If life is a boring slog of work, kids and life it’s time that you add more play in your busy day. Yes, even at the office. Here’s how.

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How much of your day is spent: forcing yourself to do things you don’t want to, avoiding what you know you should, or doing endless work for everyone else but yourself?

You pour so much energy into surviving the day that there’s little left in the tank for yourself.

Then feel hopeless because you’re doing so much for others that there’s never any room for you.

We devolve into the “I have to do this” mindset rather than from a place of “I get to do this” mindset on just about everything from exercise to playing with our kids.

I know because I’ve been there myself.

So burned out that doing things I enjoyed felt like a chore. Even something as simple as playing monster trucks with my son felt impossible.

The days blend into one another and it sucks all of the fun out of life.

Which we assume is all part of growing up as we get older and lose touch with our innate playfulness.

“It’s time to be serious now.”

But the funny thing about overcoming your burnout is that you need to force your way through sometimes, to suck it up and give yourself more opportunities to actually have fun.

And no, not just on the weekends.

If you’re feeling stuck and burned out, going through the motions and tired of the monotonous blur of career, kids and adulting stuff … then this newsletter is for you.

Let’s break the chains and start having a little more fun.

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Chase fun, not happiness

We grind away, hoping one day we’ll find happiness. Maybe in retirement, maybe in that big promotion. Someday you’ll be happy.

Meanwhile, life passes by.

Happiness is abstract, you can’t clearly define it. And the more we chase it, the more elusive it appears to be.

Fun, on the other hand, is immediate. You can have it right now.

And fun doesn’t require money, power, or a perfect life. It just requires a willingness to engage.

You can do something fun right now

Play (even for adults) leads to more creative problem solving and adaptability in tough situations.

It alleviates anxiety and depression and boosts mood.

You are more focused.

More present.

Play lets you enter Flow: Total focus on the task or game at hand, where nothing else matters; not even time. It resets your adult brain, boosts creativity, and lifts your mood.

Not even time.

Play helps you reset your busy, perpetually exhausted adult mind.

In fact, this study showed that engaging in more playful or fun activities led to subjects:

• Starting their day with more energy and enthusiasm
• They were more productive
• More innovative
• And were more willing to take on tougher challenges

“Playful individuals reported lower levels of perceived stress than their less playful counterparts, and more frequently utilized adaptive, stressor-focused coping strategies and were less likely to employ negative, avoidant, and escape-oriented strategies.”

And you can turn your day to day into more opportunities to be playful.

Yes. You.

I keep a running list of annoying adulting tasks: calls, school forms, scheduling.

Once or twice a week, I block out an hour of my time and turn it into a game.

How many can I knock out?

Suddenly, these chores become a dopamine hit. No social media likes required.

When you start approaching more of your life like this, you spark the creativity to seek out fun in even the most mundane tasks.

The day becomes less of a slog.

You feel more alive and less like a worker bee plugged into the capitalist matrix, toiling away on unnecessary task after task to line the pockets of your NPC bosses.

The goal here is to try out new things

Or even new ways of doing old things.

Ask yourself “How can I turn this into Play or maybe a Game?”

Schedule more play into your day or week

You know by now that my daily shutdown ritual from work means I log off my computer and fire up my PlayStation.

Sometimes you need to get more intentional about everything from work to health and now to your enjoyment.

By scheduling more play into your routine, which doesn’t sound very spontaneous, you’ll block more brian waves to start thinking of more ways to actually be spontaneous with your play.

Schedule leisure breaks, too

Find pockets of your day to break away from the monotony and do something enjoyable. If only for a minute or two.

No social media. Don’t do something just to “burn extra calories” but rather because it’s just fucking fun.

Every night after we eat as a family for dinner, we crank up the music and dance while we straighten up. Can you do something similar at the office?

Don’t worry about being unproductive. It’s only a few minutes. And rest is part of work.

You cannot function at your best without it.

Create a “sack” dance

If you watch football, you’re familiar with how a defensive player celebrates after they sack the quarterback.

Make your own little celebratory ritual and perform it every time you knock out a big task or project, or even if you stick to that new and desired behavior or habit.

Finally committed to flossing your teeth for a week straight? Celebrate that shit.

Crushed that presentation at the office town hall? Celebrate that shit.

Helped your preteen overcome an existential crisis? Great job, parent! Now … Celebrate. That. Shit.

Try a new way to do old things

Try a different commute to work.

When you go for your daily walk, don’t step on the cracks (lest you break any mother’s backs).

As you tidy up, see if you can make a game out of it—set up your laundry basket like a basketball hoop and see how many points you can score by sorting your kids’ undies.

Bundle activities together

I don’t love cardio, but it’s crucial for my overall health.

So I only watch my favorite show while on the bike. Suddenly, cardio becomes an incentive, and a little more fun slips into my routine.

Stack an existing habit with a desired one to stick to your goals and routines, while injecting a tad more fun into the process.

We are all burned out

Overstimulated.

Overwhelmed by all of the tasks, notifications, pings, headlines and nonstop pulling for our attention and mental bandwidth.

It’s unsustainable.

You have two choices:

• Settle for this ongoing onslaught of your time, energy and attention.
• Or do your best to take back more control where you can.

Start small: inject play into one boring task today.

Try gamifying chores, dancing while cleaning, or creating a mini-celebration for small wins.

Two weeks from now, notice how your energy, creativity, and mood shift.

Then tweak as necessary.

Remember, none of this stuff needs to be that serious. It’s okay to have a little more fun.

I hope you found this useful. If so, I’d appreciate it if you sent this newsletter to one person you think would benefit from my writing today.

And if you’re new here and enjoyed this newsletter, I’d be honored if you subscribed for more at this link.

And as always, if you have any questions, please feel free to reach out.

I answer all of my emails at pete [at] petecataldo [.] com … Hit me up with the subject line “more play in your busy day” and I’ll answer any questions you have to make this work for you.

Until next time,
Pete