Why it’s Important to Make Work Fun
It’s Friday and by any measure it’s been a BUSY week!
Some good 1-2-1 sessions with prospects; a virtual training course on referral marketing; interviewing for two roles; started defining the plan to reduce the company’s carbon emissions; the usual weekly catch ups with my Great2 colleagues.
So, it was a busy week but more importantly a FUN week!
One thing I have come to learn about myself is that I don’t mind working hard and being busy - but it needs to be fun.
What makes work fun?
For me, it means that the work I am doing feels purposeful, engaging, and challenging but not overbearing.
I have five simple strategies that work for me.
Read on and see if they might work for you too.
#1 Remember your ‘why’
At Great2 we have a mission “to empower local entrepreneurs to achieve their goals, create growth and positively impact our community”. This nicely sums up real reason to why I go to work each day.
Each of the Great2 team are also fully engaged in to making this happen.
The result? A great team where we support, encourage, inspire each other. Defining and remembering you “Why” is essential to having a good day. Especially when the ‘why’ is about improving the local community.
#2 Be disciplined about your diary
Being in control of my schedule rather than the schedule controlling me is essential to having fun.
What does this mean? I plan time in my diary for all the important and essential things I know I will need to do. It keeps me focused on where I can make most impact.
I pre-assigned ten hours a week for ‘deep work’ to get the important stuff done. I’ve allocated time for the weekly catchups with my colleagues for the twelve months ahead (essential stuff). I have also assigned an hour every morning for email and planning the day (necessary stuff) and I have blocked out the diary after 16:45 each day to give me time to clear the decks and be home between 5pm and 6:30pm.
This gives me time to invest in the most important people - my family. The gaps? Well, these are up for grabs! Start-up life always throws a few ‘unpredictables’ your way, so it’s best to make time for these too. New customer and prospect calls, meeting new people at networking events, getting through stuff of the To Do List and more - there is always stuff to fill up the gaps!
#3 Build the bricks in the wall of success
At the start of each day I spend about an hour getting through email and general admin. But the first 10 minutes or so is spent reviewing the To Do List. Rather than being crushed by it, I simply list the key three or four things that I need to do.
If they are big items then they are assigned to one of the ‘deep work’ slots already scheduled in the diary.
I then look at what two or three smaller tasks can be achieved in the day. The art here is ensuring that the task should be on your To Do List - is it really a valid task (will it help towards our mission and business goals?, should it be on your list or is it better to delegate it to a team member who will do it quicker and better than you? Is it a priority today/this week? Is it urgent or important?
The shortlist for the day is then scribbled onto a Post-it Note. Then it’s a matter of remaining focused so they are ticked off during the day. So, the To Do List is not a burden, it’s basically the bricks that need to be laid in order to build the wall of success and those ticks mean that another brick has been laid.
Believe me, ensuring that you have quality controlled bricks to build with is a lot more liberating than the burden of an ever growing to do list!
#4 Pick your location for the type of work you want to do
I do find that environment does effect both my demeanour and productivity. So, I like to change how and where I work.
For meetings, I prefer face-to-face than Zoom/Teams. So, getting back into the office a couple of days per week with time scheduled for these types of sessions works well for me. I also find having a clear agenda with time limits means we keep on task and leave with agreed actions. This ensures we turn our words into action. It’s equally important to leave some time to be social in the meeting, connect on a human level and check-in with each other.
When I need to ‘bash out’ a few emails and get a bit of admin done, I enjoy doing this at one of the local coffee shops - there’s something about the background buzz is that’s reassuring.
And when I need to get my head down and to get into ‘the zone’ it’s most often going to be at the home office - with Teams and Outlook closed and the mobile on mute. When it comes to ‘deep work’ then I need a clutter-free, quiet environment; a clear desk, nothing but the laptop, writing pad and pen. And a full cup of hot coffee!
The removal of all other physical objects mean that distractions are limited. I also put my headphones on and listen to a carefully curated playlist (for deep work) set at a low volume. The wall of sound produced by those trusted tunes means that the work zone feels somehow more secure.
#5 Reward results regularly
If I have been heads down for a couple of hours and the result is well-crated bit of content for the website, or management pack for a board meeting, or detailed review of sales proposal then its time for a reward!
This could be a walk of the dogs around the local park, a trip to the bake shop to purchase a pastry to have with my next coffee or even taking a short break to have a coffee and catch up with my partner.
It’s important to enjoy the process of building a business, so taking these moments each day to stop, reflect and revive yourself is really important.
And thats it! My tips on how to bring the fun to work everyday!
Thanks for reading. I hope some of these have been helpful. Perhaps you do some of these yourself - or have other insightful ways of keeping work fun. I’d love to hear them.
AB
p.s. I drafted this blog in 102 minutes - a successful deep work session! My reward? I am off for a coffee and a flapjack with my partner in the garden to soak up some of that sunshine!
