of the coffee machine. By having the coffee machine, the kettle,

the water cooler, in a different place you'll actually lead to more people

having discussions, conversations.

Scientists have found that one of the biggest barriers to being creative in our jobs is stress,

and all of us with our phones feel more stressed than ever before.

You need to give yourself permission to have a digital Sabbath, to take time away from your work

at the weekend, for a bit of refreshment, a bit of

renewal. Discourage your boss from emailing at the weekend because it leads