Joy, photo by Beth Scupham
My washing machine sings to me. Well, not to me specifically, it would sing anyway, but I happen to be the one in my household that hears its little uber-cheery “Hey, I’m finished!” song most often.
I wouldn’t say that doing laundry is my favorite thing in the world to do, but this washing machine actually makes me look forward to doing what I used to consider a chore specifically because it brings me a little joy at the end of its cycle. I actually do laundry more frequently as a result.
And that’s kind of nuts, right? Nothing’s changed; I still have to schlep the laundry down to the basement, fill the washer, hit all the same sort of buttons…but that song makes it different somehow. Where there was a jarring three-second buzzer, I now have an 8-second melody to reward me. But we can all use a little extra bit of joy in our lives, right?
We have the equivalent things in our work-lives. Things that aren’t horrible, we just don’t enjoy doing them very much. And like dirty laundry, they can pile up if we don’t get to them regularly. Contact reports. Monthly reports. Budget-crafting. Performance evaluations. Database entry. Bleh.
What do you (or others in your shop) do to give chores a song at the end? Share your tips here in the comments for all of us to learn from. I for one would love to hear how you create joy.
