Playing Boosts Productivity?

How Can Playing and Having Fun Boost Productivity?

This weekend I can proudly say that I added a new member to my family. Yes, that's right, her name is Zoe, a 7 week old Yorkshire Terrier with lots of spunk, and she is the newest member of my family. Boy, oh boy, can this puppy play!

It has certainly been a while since I had the responsibility of completely caring for such a young one, and I forgot how all encompassing and fun it can be, all at ONCE. (Potty training my new puppy may not seem like the most fun activity, but figuring out how to get my message across, in the most creative ways, is.)

Zoe reminds me how easy it is to take for granted the little things like being able to go to the gym and take a bubble bath (when I want) without having to worry what mischief she is getting herself into.

Playing, so far, looks like a productivity inhibitor rather than booster? It can be, if you let it. But here are a few things I did not count on.

What surprised me the most about playing and productivity

I found that engaging with Zoe and playing around with her gave me more energy. It also helped me detach from worrying about the dreaded "should's". You know, the "I should finish writing my course....", "I should write more articles...", "I should ...." (I am sure you can fill in your own).

Stopping the worry helped me find a new and refreshing way to look at the many goals I set. I stepped back a bit and thought about what I want to prioritize. I asked myself what I know would give me the greatest ROI (the "I" in ROI is both from an emotional i.e. joy, fun and from a material perspective i.e time, money). I decided to start with the tasks that had the highest & quickest emotional and material return for me.

Playing gave me more energy to tackle my goals

I found that the playing helped me look at my projects with fresh eyes and when I did sit down to work on what I prioritized, I was focused, on purpose, and I had FUN doing it. I finished everything right on time and I felt even more energized. And guess who was ready to take advantage of that extra energy?

Allowing myself to play and have fun helped me more effectively prioritize my work and complete it with joy. This is much better than feeling like pushing a big boulder up a stiff hill. Don't you think?

Try it for a week, and let me know what you experience.

Live With Passion!

Joanne