Fun-ti-mi-za-tion (noun): the action of making the most fun of a situation or project.
A few months ago, I discovered a secret.
A secret that will affect my work life till the day I die.
Here’s the story 👇
Earlier this year, I sent my bestie Raina Willick a voicemail that basically said ”OMG we should totes do a podcast someday. We’re smart. We laugh a lot. People would love us!”
She lives a thousand miles away, but I could feel her eyes rolling.
(and rightfully so. I pester her with ideas a lot).
But a few months later, Raina reached out to ME with an amazing idea for a show! Skipping forward a bit—we DID the podcast and it launched in May 👉The Unbusy Podcast 🎤
We did the project—but with one limitation…
Honestly? We both loved the idea for the project—but we got our own businesses, yo.
And families and hobbies and life.
And you know how it is…
The end result (a podcast) sounds awesome, BUT there are 1,000 activities we weren’t looking forward.
So hell…
What if we just—didn’t do them?
- Podcast show notes didn’t sound fun
- Committing to weekly episodes didn’t sound fun
- Creating social media channels DEFINITELY didn’t sound fun
- Editing out the ”ums” and ”uhhs” from the audio didn’t sound fun
There were a hundred little things we could’ve done—that didn’t sound fun.
We didn’t do any of them.
Introducing Funtimization
If something didn’t sound fun, we straight-up didn’t do it.
If an avoidable or optional task, feature, or strategy didn’t sound fun, it got axed.
In FACT, over the course of the project—Raina and I routinely found ourselves stopping to ponder whether or not a proposed activity was fun.
No fun? Optional or avoidable?
We didn’t do it.
Funtimization does NOT mean ”avoid hard work.”
Some tasks will always be not fun. (I’m looking at YOU, uploading audio & formatting podcast descriptions & scheduling episodes).
However, there’s a difference between…
- Avoidable stuff
- Unavoidable stuff
If you can decide not to do a task—and still ship a project, then it can be funtimized.
How to funtimize your business for happiness and (ironic) success:
I use the word ”ironic” here, because an interesting thing happens when we optimize for fun…
- We stress less
- We think more clearly
- We have interesting ideas
- We focus on what moves the needle
- We have more energy (that translate beyond business!)
Rethink unavoidable
Who TF decided podcasts need blog-post-esk show notes? Or accompanying YouTube channels?
Just because somebody mentions an activity in their step-by-step guide—doesn’t mean you should do it. Rethink which activities are actually unavoidable—and which can be scrapped (for funtimization or otherwise).
Use these questions to practice funtimization in your business:
What are some avoidable or optional activities, strategies, or projects on my plate?
Of those, which really don’t sound fun right now? Can you delete them entirely—or push them off till a later date (when maybe they’ll seem more fun?).
What are some UNavoidable activities or strategies?
(super secret strategy 👉 can you outsource any of that?). Also, is there a way in which you can make these seem more fun? What about them do you have to change?
Which activities don’t ACHTUUALLYY move the needle towards my goals?
If these don’t immediately sound fun, axe them with the strength of 1,000 suns. 🌞
Honest to goodness—WHAT 👏SOUNDS 👏FUN 👏? 👏
You’d be shocked how often entrepreneurs will skip over thinking about this.
Put down the hustle (for now), and analyze your work for fun-ness. Anything stand out? What about something you’re NOT doing all the time (because it doesn’t move the needle?). Maybe do that anyways.
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Fun activities give you…
- More clarity
- More creativity
- More inspiration
- More happiness outside of work
- More life (literally. You could live longer)
How can you practice funtimization?
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Love this idea? Drop me a comment below and say hi.
-Pete
