Let's talk a little bit about happiness.
Music and links from this episode
Travelling between the Ancient Empires by Ars Sonor & Sean Derrick Cooper Marquardt
Park Bench Afternoons by MindsEye
Tides by MindsEye
A curious thing by J Hacha de Zola
Line-by-line notes
INTRO
In our work focused culture
And because work is all about, well working
We often forget that work could be fun, if we wanted it to be
Because work is driven by profits, timesheets and getting paid
We sometimes forget one of the most important parts of our life
Happiness
Let’s talk a bit about happiness
This is AADA, and I’m Craig Burgess
PLAY MID SONG
James Deb
It’s probably not a name your familiar with
If you you are
Congratulations, you read Wikipedia like me
James Deb is often cited as one of the inventors of the 8 hour work day
Or the 40 hour work movement, that its apparently known as
Previous to this idea, 10-16 hour work days 6 days a week were common
It was actually Robert Owen though
A Welsh social reformer and one of the founders of the utopian socialism movement
That really branded the 8 hour work day well
He came up with the slogan
8 hours labour, 8 hours recreation, 8 hours rest
This was seen as revolutionary at the time
That suddenly were going to start working less hours
And looking after our health
And it’s funny, now, we live in a freer society than ever
One that, with the help of the internet pretty much lets you do whatever you want
Whenever you want
And we voluntarily choose to work longer hours
Do more things for our bosses
And put our happiness on hold for the sake of the corporation
In the design industry, we value worker heroes
The people who turn up an hour before everybody else
And leave an hour after everybody else
It’s common in the design industry to work long hours
And work weekends, and in your spare time
Because we enjoy our jobs so much
It’s not like this feels like work, and we might still think we feel happy
Those worker heroes, the people who work the longest?
They’re not heroes
It’s not big or clever working ridiculous hours
It grates on your happiness
Slowly and methodically
And it's something you don't even realise
Trust me, I’ve been there and worn out the t-shirt
I realised, years ago now, that working the longest doesn’t make you the best
It just becomes habit, then you expand every task to fill the available time
You become less efficient, because you’ve got more hours available to you
Then that means you end up working longer hours, because things are taking you longer to do
Then the cycle repeats all over again
And, it just doesn’t make you happy
Design makes me happy
I love it
But I don’t love doing it for 16 hours a day
That’s not an efficient use of my design brain
I can’t come up with good ideas for that long during the day
And I shouldn’t try, but some people do
I’m at my happiest when I’m designing things
But that doesn’t mean I stay happy for very long when I’ve been doing it for too long
Even the things you love make you less happy when you do them for too long
And if you’re not even in a job that makes you happy
Quit tomorrow
It’s just not worth it
There’s no point wasting your life being unhappy
I know not every part of every job makes you happy, I’m not naive
But you can work your damnedest to make the happiness balance tip in your favour
If you’ve got a job that makes you happy, well done
To make sure you keep it that way, make sure you don’t do it too much
Instead of 2 parts work, 1 part happiness
Flip it on its head
Go for 2 parts happiness, 1 part work
Or even better
3 parts happiness, no work
After all, if you do something you enjoy, you’ll never work a day in your life
Right?
OUTRO
This was AADA. I’m Craig Burgess.
Music featured in this episode was
Travelling between the Ancient Empires by Ars Sonor & Sean Derrick Cooper Marquardt
Park Bench Afternoons by MindsEye
Tides by MindsEye
A curious thing by J...
