The business case for doing things purely for the joy of it
“‘It’s for fun.’ (Remember fun?)” wrote a good friend of mine recently.
That good friend is Clare Scott, my co-host on How Are Your Pigeons? – a podcast about life in the North-east of Scotland.
And not for the first time, her words stopped me in my tracks.
Clare makes a very good point. How many of us have forgotten the joy of doing something in the workspace for the fun of it?
The received wisdom is that fun stuff is entirely separate from work stuff. There will be no fun at work. We down tools at the end of the working week and then we have fun, no?
The fun sum: why fun and motivation unlock productivity
Even as someone who regularly finds themselves in a tree-climbing harness, air-kissing at matinees, steering boats or romping through pumpkin patches, I can feel the treadmill of to-do lists and Teams meetings, deadlines and agendas grinding me down.
I’d argue that fun should be an important part of work. Fun plus motivation unlocks productivity.
Making time for a passion project gives you the freedom to tap into your own innate creativity, however that shows up. It’s life-affirming. It reinvigorates and inspires us anew, and it lets you experiment and develop skills that help in work situations too.
Your passion project could be starting that networking group that you know would be brilliant, or developing the app that solves a problem you thought might just be yours, or inventing the next great gadget that’ll get you in front of the Dragons in the Den.
If you take things out of the work context, you can reduce the fear of failure and that means you can start testing boundaries, trying different things and unleashing that creativity.
You’re doing something for yourself. And without looming deadlines, you can return to the idea when you feel inspired.
Doo doo doo it: how a podcast on pigeons (and potatoes) came to be
In my case, it was a podcast idea that came along. Clare mentioned she’d like to record a podcast and, before she could retract those words, I’d grasped the idea with glee.
How Are Your Pigeons? was hatched. It takes a look at life in the North-east of Scotland, at what’s going on in the region, with suggestions of things to do, places to try and more, all with a liberal sprinkling of our opinions, thoughts and views.
That’s the boilerplate. And the absolute joy we take in brainstorming ideas, themes, guests and features never ceases to amaze me.
Where else could I discuss – in some detail – the various merits of different potato dishes?
We grow and develop by being creative. And creativity can mean different things in different places. For me, it’s thinking up ridiculous top 10 league tables of tattie products and indulging in 20-minute tattie chats.
I can sense Clare rolling her eyes.
But we do remind ourselves on a regular basis that we are there to have fun. Sometimes we’ll be: “Oh, we haven’t done x, y or z…” and then we remind ourselves that this is for us, despite the delight we take in entertaining our audiences. Something crops up? We don’t have to squeeze in a recording when one or both of us has an ugly diary day (or week).
At the end of the day, life is simply too short to relegate joy to the weekend. Work is important, but so is the freedom to chase an idea just because it makes you happy.
Passion projects reduce the fear of failure, build creative confidence and develop skills you can use at work. You don’t need a corporate business case or a grand ROI to justify one. “It’s for fun” is more than enough of a reason to press “go”.
And if you fancy a lighthearted look at life in the North-east (and plenty of ridiculous banter along the way), give How Are Your Pigeons? a listen on Spotify, or find it on your preferred podcast provider.
Hoolet is a strategic communications consultancy. Come say hello on social channels at @hoolet_hoots, or follow us on LinkedIn. You can read more blogs here.