Back to work blues? Greeted by a mass of emails and retreating to the kitchen/toilet/cafe at every opportunity?

Emails can be a poke in the face at work – yet another thing to do, someone complaining or a ‘who stole my yoghurt?!’ call-out.

But there is a way to keep some cheer in your inbox.

Quite a few years ago, I started keeping a ‘thanks’ folder.

I put all emails with any compliments (about work, not my hair – but whatever works for you!) into a folder in my inbox.

Then whenever I was having a stressful time, I’d take a look in there and get an instant uplift.

Ok, you’re still going to have to deal with those troubling emails but it keeps things in perspective.

I was telling a friend about this recently and she suggested taking screengrabs of positive feedback on social media – great idea! (Thanks Sarah Blinco of Travel Live Learn!)

Oh, and these emails will come in useful come appraisal time.

Now I ‘appraise’ myself as a freelancer (ha!) but I still have a thanks folder.

This gem dropped in this week from someone who featured in an article about health conditions in medics: ‘Thanks very much, this is excellent. So many of my colleagues have said good things about your piece. They really liked your article!’

A great start to the first week of the year – and an addition to the thanks folder, of course!