This Magic Monday, we take a look at how busy work is beneficial in improving joy and productivity.
It’s generally an accepted fact that almost any role will always have some level of ‘busy work’ or ‘grunt work’ to it – a necessity, and one not typically associated with ‘happiness.’ But what if I told you that those necessary, mundane tasks hold the potential to boost overall happiness and sense of success in your workday.
Don’t believe me? Check out the details in this article by Jan Bruce on the Forbes website!
Bruce shares from recent studies that as focus increases for any specific task, so also does the amount of stress experienced as a result. One of the key benefits to a rote task (such as clearing inboxes, preparing weekly reports, updating spreadsheets, and more) is the low level of focus required to achieve a sense of accomplishment relatively quickly – to get a checkbox ticked off our seemingly always-growing to-do lists.
This knowledge comes as a particular advantage if strategically placed in our workday, where focus typically peaks around 11 a.m. and 2-3 p.m., and boredom often rises after lunch hours. Intentional placement of those more mundane tasks during your known mentally sluggish times can end up lending us the extra boost needed to power through the rest of the day. It fuels our sense of accomplishment and drive to excel!
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle captures this sentiment well in his 1891 novel, A Case of Identity, where Sherlock Holmes himself famously quotes, “It has long been an axiom of mine, that the little things are infinitely the most important.”
So, take a focus break, check off some menial tasks, and allow yourself the joy of feeling accomplished.