In the world of business and productivity things can get a little too serious for my liking. And when things get serious, fear, overwhelm and procrastination come out to play.

Fun, on the other hand, is naturally motivating. It comes easy, it doesn’t overwhelm and we don’t need to psyche ourselves up for it.

Fun engages our creativity and brings out our best ideas. The act of ‘tinkering’ can be a great way to bypass procrastination.

Fun can be a great way of disarming distractions too, as Helen Routledge highlighted in her guest post about how games can boost productivity.

Fun is sustainable. It’s easy to keep going when you’re having fun.

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Today some of my fun is going to involve coloured pens and big piece of paper on the kitchen table with a little family tradition we started last year, where all four of us draw and write down ideas, hopes and plans of what we want to do, enjoy and grow in 2014.

Here’s what last year’s looks like. It’s been up on the wall by our front door all year, as a reminder, a prompt and an ideas generator. In fact we’re quite proud of how many of these we’ve ticked off this year (although quite frankly I still don’t know what a chicaporca is! Any ideas?)

What about you?

Whether you’re dreaming big, planning meticulously, or just starting to think about what on earth 2014 is going to look like, how can you inject some fun?

Fun is also one of the ingredients of 40 Days of Baby Steps – my way of kicking off the New Year with 40 days of fun, focus and accountability. Fancy joining me?