Create the space you need to have more fun

Does any of the following sound familiar?

Yes it does, if we’re being honest. Now don’t get us wrong, we know that life can be a LOT worse than what Catherine Price describes in this paragraph from her 2022 book The Power of Fun. There are millions of people that would love for their life to be as comfortable, easy and predictable as the routine described above. If you are fortunate enough to have a life like this, it’s good to realize that you are one of the lucky one’s. Gratitude is always a good starting point. But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t strive to have more purposeful, deliberate, fulfilling lives while we’re at it.

If you have been reading along over the past number of weeks, you would know that we’ve been looking at the foundational principles of having more fun – something that many of us have seemingly forgotten how to do. The uninspiring, boring sameness described above has become way more “normal” than most would like to admit. But it doesn’t have to be this way.

This week we are diving a little deeper into the practicalities of what you can do to create a more fun filled life (if that is what you are after). The first component might seem obvious, but is often incredibly elusive: Space.

Making space for fun means clearing mental and physical clutter. It means giving yourself permission to have fun, letting go of unnecessary responsibilities, and creating healthy boundaries around your time and attention. It means building stillness and openness into your schedule so you have time for playfulness, connection and flow (the ingredients of true fun) so you have the space to create and design the life you actually want.

Let’s look at these in a bit more detail:

1. Create physical space: When our physical surroundings are a mess, so are we. Cluttered environments are associated with higher levels of cortisol (one of our primary stress hormones), which contributes to feelings of anxiety and depression. Our capacity for fun is much diminished when we are trapped in a negative state of mind. Messy, untidy, cluttered environments also serve as visual reminders of our (unfinished) responsibilities which serve as constant bothersome distractions, which further clutters our minds. Like those two on Step Brothers, we also need room for activities.
2. Give yourself permission: Being constantly reminded of our responsibilities and all the things we HAVE to do is draining to the point that we never seem to have the energy (or space) for the things we WANT to do. Doing something for yourself can easily feel selfish or irresponsible, but it might be just what you need to replenish your energy and boost your resilience to the level that you can be of more value to others. Go ahead, give yourself a break to do something fun for yourself.
3. Trim your list of responsibilities: When last did you clean out the garage, the garden shed or your storage room? As you know, these spaces can become excessively packed, messy and disorganized of we don’t unpack them regularly to see what’s going on in there. Just like our to-do lists. Responsibilities tend to accumulate over time and it might be a good time to take stock off all the things that you say yes to. Say no to things that are not crucial or redistribute some responsibilities that you cannot let go of.
4. Put your phone in its place: What is your daily screen time average? Smartphones (and all other screens) have become our biggest time investments. For most of us, screens have become our go-to escape from the long list of things we have to do, but mindless consumption does not bring the fulfilment we crave. Over the next week, try to half your average non-work related screen time or try to go an entire day over the weekend without any screen time. Try it and see how it makes you feel. And how much time it opens up for you to do something else.
5. Create a don’t do list: Like having a to-do list, but write down all the things you don’t want to do. This could be anything, but likely will be screen related – for example: don’t watch Netflix for a day, don’t open Facebook for a week, don’t doom scroll the news for the month of June. Whatever you feel wastes a lot of your time, cut back on that.
6. Practice doing one thing at a time: We’ve forgotten how to focus. As soon as we feel a tinge of boredom, we reach for something to fill the in-between moments. The next time you go to the store and stand in line, look at what the people around you are doing. Chances are most of them have their heads buried in their phones. Your challenge is to try and remain present in these boring moments – allow yourself to be bored, look around the store, pay attention to your surroundings, maybe even start a conversation with someone. Or get a kitchen timer and set it to 15 minutes – then try to read a book or magazine uninterrupted until the buzzer goes off. Damn hard to do! We cannot have true fun if we struggle to remain present in the moment.

The first step lies in freeing up space and energy to do more truly fun things. The next step is to identify fun things to fill up those spaces. That’s harder than it sounds. More on this next week.

As always thank you for reading. It is our sincere hope that you find this content useful and can start applying some of it in your own life in an effort to challenge ordinary. Please also share this with anyone you believe will find it useful.

Let us know what you’ve put in place to experience more fun, fulfilling moments. Until next week!

At PurposeWorks we are all about Making You and Your Work Rock. Our focus is on Organisational Health and Design, Employee Centered Culture, Leadership Development and Performance Coaching. For more information on how we can help you create a work environment that rocks, develop a great team, become an inspiring leader or unlock your personal excellence talk to us at info@purposeworks.co.za.