![]() ![]() There is a balance between challenge and skills.The experience is intrinsically rewarding.Transformation of time (speeding up/slowing down).Clarity of goals and reward in mind and immediate feedback.In his book Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience, author Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi identified eight characteristics of the Flow state: Aren’t these the very qualities make us better at the work we do? Play has been scientifically proven to improve our attention, deepen our relationships with others, and develop resilience to failure. ![]() Play makes the hard work go by faster, and it infuses your work with a dash of joy. Think of the seven dwarves, toiling in the mines whistling while they work. If you can turn your work into a fun game, your resistance to the task will be lower, your enthusiasm for accomplishment will be higher, and you will achieve more than if you treated your work like a chore to be done resentfully. Nobody has to convince you to play a game that you like. We should be able to have fun at work and bring out the best in each other.” “I’ve never really understood why so many people separate work and play,” said Sir Richard Branson. The industrial revolution has conditioned us to think of work as the price we pay for leisure time, while play is something we earn only after our labors are complete.īut what if play was not an escape from work? What if bringing play into our work is how we accomplish more, and perform better at what we do? We expect drudgery of employment rather than enjoyment. ![]() We labor under the false impression that our work should be toil. Turning a chore into a game is an easy way to trick yourself into accomplishing difficult things. The task was presented to me as play, so I gave it all of my attention and enthusiasm. But because our work was turned into a game, I had no idea I was doing a chore. Normally, a young boy would find little pleasure in cleaning up their own mess. If we could get the house to a presentable level of cleanliness, and gather in the kitchen to listen to the final beeps of the timer, we would crow with celebration of our victory. I remember racing through the house, putting things away as fast as I could, trying to beat the timer. “Let’s see how much of this house you can get clean before it’s done!” “I’m going to set this timer for ten minutes!” she yelled over the chaos. To clean up the mess, the household matriarch invited us to use what was, at the time, a new technology: the microwave timer. Containing this hurricane of activity into one house meant the tidiness level dropped quickly (and significantly). This other family had three boys the same age, making us six boys under the age of ten. My two brothers and I were often left with another family when we were young. That’s what happens when six young boys spend Saturday morning running amok. ![]()
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