We all have tasks thrown into our daily routines that perhaps aren’t the most fun, yet are required to keep us powering through life each and every day.
Things like washing dishes, fixing things, work tasks, piling our screaming toddler & preschooler into the car to get somewhere on time <– this can’t be just me 😉
The point is, we all have those tasks we have to get through each day that we don’t necessary find joy in naturally. Maybe we’ve even come to dread them and let them hang over our heads in a way that puts a cloud over part of our day.
But it truly doesn’t have to be that way!
It is entirely possible to find joy in even the most mundane of tasks. Yes, scrubbing toilets – I’m lookin’ at you!
Today I wanted to share a few things that have helped me learn how to find joy in mundane tasks, and I hope you find them helpful to make your own dreaded tasks a little more enjoyable too!
I also created a printable checklist for you to have easy access to these ideas, so you can use it as a visual reminder or reference it later on. Be sure to use the form below to download it for free! ?
FIND JOY IN THE MUNDANE
A free checklist to help make your most mundane tasks enjoyable ones
Ideas for how to find joy in mundane tasks:
1. Combine the mundane task with an enjoyable task
If your mundane task is one that doesn’t require a ton of focus, try combining it with doing something else you enjoy at the same time. Some ideas are listening to music or your favorite podcast, burning a candle or diffusing some essential oils, or calling up your best friend to chat while you power away on your task at hand. Find some way to make that task slightly more enjoyable and I can guarantee you might actually start looking forward to completing it next time!
2. Turn the task into a game or personal challenge
If it’s a task you truly loathe, try making a game of seeing how fast you can get it done. Cleaning bathrooms is probably my least favorite chore, so sometimes if I’m really struggling with not wanting to do it, I will set a timer and see how quickly I can get everything cleaned and tidied up. If you are someone who is naturally competitive, this might work for you too! It’s kind of fun to see if you can beat your own best time, and certainly makes the chore go by more quickly!
3. Change your mindset
Changing your thought process about a task from something you have to do to something that you choose to do instead can really help to have a more positive mindset about accomplishing it.
4. Ask for help or someone to join you
Doing things we dislike is definitely more fun when we are in good company! An errand I personally dislike is grocery shopping. Funny enough, even though my 3-year-old and 1-year-old are usually complete crazies at the grocery store, having them with me makes the task a heck of a lot more fun for me. They get excited about going and being there whereas I’m just trying to get in and out as quickly as possible. So instead of going grocery shopping alone at night while they are sleeping, we usually make it a family outing on Sunday mornings and my husband and I take them together. It’s made the task of grocery shopping go from something I dread, to something I do find joy in just because it’s more fun to do with those I enjoy spending time with!
5. Reward yourself
Maybe when you’re faced with a whirlwind of doing dishes and cleaning the kitchen after dinner each night, you tell yourself that you get to savor a piece of dark chocolate for dessert or sit in peace on the couch for 5 minutes to relax when the cleaning is done. Having some type of reward to look forward to can definitely help you power through when you really aren’t in the mood!
6. Savor a job well done
When you have finally finished the task at hand, be sure to savor the fact that you did it! It can feel really good to knock a task off your to-do list, especially when it’s one that you dread. Giving yourself the pat on your back you deserve can help you feel accomplished and maybe even less likely to dread doing the same task the next time.
What’s a task you typically dread doing? Let me know in the comments below!
Don’t forget to grab your free checklist!
FIND JOY IN THE MUNDANE
A free checklist to help make your most mundane tasks enjoyable ones
I don’t like to clean windows. It’s an helpful advice on turning Daily Chores into Daily Joys! Awesome and Inspiring one.
I hate hate cleaning bathrooms! Thank you for your emails and posts!
I do a little cleaning everyday so I never spend my whole Saturday or Sunday doing it. It seems to keep the house cleaner too 🙂
I do like your list above and may do #5 a little more.
I also like to clean a little each day, so it’s not as overwhelming on the weekend. I try to alternate rooms on a weekly/ biweekly basis. I find keeping up with the mail daily too leaves to less papers clutter piling up.
These are great! I use #’s 1,2 &5 all the time, to tackle the tasks I tend to avoid. I have to say, though, I never mastered the grocery store with my kids. It’s a task I don’t enjoy to this day, but I can remember savoring the few times I got to go without my kids while they were little as if it were a day at the spa. haha!
yes. yes. yes! couldn’t agree more. it wasn’t until i started to cultivate an appreciation for the mundane that i really started to cherish the little things in life. for me, it all started with learning to love the simple sound of my breath.
Literally the only thing that’s making me enjoy mundane tasks is me making a game out of it or singing while I work 🙂 good tips!
Kate | https://allthetrinkets.wordpress.com
This is such a great post! I have some mundane work tasks that I absolutely dread so for me its not cleaning or home chores but work but since I work from home I am able to combine music into work to make it bearable and that way I also do not realize how much am getting done until I finish them, I also like to reward my self every now and then, I find that it works for me too so I can just tell my self that I have a cup of ice cream or see a movie if I finish up with this task. Lol! Thank you for writing this.
Podcasts and music make all of my housework better! Washing dishes and cleaning the bathroom feels less like a “waste of time” when I’m listening to something educational at the same time.
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Laundry is my least favorite chore…the folding part. I just organized some of my kids’ drawers so it makes it a little more fun but I could use an attitude adjustment when it comes to this task 🙂
When it’s time to clean, I always let my kids choose a favorite CD and we turn it up loud enough to be heard throughout the whole house while everyone does their job. I don’t know what the neighbors think, but it sure lifts our spirits and makes cleaning much more enjoyable. Thank you for these wonderful tips. I’m going to incorporate some of these starting today!
There’s joy in everything (almost), you just need to stop rushing onto the next thing. Thanks for the blog-post x
hello, I feel satisfaction in living in a clean environment, when I finish cleaning or fixing things in the house I seem to be living better
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I try to focus on the result, rather than the task itself. I’ll visualise the clean sitting room where I can relax and that motivates me to start and keep going until it’s how I imagined it(:
Washing dishes, as a teen in a large family, they never seem to stop coming. I love this post though, and will try to implement this into my daily life…. Thank yo for making my day
Thanks for sharing this.
So amazing and motivating post you have written. Thanks!
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Thank you for talking about it and sharing your ways. In fact, not the best moment is happening in my life right now and I understand that I began to lose motivation for some ordinary things. Therefore, I think that your article will be quite useful to me, if only because I can try several ways and understand if it works in my conditions. It will be an interesting experience.
Enjoyable post. I really enjoyed your post on how to find joy in mundane tasks. It was interesting to see how you looked at your tasks and tried to find the joy in them. It was also interesting to see how you used your chores to get your child to bed and start the day. I think that’s a great idea and it’s great advice to find the joy in a task and not let it overwhelm you.
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A good reading! I enjoyed reading your post finding joy in mundane tasks. It was a very uplifting piece that even had me laughing at the end. I found the entire thing interesting and something I want to try out. Thank you for sharing!
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