Make It Fun

We all have to do things we are not thrilled to do: fold laundry, do the dishes, get our oil changed, go to work….

But regardless of how fun the task is, we can make it fun both by our attitude and our actions. This always makes me think of Mary Poppins when she sings “In every job that must be done, there is an element of fun. You find the fun and snap! The job’s a game.” Without bursting into song and some magic to help us pick the room up, how do we make it fun?

I recently came back from a work trip where the last leg of my trip was a flight from Chicago to Cleveland. I was walking out of the secure part of the airport and a woman, standing right outside the doorway, asked if I just came from Chicago. I said yes and she and the two women working the Clear line start cheering “Yay, Chicago! Woo hoo!” I could have looked at them like they were nuts or said thank you and skulked away. It was Friday night after 5 p.m. and I was tired from travelling. But I didn’t. I gave the one next to me a high five and proceeded to dance and slow run my way over to the other two and gave them high fives too. Because, why not?

Just like the red carpet right?

It’s not always easy to see the point where you can take what’s happening and make it light and fun like that. Many times it’s hard to see any fun in something at all. But that’s why you have to make it fun. Those ladies in the airport had come to work. Friday night in the winter in Cleveland airport can’t be a good time. It’s generally dead or there’s a long line of people trying to get somewhere warmer. They had to try to make it fun and their good time made me smile for my entire walk back to my car in the cold.  Then I told people about it, and now I’m telling you. When you introduce a small element of fun into anything you do, there is a ripple effect that happens.

Ok, time for the action steps:

First, identify what could be fun. Do you have a good relationship with your co-workers? Maybe every Monday morning, you send out a cat meme to your cat loving co-workers to brighten their morning. Maybe you could start a meeting with an i-spy game. Maybe it’s introducing donut Tuesday. Take a week and write down opportunities for fun. 

Second, let others in on the fun. It’s more fun when everyone plays the game. My first sourcing job, we worked daily with partners in China. While I was there, I started learning Chinese and would send a Chinese word of the day to my co-workers and we’d practice just one word a day. Some of the words were not normal use words, but it was something fun that brought us together. When I’d forget, someone would say “Hey, I didn’t get today’s word!” 

Third, Switch it up! You don’t have to have the same fun over and over. Find new ways to make going to work something exciting. Try out our work playlist for some fun on your way into work too!

Not every work day is going to be entertaining, but if you inject just a little fun into each day, your stress levels go down and productivity goes up. Try to find the element of fun in the tasks that must be done this week. We’d love to hear how your feedback! Let us know in the comment section what you did to make it fun this week!

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