How do you manage those first-day job jitters? You got the job, the start date and you have your first-day outfit picked out. Excellent. Now you want to make a great first impression.

Get plenty of sleep before your first day. Ensure you’ll be well rested. It might be hard to get to sleep with the anxiety you might be feeling, but do your best. Set a bedtime, power down and get a good sleep.

To deal with the anxiety in advance of your start day, remind yourself of how awesome you are. Just realize they picked YOU. They want YOU. They hired YOU.

Take a deep breath. Any time you’re feeling stressed out in your new job, take a deep breath for four seconds, hold it for four seconds and exhale for four seconds. Do this for a few minutes.

Make an effort to remember names as best you can. Ask the people you meet about what they do so you can associate something about them with their name. You’ll have plenty of time to get to know them, but the first day you’ll meet plenty of people so try to remember names.

Take notes overall. When you learn about workflow, people, the active projects or programs to use, take notes. You’ll be inundated with new information so take notes so you can remember them later. 

Do the commute the week before if you can so you know how long it will take you. Give yourself plenty of time to get there on time. You don’t want any surprises to come up the first day.

Eliminate decisions so you don’t have to worry about anything for your big first day. Kill the things that bring you stress. Figure out what outfit to wear, pack a lunch or research where you want to go to lunch in advance.  

Smile. Be positive and enthusiastic. You’ll feel totally overwhelmed and feel like you’re getting way too much information thrown your way. Stay calm. Stay positive and ask questions. You want the first impression everyone will have of you is how awesome you are. A big smile helps show you’re calm, confident and excited (even when you’re scared shitless)

Avoid talking about your past job and what was so great about it or why it sucked.

Avoid social media on the first day. You’ll have plenty of time to update your LinkedIn profile and share with your Facebook friends how excellent your new job is. Take this first day to focus. 

Remember everyone is new once. Everyone had a first day. Your new coworkers are just so excited that you’ve started so enjoy it. And celebrate with a drink after the first day — you deserve it.

For more, give the Kick Ass in Life podcast a listen!