It is not news to anyone reading this: working in a library is hard. Doing any kind of public-facing customer service work is always hard, and right now a lot of things are coming together to make it more complicated.

We can’t fix that for you. Sorry.

But this semester, we are going to provide small weekly stress-management/happiness builder ideas. They aren’t going to make all your issues magically solve themselves. But, everyone can use a reminder to take a step back and breathe.

Mornings are key to a good day.

Yes, they can be so busy, so hectic, so cluttered. Many of us have lots of morning challenges, and that can be tough to overcome. So, we aren’t going to fix the whole morning – just add in a couple of small ideas that can give you a more positive look to the day.

We have talked about getting good sleep, and of course you have seen dozens or hundreds of other suggestions to get more sleep. And of course, it’s easy to say it’s important and to know that it’s important – but more complicated sometimes to put it into practice. But: try. Do what you can to go to bed on time that will give you eight-ish hours of sleep each night.

Set a time to get up, and don’t mess around with the snooze button. You may need to get right up and get started, or it may be a day you can loll around for a while. Whatever you need to do is fine.

Take a moment before you get started. Set a goal or an intention or a small plan for the day. Have a positive thing you are looking forward to. Maybe it’s something for lunch; maybe it’s your favorite shirt; maybe it’s plans after work. Having a good thing, even in a terrible or rushed kind of day, gives you a small piece of happiness to focus on.

Take a minute for serenity. Maybe for you it is prayer, maybe it is meditation; maybe it is just taking a moment to breathe. Call it what you like, but take a minute (or 30 seconds or five minutes) to just relax and be one with the serenity. The more comfortable you get with being able to drop in and out of these calming moments, the easier it is for you when the pressure is on later.

Don’t get stressed out about making your morning Instagram-ably perfect. Just take a few beats to inject some positive times into your routine. It doesn’t have to be perfect every day. Do this to give yourself a little burst of happiness as you get started. And if you want to repeat these a few times during the day – it will definitely not be bad!