We’re often happiest when we’re working, despite the demands of modern work. I had three months between jobs about five years ago and I was so bored.

Work_life For many it’s the place we experience ‘flow’ the most – that sense of doing what we do well, when we can lose ourselves in the moment. Many of us work from home at least some of the time now, and we can make that experience more rewarding.We can optimize flow.

There’s means of creating environments that function well and feel good. Drop the office aesthetic, it reinforces the message that work is ‘duty’. These days. much of what we do is technological in texture, most of us use a computer everyday, so I think it’s important to inject some warmth, some life and sensuality. Make it pleasurable, establish some personal rituals. Come to think of it, do it in the office too!

Work boils down to right brain creative work and left brain logic. You can’t speed up the right-brain bit. It’s intuitive and hard to schedule. We do it best when it happens in its own time. Left brain depends on efficiency and process – plus very good tools. It’s fast, rational. linear. Each needs its own environement,so create them. Ethographers have shown that we all need our own desk in the office, a sense of our own little space, but that doesn’t mean we have to spend all day there.

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5 responses to “Work is good”

  1. pisspoorenglish Avatar
    pisspoorenglish

    Agree with the boredom bit!
    Thanks for that info by the way, hopefully coming your way soon. Book in hand.

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  2. Rob @ Cynic Avatar

    I don’t know if I agree with your statement about often being ‘happiest while working’ … there’s been all sorts of studies that show job dissatisfaction are at their highest on record – however what I do agree with is that for many people, they are happiest at work as they are with friends and earning money – the actual ‘working bit’ is not something that gives them ultimate joy because in many cases, what they are doing is not what they like, but what they fell into.
    Maybe …

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  3. Northern Avatar

    Hmmm, I agree it doesn’t count for everyone, but I take job satisfaction surveys with a pinch of salt. I’ve seen enough studies to show poeple have no idea what really makes them happy and what doesn’t, and claim all sorts of things because culture makes them post rationalize how they really feel/felt.
    If you’ve ever had that feeling of worthlessness on a Monday morning, while you know everyone else is off to work, you’ll know that actually, many enjoy work far more than they realised.
    And not everyone is a fan of flow I know.
    I suppose moaning about work is the equivalent of groups bonding over hangovers or something.
    Anyway, that’s enough, I now have to start a task I really don’t want to do. No flow this morning!

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  4. Mark Hadfield Avatar

    Interesting post, and interesting comments about ‘Happiness is a job called worthwhile’, and I tend t oagree with both of you! I think you’ve actually answered your own issue sort of. ‘Happiness’ is a contextual thing, and when we get lost in the moment we get a sort of tunnel vision that what we’re doing is all there is. Happiness in this conext is the feeling of getting lost in it, of this being the thing you want more than anything to be doing (at that moment). I get this quite a lot. It’s only over a cuppa or a 5 minute break that you actually sit there, take a breath and realise that what you’ve just done is (somewhat) completely minute in the great scheme of things and that you can’t wait to get home to see the wife/ friends/ family etc.
    Well, at least I do…

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  5. Rob @ Cynic Avatar

    I know what you’re saying NP and I agree that a lot of worker surveys talk absolute balls – however as there’s also plenty of evidence to indicate the obsession with material possession is driven through people’s need to validate/justify their days working in a job they don’t like/doesn’t fulfill them, I’d not be so quick to say people are generally happy in their jobs.
    Of course many are – and of course many don’t realise how good they had it until they’ve lost it – but contentment in the hours spent at the office is in many cases not driven by the job, but the environment.
    But hey, I’ve just spent my Easter on a plane for nothing other than a 2 hour meeting so I’m just being a pain.
    Hope your “brain jail” task wasn’t too painful 😉

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