How Not to Take the Fun out of Fun

Now I've heard everything.  Would you believe someone has come up with a three-step program to have fun?

 Or, as they call it, "3 research-based ways to maximize the the fun of leisure activities," according to newswise.com.
Big surprise, though.  Research has shown that scheduling fun takes all the, well, fun, out of it, if it is not done right, the web site quotes Selin Malkoc work, an associate professor of marketing at The Ohio State University’s Fisher College of Business.

Here's how to have fun planning for fun:

Schedule more roughly. In a study published last year, researchers found that scheduling leisure activities makes them less fun because the strict beginning and end times disrupted their free-flowing nature.
“The minute you put limits on a fun activity, you’re robbing yourself of some of the enjoyment,” says Malkoc at newswise.com.
She recommends that if you have to schedule leisure, say you’ll do it “after work” rather than “at 6 p.m.” Allowing a little wiggle room alleviates the restriction one feels.
Avoid hard stops. Don’t schedule something to do immediately after a leisure activity – even if it is another enjoyable event.
“You’re always looking at the clock and feel like you have less time to enjoy the first activity. You are dreading the fun ending and having to do the next thing on your schedule,” Malkoc adds.
Focus on the now. Even when there is no time pressure, the mere knowledge of upcoming activities may lessen your enjoyment of what you’re doing now.
“Your mind wanders to the next event,” Malkoc said. “What you’re doing now can be seen as just a way to get to the next activity, and not as fun in itself.”
For instance, participants in one study enjoyed a comedic video less when they knew they would watch another enjoyable video, compared to those who didn’t know what they were doing afterward.
“The key to enjoying your leisure activities is to live in the moment as much as possible. Be spontaneous and don’t live by the calendar,” she said.
So did you learn anything?  Probably not.  I'm a live-by-the-seat-of-my-pants girl so this is stuff I do anyway.  The downside?  Sometimes I want to do things my friends can't do because it's too last-minute.  My son won't do anything with me unless it's planned three days in advance.  Of course, with his friends, he bolts out the door immediately after the phone rings.
Oh, well.  Focus on the now, I guess.









Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

It's OK to Not Be OK

Everyone gets a little rain in their lives, at some point.  I survived breast cancer, my husband was recently treated for colon cancer (not to mention the aneurysm he has on his aorta and leg, which must be surgically removed) and his recently-acquired rheumatoid arthritis.  We have no relationship with either of our families and our son is growing up (with older parents) pretty much just with us.  I live in fear that we will both be gone when he is still too young to manage on his own (he's 17). But people have other disappointments, too -- losing a job, or a loved one, the failure of a relationship. But a new study says that how you respond to adversity can affect how you get through it, according to newswise.com.   Research on how adults deal with adversity has been dominated by studies claiming the most common response is uninterrupted and stable psychological functioning. In other words, this research suggests that most adults are essentially unfazed by major life even
Read more

Do You Trust Your Gut? It's Actually Your True Self

The night I met him, I knew he was going to become my husband.  And he did.  OK, so it took almost 11 years to get there -- and seven more years to have our kid (when I was 47!).  But I trusted my gut and usually, it seems to work out fine. Now a new study says I'm not alone.  "In gut we trust when it comes to choices," reports newswise.com. Why do some people trust their gut instincts over logic? It could be that they see those snap decisions as a more accurate reflection of their true selves and therefore are more likely to hold them with conviction, according to research published by the American Psychological Association, the web site notes. “We offer what we believe to be a novel and unique approach to the question of why people come to hold certain attitudes,” says lead researcher Sam Maglio, PhD, an associate professor of marketing at the University of Toronto Scarborough. “Focusing on feelings as opposed to logic in the decision-making process led particip
Read more

Want More Productive Employees? Be Nice

Who knew?  Being nice to your employees can really help your bottom line. According to a new study, it pays to be nice to your employees, newswise.com reports.  Showing discipline with kindness, compassion to employees results in better job performance, the web site adds. New research from Binghamton University, State University at New York   finds that showing compassion to subordinates almost always pays off, especially when combined with the enforcement of clear goals and benchmarks. “Being benevolent is important because it can change the perception your followers have of you,” says Chou-Yu Tsai, an assistant professor of management at Binghamton University’s School of Management. “If you feel that your leader or boss actually cares about you, you may feel more serious about the work you do for them.” Tsai and his fellow researchers wanted to determine how both the presence and lack of benevolence affects the job performance of followers. Tsai partnered with Bingham
Read more