Mixing Business With Pleasure
Do you ever think about what motivates you to do the things that you do?
A friend and I were talking about work the other day. He’s been having a tough time getting things done.
He told me, “Everything on my task list is something I NEED to do, but I don’t WANT to do any of it. I don’t even want to think about the list!”
Has there ever been a more relatable sentiment?
Then he used some great language to describe what he was experiencing:
“I feel like I’m being pushed through the day by this sense of obligation.”
Pushed through the day.
So I asked him a question:
“Did your work ever pull you into it?”
Immediately he smiled at whatever popped into his memory.
“Oh yeah. I used to love thinking about how to communicate ideas and earn people’s trust through messaging and marketing.”
And we laughed about how much easier work can feel when you’re actually enjoying it.
There's a difference between being pushed through something, and being pulled to it.
It’s important to find some joy, humour and fun in the things we do, including at work, where stress can so easily take over.
Of course, that’s easier said than done.
Recently, I found myself in the same mental space as my buddy - feeling like so much of my work been pushing me.
So I’ve been experimenting with a very sophisticated productivity strategy:
Making things more fun.
Fun, joy and laughter serve an important purpose.
When we’re stressed, our thinking tends to narrow. We become more focused on the immediate problem in front of us. That can be useful, but stay there too long and it becomes harder to explore, experiment and notice other possibilities.
Positive emotions can help broaden our attention again. We become more playful with ideas. We learn and create better.
Not to mention they change the way we relate to each other.
Who doesn’t like their coworkers a little more after sharing a good laugh together?
So how do you make work more fun?
As a solopreneur, I’ve started looking for little ways to create more pull in my own day.
For example, I don’t love editing videos. But I’ve got to edit them. So I started timing myself.
Now I see how quickly I can finish an edit. Can I beat my last time? Can I get a little better and a little faster?
I've used the "race against the clock" strategy since I was a kid and had chores to do, and it still makes my modern tasks a little more enjoyable.
I’ve also made sure there are things in my day that I genuinely look forward to.
I absolutely love spending a few minutes coming up with alternative uses for every day objects. I’ll set a timer for five minutes and brainsprout different ways to use, I don’t know, a roll of Scotch tape, for example (as a paperweight, a small wheel, a pencil holder, a weapon, etc)
There’s no objective. I just enjoy the practice of generating possibilities. It’s fun, and it gives me a bit of pull.
Serious work is made better by finding ways to add fun to it - the two are not mutually exclusive. You can have ambitious goals and still play. You can solve difficult problems and still enjoy the people you’re solving them with.
When business becomes all business, stress can suck the joy out of the work. When people feel pushed through their days, engagement drops and thinking narrows.
The most effective leaders find a way to mix a little pleasure into the business, creating a little more pull at work, and transforming the office energy.
I used to run "Fun Without Guilt" workshops for some of my high-tech clients. I had to dispel the notion that you couldn't have fun and be effective at the same time. Turns out they aren't opposite ends of the same spectrum. Most clients expect you to be effective,-that's the baseline. However, given the choice to work with someone who is effective and enjoying themselves versus someone who is effective and miserable, most would prefer to work with someone who seems to be enjoying their job.. Love your post, Brandon!