Great books to read in time for R U OK? Day

We’ve written about how to host a Blinkist Bookclub before, and as one of our premium perks, we are huge fans of the range of non-fiction books available on Blinkist.

If you’re looking to demonstrate to your team that you value mental health and wellbeing, don’t forget to take part of our #PerkboxSeptemberChallenge - a month of daily prompts to help you and your team prioritise mental and physical health in theme with R U OK? Day. Find all the prompts at the bottom of this blog. 

Onto the book recommendations!

1. How to Have a Good Day by Caroline Webb

This how-to guide for having a good day identifies small but powerful moments throughout the day that you can grab onto to turn your day into a good one. Starting your day with an intention such as ‘today I will have a good day’ gets you off on the right foot, and the following blinks (what Blinkist call the main points of a book) cover the rest of your day, from working in 90 minute or less chunks, to goal setting, positive framing, and how awkward interactions are opportunities for building rapport.

So the next time you reach for the instant coffee at the same time as a coworker you don’t know that well, use that opportunity to get to know them instead of being embarrassed!

2. Overworked and Overwhelmed by Scott Eblin

According to this book, 60-90% of all visits to the doctor are stress related. That’s a lot! When we get stressed at work, it actually triggers our flight or fight response — that’s what makes us want to quit our jobs and run away. Eblin recommends creating a long term anti-stress plan to combat this, not just in the moment, but to carry over into the foreseeable future. 

3. If You’re So Smart, Why Aren’t You Happy? By Raj Raghunathan

The people who are most serious about chasing happiness, are often the people who focus on the negatives the most. This catch 22 is often caused by chasing after the wrong things — fame, success, or money.

In reality, those things won’t make you happy. Instead, everyone needs to reflect and define their own version of happiness. It could be travel, spending time doing an activity or with someone, there’s no limit to what it could be. Once you have your personal definition of happiness, you’ll have something to structure your goals and milestones around so you can achieve your own happiness.
One quick trick: sharing makes us happier, so why not see what you can share with someone today? 

4. Better Than Before by Gretchen Rubin

Once you’ve identified which of the 4 personality types (upholder, questioner, obliger, rebel) outlined in this book you are, you’ll be better equipped to start building positive habits in your life.
Each personality type responds to obligations and expectations differently, and if you capture the best parts of your personality type, you can set yourself up for success in anything you want to achieve. Considering we spend a quarter of our waking life trying to resist a temptation, these strategies can really help!

What will you be doing for R U OK? Day? It’s important to not just talk about mental health but to demonstrate it in your actions. A designated day to raise awareness and prompt conversations is great, but to really tackle the issue of mental health and wellbeing, you need to keep the conversation going year round. 

It doesn’t have to be every day or every week, but try doing something once a month to remind yourself and your team to stop and smell the roses every now and then.