How To Have Fun At Work

MSNBC recently reported on a study that claimed 53% working Americans hate their job.

Considering that the average worker puts in 40 hours a week, this means these people spend 173 hours a month, 2,080 hour per year in complete absolute misery.

Do you include yourself in this group? Would you like to find out how to have more fun (and maybe find a little happiness) at work? If so, then this article will be of particular importance for you.

Here's why:

Since five years of age, I told everyone who listened to me that I wanted to be an engineer.

In my youth I would take apart lawn mowers and remote control cars to see how they worked. In my high school years I built skateboard ramps. When I got older I fixed my cars and motorcycles.

At 16 I really started getting serious, enrolling in pre-engineering classes in high school. When I graduated college at 23 I was a mechanical engineer.

And then I started working and boy did it SUCK!

Every morning I would wake up, stare at the ceiling and close my eyes. For a moment I'd hope, wish and pray that I could transport myself into the future -- 5 o'clock -- quitting time. Then I'd accept reality and go to work.

I did this for three and a half years before quitting and finding work I really enjoyed. Honestly, if you hate your job this is the best option, but I also understand that sometimes that just is not possible.

Luckily, among the misery I found fun. And today I'm going to share with you three things I learned to make a horrible job more fun.

Strategy #1 For Having More Fun at Work: Get the Crappy Stuff Done First

When I was working at the engineering job, there was a certain thing called Geometric Tolerancing. Now, I won't go into much detail about it, but it involved looking at reference books and getting proper codes.

It was very, very tedious.

I remember getting back from lunch and wanting to dig my eyeballs out with a ruler rather than do geometric tolerancing.

So here's what I did. I scheduled my work so that I spent the first hour doing nothing but getting this crappy geometric tolerancing out of the way. After that was done, I just had the more fun work left and my day went by much more smoothly.

Strategy #2 For Having More Fun at Work: Power Nap!

What's that you say? You can't sleep at work? Yeah, I know (I've tried).

Fortunately for you I'm not talking about really taking a nap, but instead paying attention to your circadian rhythm. Without getting too technical, a circadian rhythm is a natural cycle of high energy and low energy in your body.

For most people it runs in a 90 minute loop, where your energy gradually goes up for the first 45 minutes and then gradually goes down for the next 45 minutes.

Here's how it works. Do your hard work during high energy times, and in those low energy periods (at the first and last ten minutes of the 90 minute loop) goof off. This way you're not struggling through your hardest work during a low energy time and you're still getting a much needed "escape" from work.

Strategy # 3 For Having More Fun at Work: Find Something You Enjoy at Work and Request to Do That

"Whoa! Did you just say do MORE work?" If you're headed for the little red X button in the top right corner, hear me out for just a second.

Volunteering to do work that you enjoy at your job (and then doing it well) is the quickest way to have more fun and be happier at work (not to mention probably get paid better).

Here's how it worked out for me.

My boss at the engineering company started a new company and needed help running it. I volunteered to, on my own time, learn how to create the website and help sell the products.

I quickly became so fascinated in learning how to sell that I was having fun at my job, rather than "working".

Eventually, I used the experience gained by doing the extra work to find a new and better job at a new company.

That's how you turn a dull, boring monotonous job into a fun and happy career