Get a few air-purifying plants for your work area. These plants can help brighten up a work space and help remove common air pollutants like formaldehyde, benzene and trichloroethylene.

“If you work eight hours a day, that equates to a third of your total life,” said Pedram Shojai, a licensed acupuncturist and president of Vitality Health & Wellness in Irvine, Calif., which offers a corporate wellness program to employers. “That’s too much time to blunder away by being unhealthy, unhappy and unfit.”

Hopefully, these tips can help your work hours come a bit closer to what your free time is like.

Fight unhealthy work habits

¢ Avoid eating the entire meal when having lunch at a restaurant – most meals are two to three times larger than what you need, Hardy said. If you have to eat at restaurants frequently for your job, educate yourself on ordering healthy meals.

¢ Eat every three to four hours to keep your blood sugar stable and prevent energy-level fluctuations, said Gena Kadar, licensed chiropractor, certified nutrition specialist and corporate wellness director for Orange County Heart Institute and Research Center in Orange.

¢ Keep healthy snacks like protein bars, almonds and low-fat string cheese around your desk, Kadar said. Bring snacks that don’t spoil easily and that contain protein and healthy carbs to help with blood sugar stability and energy.

Less mess, more bliss

¢ Take 15 minutes at the end of each day to clear your desk and prioritize your to-do list for the next day. Refill any office supplies, and if you’re a Post-it Notes user, staple all of the notes to one piece of paper (in order of importance) and place the paper in your “hot file.”

¢ Use color strategically in your work area to counteract stress and induce creativity, said Rachel Hulan, owner of Path Design in Santa Ana, an interior design firm with a focus on “green” design. Light blue and pink can help relieve anxiety, and purple may help stimulate creativity. Greens, particularly softer blue-greens like moss and sage, can make time seem to pass more quickly, as well as remind you of the outdoors. Avoid yellow and orange if you’re trying to lose weight – they’ve been known to induce hunger.

¢ Get a few air-purifying plants like dracaena, bromeliad, orchids and gerbera daisies for your work area, Hulan said. These plants can help brighten up a work space and help remove common air pollutants like formaldehyde, benzene and trichloroethylene.

Breathe and bond

¢ Get chummy with co-workers through social activities outside work. Recent research has shown that people with strong family and friendship ties are generally happier.

¢ If you’re having trouble with someone at work, try communicating with that person first, said Gena Kadar, licensed chiropractor, certified nutrition specialist and a corporate wellness director for Orange County Heart Institute and Research Center in Orange, Calif. Tell that person your feelings and hear them out. If all else fails, limit interaction.

¢ Be positive, even if you don’t know why you should. Having a positive attitude about life and self is a great way to create luck and opportunity.

¢ When faced with structural challenges at work like wage freezes and layoffs, get proactive instead of angry. Know you did the best job you could, accept any changes and quickly shift into finding new opportunities to change a situation you’re unsatisfied with. Avoid catastrophic thinking like: “I’ll never get another job.”