How You Can Make Your Mundane Habits and Routines Fun

Life is not always a barrel of monkeys, as the saying goes. It probably doesn’t even mean anything to most newer generations. We all face everyday items that are not fun; they are boring, mundane, routine. Recently, I wrote about eight tips that can help you work through boring tasks. But what if you could not only get through them, but make them more fun along the way? Seems like that could be a way to get closer to make those routine things a little more than just a task to complete.

Tracking apps and social connection

As with most things these days, there’s an app for that. There are plenty of simple applications you can download for your computer or phone that allow you to keep track of your tasks, habits, routines, and more. This can be a good way to make it more interesting to accomplish what you must on a regular basis. I use Todoist, and even that app, which is a straight-forward task manager, has the ability to show how many tasks have been completed in a day. You can set goals and get points for completing your allocation of tasks for the day.

If you want to go beyond just tracking for yourself, there is always the social element. There are dozens of ways to share your achievements throughout your day to show your followers what you have done. This can create some fun competition among friends or colleagues. In many cases, it does let you know you’re not in it alone. We all have those boring tasks that have to get done.

Gamify

Taking the tracking and social elements a little further, you can turn your tracking into a game. Many of these same applications will allow you to compete or receive badges for completing different things. It could be milestones of number of habits, streaks of completions, or sheer quantity. In most cases, you can choose. There are some pretty involved options for tracking different elements of your life. That is the great thing about these options. If you need to spice up your fitness tracking, there are options. If you need to have more fun with chores, you can make a game of that as well. There is something for everyone and their needs.

Write down what parts you enjoy

This one may seem a little silly, but it can help. Try writing down the parts of the task that you have to do that you actually like. It may be the outcome. “I like when my desk is clean and organized” is an example for the chore of cleaning your desk at the end of the week. I feel like I am making my home nicer when I vacuum the carpet. Sometimes just the sense of accomplishment after completing a task can be motivation to actually do it. Yard work can be about having an impressive lawn for people to see. Maybe you enjoy getting away from a computer while you push or ride the mower. Take a few moments to think about the positives that can come from what is seemingly a tedious job. You may find the silver lining that makes it better.

Connect something else with the activity

There are plenty of day-to-day activities that lend themselves to adding more fun elements to them. I don’t mean multitasking (still a myth). I mean, listening to music, a podcast, or an audiobook for example. When vacuuming, crank up your favorite tunes and make the drudgery of vacuuming seem fun as you clean and jam at the same time. Writing and music go well together also. Yard work…how about a podcast? This is a great example of where you can put technology to work with you instead of against you. You can bring any numbers of outside resources to your ears with the magic of our phones. In fact, you could call an old friend while doing some of these tasks also.

Rewards

Stick. Carrot. Not always the best analogy, but maybe it works here. Set a reward for yourself when you complete the activity. I will enjoy my favorite drink after completing this task. I will have a snack when I have finished. I can enjoy social media, guilt-free, for fifteen minutes when I am done with my chore. There are numerous ways to connect two things together that make doing the boring routine more interesting to complete. Then you can think how much you’ll enjoy that treat while you’re doing the work.

Whether you’re trying to get better at specific elements of life (like fitness, diet, or sleep), or just trying to make regular daily activities more fun, there are plenty of ways to do that. There are ways to make these sometimes (ok, usually) mundane tasks (everyone likes to clean the kitchen, right?) a little more enjoyable. Even things we know are more important, yet still need to get done (weekly planning sessions, business recaps, meeting agenda), can be made more enjoyable by adding different elements to them. The ideas above only scratch the surface. There are probably many ways you can make those, ‘I wish I didn’t have to do ‘x’’ moments something that makes you say, ‘that wasn’t too bad’. You might even begin to look forward to doing some of them.

What ideas do you have for making the mundane more exciting for you?

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