My 2025 was pretty productive! It has to be as I spent significant time treating my calendar like a precious space where every hour should have been assigned to something productive. Be it meal preparation, job tasks, or a step toward a future goal- it all had to be there in some or the other hour.
If it isn’t for creating a marketing campaign, learning, writing, or reading a new article on a marketing trend, I felt a deep, gnawing anxiety- a feeling that I was somehow falling behind. Joy, hobbies, and simple pleasures, I forgot them all for almost a year! I genuinely thought I could indulge in all these pleasures later, and treated them as “future rewards” of hitting the next milestone.
The result? I did hit the milestones planned. But after being there, the success tasted flat. And before I knew it, I had another milestone in place. Not just this, I spent most of this year having random body aches, my creativity felt bone-dry, and though successful (by definition), I still felt miserable within.
My Eureka Moment!
It wasn’t a self-help book or a TikTok video that told me how to live right. It was my body screaming, and on a random day, I decided to listen.
I took 10 days off at the end of last year. This off wasn't just from the work but also from all the household works. This was a much needed break as by the start of December, I had episodes of mind fog and my body ached the moment I did a little. I drew a blank. It was time to slow down and think over, “what has changed this year, that’s giving me troubles I never had!” I drew a blank. My silence was the answer! My thought at the moment?
A whole year of doing nothing for joy and doing everything for career and things that I could measure in some way.
For most of my life, my life had stayed in a state of hyper-vigilance. Leading to episodes of anxiety and overthinking. The only antidote was indulging in things I love and that have no measurable purpose, whatsoever and resting. But intentional, daily, and purposeful delight.
In a single line, the antidote was:
Do one thing for joy, every single day.
And so I did, What It Takes!
I started making time for things that matter to me.
And I stopped framing it as a loss of my precious time. My off days in December gave me time to slow down and get into winter hibernation mode. And with no big, scheduled events in place, I started making time for small, un-skippable pockets of pure, unadulterated pleasure.
Here is how I make time for things that make me happy:
- 60-Minute Minimum; 2-Hours Maximum: The one thing you do every day for joy should not have to be so long to cause you anxiety or derail your schedule. Nor too short that it feels pointless. 60 minutes a day feels like the perfect amount of time. I sometimes extend it to 2 hours on weekends. Enough time to actually sink into an activity and forget your to-do list for a moment. But I advise you to choose your own time for this. Make sure it isn’t too short to leave you overwhelmed than actually calming you down.
- It should not go to my Resume: If I can monetise from it, or can impress someone, it is not for joy!What is not joy is reading a book to stay ahead of the curve. What is joy is to read a novel that you have wanted to read for so long. What is not joy is to cook so you can just feed yourself. What is joy is to cook something because that recipe has been sitting in your saved folder for so long, and you are craving that taste.The goal here is to dismantle the idea that every action must be a means to an end. The end goal here is to feel happy and stimulate endorphins.
My Idea of Delight
And things I have tried so far, for joy.
- Sat by a window, had coffee and decided to write on a completely random topic. This wasn’t a well-researched topic, but everything that was in my mind at the moment, and with the knowledge I had on the topic. Which was limited, but experiential.
- Walked and clicked some beautiful frames The last days of autumn and the transition around- everything I need to think, be philosophical and click some beautiful frames. I didn’t take my camera. I just went on a walk with nothing on my mind. And ended up clicking some beautiful pictures in the parks in my neighbourhood. Of course, from my phone camera. This wasn’t professional to go in my photography portfolio, but it made me capture moments from my everyday life.
- The Doodle I drew a silly doodle of my balcony view. It was nowhere what I imagined it to be. But it was something I never thought I could make; it was good!
- Stay In Bed & Read I made time to read for at least an hour every night. I get immense peace staying in bed and reading. There was a time I could spend hours doing so. But instead of not doing it at all, I started making time for it every day. The local library helped me re-develop this habit by making sure I get the books I want.
Doing all the above, my mind wasn’t locked into “goal mode”. The ideas that came to me while doodling, or just sitting and having coffee and doing nothing, were often the ones that gave me presence of mind. As a result, my work focus improved too, significantly. And in one of these moments, I also realised that burnout is not what you get working too much. It is when you spend too little time doing things that make you happy.
If you are reading this right now and feeling the drag of being overworked, I invite you to join this challenge. There is no deadline to start or end this. It is to develop a habit that will last longer than a few days.
Pick your first “One Thing For Joy”. Commit to it. And watch what happens when you finally permit yourself to be happy in little things.