3 days ago
How to add more fun to your workday (while still getting work done)
How often do you leave work thinking, 'Wow, that was fun!' Once a week? Once a month? Never? If you aren't having fun—real fun—it may be time to rethink your work life, says Bree Groff, author of Today Was Fun: A Book About Work (Seriously).
The idea that work needed to be fun didn't hit home for Groff until her mother was diagnosed with terminal cancer in 2022. She took a leave of absence from her job at a New York-based transformation consulting firm to care for her and her father, who had Alzheimer's disease. After her mother passed away, she went back to work part time with a new perspective.
'One of the things that became obvious while taking care of my parents is that at some point, we'll run out of Mondays,' she says. 'They aren't a renewable resource. So, what are we doing to our lives when we're wishing away five out of seven days of every week?'
A common attitude is that work is called work for a reason; it's something to get through to get a paycheck. The flip side is: 'Love what you do, and you'll never work a day in your life.' This phrase suggests that the solution to work being drudgery is that it should be your passion and your identity. That notion also didn't sit right with Groff. Many of the leaders she'd worked with were pouring themselves into their work, but they were also sacrificing their health, sleep, and relationships, hoping for a reward that would come someday in the future.
