When we look at our Mondays and feel a bit miserable, it could be due to the fact that what we are doing is not enjoyable, or that we have a lack of enjoyable activities to do.

If you were to look at your schedule for the day, how many things are you looking forward to doing? If the majority of the tasks feel like torture, it’s time to swap them out for tasks that feel effortless.

Also, the word task already sounds scary. That’s why I like the word activity. Much more positive-sounding and less chore-like.

Now I’m not saying everyone should start watching movies. That’s an enjoyable activity, right? Well, only if you could truly watch the movie without feeling guilty at the fact that you just did nothing productive for two hours. Movie-watching is like a reward for good behaviour, a treat. It can be a dangerous treat if consumed in excess, no different from junk food or drugs.

What you want to do is find activities that you generate pleasure from before, during and after completion. Here are a few examples that I try to implement each day:

Cooking healthy meals.
Swimming.
Walking outdoors.
Smoothie-making.
Writing 1,000 helpful words.
Writing one chapter of a book.
Making a children’s story.
Helping others via online communities.

These are all positive activities that one would look at and say: “Yes! Those are great ideas!”

When looking at an activity in your life, does it excite you? If not, why are you doing it? How can you do it differently?

Most of us reading this post will likely have 9-to-5 jobs they hate. Their days are filled with unfavourable activities. How then does one swap out those activities when the paycheck is necessary?

This is where you will need to get creative, or change your negative mindset. When driving into work, think about how you can be a nicer person to everyone. That’s a positive activity which will likely give you positive returns in the form of friendships and improved collaborations. Help others at work.

Take on the responsibilities which you may find more enjoyable than what you currently do. Be direct and ask for enjoyable activities. Don’t be afraid to say your current taskload is limiting your potential and you want new responsibilities. Your honesty and initiative will be admired, and perhaps your boss will let you automate your job so you can move onto something new. Make your 9-to-5 job more dynamic by asking for enjoyable activities!

What if you have a family to feed and enjoyable activities are out of the question? It’s time to offload responsibilities or get others to help you out. A family is a team, and everyone should be working together to make life easier. When working together to grow a family, you will have developed a fun, enjoyable activity (albeit a big one!).

Some activities are required to maintain order. Making your bed and cleaning your toilet come to mind. I can’t say those activities wake me up in morning if I look at them in isolation. However, the bigger picture indicates that those activities will brighten your day. With order comes freedom to do all of the activities you do enjoy. Also, you could have the music playing while making your bed or cleaning that toilet. Associating good vibes with mundane tasks can help switch things around for you.

Now that you have ways to change your mindset around the boring and mundane, it’s time to give this a shot! Start filling your day with enjoyable activities and see where it takes your life.

Everyone has to be on their screens. Do you ever go out for dinner with someone, then, while returning from a bathroom break, you notice that person is on their phone to fill the silence during your departure? We can’t sit still anymore!

Boredom is a lost skill these days.

I see people on their screens in fast food drive throughs and red stoplights. When they look up from their phones, they stare into the abyss and realize that life was much more fun on their screen. So they rush home to catch the next notification. If they get enough time, they might realize that life is truly fun without the screen.

Kids can’t sit still and be bored anymore. That’s why ADD has been magically invented. The struggle resulting from boredom is nonexistent when we have so many stimuli replacing boring voids. So many devices, games, activities…and parents give in to the pressure. I don’t blame parents for loving their kids. Although, if they truly loved them, some discipline and limitations would be helpful.

With the growth in popularity of meditation among Western cultures, it may be possible that we are moving to a more thoughtful way of living. Just sitting still and accepting thoughts as they come could do wonders for those who feel every second has to be filled by silence.

Imagine taking just 60 seconds to sit and do nothing today. I wonder which kinds of new ideas would pop into your head. Perhaps out of boredom comes excitement. Excitement for what we have now.

Boredom is a lost skill. Perhaps it is time to revisit it.

The idea of tackling something with a “full steam ahead” mentality is usually a sprint-like approach to what should be treated as a marathon.

Sometimes slowing down is much more effective than trying to accomplish so much in such little time. Sustained effort over long periods of time have historically worked better than a burnout approach.

There is a caveat. The reason why big-time entrepreneurs never take a break is because the break is not as fun as the business. Get to that level of interest and passion in what you’re doing, then full steam ahead will be second-nature in a healthy way. If you do not have the passion, burnout will come quicker than expected.