How to have fun AND get things done
Does having fun make you more productive? How do you do the excruciatingly boring without being consumed by soul-sucking productivity? One chronically bored grown-up child explores intrinsic motivation.
If you had the choice to never have to do your taxes, go to the grocery store, or put the trash out ever again with no consequences, would you do it?
Who am I kidding? Of course not.
Because being a responsible adult is not inherently fun.
It can’t be because it requires us to do a whole host of things to figuratively keep the ship afloat. We have to because not doing them presents a range of deeply unpleasant consequences.
And we’re not toddlers anymore, so we can’t just not take care of ourselves simply because we don’t want to.
Sure, there are times when these things can be temporarily put on the back burner to address something more pressing. We all have times when the bare minimum is the be-all and end-all of what we can manage.
But what do we do when even the bare minimum feels impossible to motivate ourselves to do?
The “fun factor” is your holy grail of productivity advice.
What is the fun factor?
I 1000% stole this from Ali Abdaal over on Youtube, so I understand if you want to mosey on over to his channel and hear him explain it.
But for those who stuck around the “fun factor” is essentially anything you can add to the task to make it more fun. If the task is fun, you’re more likely to complete it.
We’ve all seen the example from the Tumblr days, where someone put gummy bears at the end of each section of the chapter they had to read for a biology class. When you add a reward, you gamify the task.
And that makes it a tiny bit more fun.
How to use the fun factor in your life to get shit done
The fun factor can look like a lot of different things:
- Changing your perspective to make things look fun
- Make the doing fun
- Make the outcome fun
- Reminding yourself of past fun times to motivate you to do future things
Instead of, “God, I hate taking the trash out! It stinks, and it’s cold outside,” you can reframe your thinking.
I’m currently living at a pretty busy intersection, so taking out the trash is the perfect people- and dog-watching opportunity. And thinking about it that way makes it much more exciting to do.
Now, I remind myself that I might see some cute dogs or something super interesting while I’m outside. And while it doesn’t make me want to take out the trash unprompted, it makes the doing sound just a little more exciting.
I’ve seen people on TikTok who put on a costume and clean their houses in character. One day, they might be a medieval bar wench, tidying the tavern amid raucous patrons. The next, they might be a housewife who moonlights as a spy and has to get the housework done before her husband gets home to avoid suspicion.
But making a task more fun can be as simple as putting on some fun music while you input data into a spreadsheet at work.
Or, you could listen to a podcast only at the gym to motivate yourself to go more often.
You could make the outcome fun by giving yourself a little reward for your hard work.
Say you need to clean your bathroom. Maybe you buy a nice bath bomb, light a candle, and treat yourself to a good long soak once the bathroom is clean.
Or you could take yourself to your local coffee shop for a cappuccino when you finish studying that chapter for your test tomorrow.
How I know it works
Much of our motivation to do stuff is related to feedback loops in our brains. The shorter the feedback loop and the higher the feeling of achievement, the better.
So, to make anything more fun, you need to provide a positive outcome (or experience) for doing that thing. This outcome doesn’t need to be external. In fact, the research suggests that it shouldn’t be either.
That’s because intrinsic motivation is the most effective way to keep yourself ticking items off your to-do list.
Intrinsic motivation is what drives you to keep doing the stuff you need to do because you genuinely enjoy doing it. It’s why people don’t have a hard time motivating themselves to do fun things. And why it’s like, well, pulling teeth to get to the dentist for your six-month cleaning.
For example, I don’t need nearly as much motivation to play Stardew Valley as I do to complete a content audit at work.
The experience of playing Stardew Valley is fun and immediately rewarding.
But I don’t enjoy copying and pasting links from Google Drive into a spreadsheet, and I won’t be rewarded for it until I get paid in another two weeks.
Can you guess which one is easier for me to spend six to eight consecutive hours doing?
When we make the doing, the outcome, or the thinking around the task more fun, we tap into our intrinsic motivation. If we have fun doing something, we’re more likely to want to do it again simply because it was fun.
One caveat I will add here is that what makes something fun is going to be different for everyone.
For me, I make work fun with silly playlists that make me feel like I’m playing a video game or the main character in a Studio Ghibli movie.
Or I indulge in a guilty pleasure watch — right now, it’s rewatching Millionaire Matchmaker — to make a boring task go by faster.
I make running errands fun by grabbing a treat to enjoy while I’m grabbing groceries or waiting in line at the post office.
I take myself out for lunch (or arrange to meet a friend) after a stressful appointment or interview, so my whole day isn’t set up to be entirely about that isolated “big bad” hour.
I have podcasts and audiobooks that I listen to only in the gym, so some days, I honestly only workout to find out what happens next.
Or I can just have more fun than I expected and journal about it afterward so I’m more likely to remember that it was fun.
Bringing the fun factor back down to earth
Not everything can be fun on its own. And most adult responsibilities fall into that category, unfortunately.
But these are things that, alas, we must do to live happy, comfortable lives the rest of the time.
And if you need a soundtrack, some digital company, or a treat to be a responsible adult, there is absolutely no shame in that. Injecting the fun makes it more likely you’ll get it done.
Plus, it’s the feeling of getting things done that feels the best and is going to make it more likely that you’ll be less reluctant to do it next time.
So get out there and have fun getting things done!
What are your go-tos for injecting a little fun into the mundane? Find anything new you want to try in this article? This inquiring mind would love to hear from you!
Can’t get enough of me writing about stuff I find exciting? I have a weekly newsletter on Substack where I dive deep into whatever has caught my attention each week. I can’t wait to see you there!
