Why You Need To Literally Schedule Fun Into Your Life + How To Do It

I did not plan on leading anyone towards an epiphany.

I mean, I knew what I was teaching people was helpful and useful. I knew that my course would help people bring in a lot of extra money, pay off debt, etc. etc. etc.

But I didn’t expect one tiny suggestion – something I thought was so-obvious-it’s-barely-worth-mentioning – to change everything for my students.

What did I tell my Bank Boost students to do? (Side note: a pre-holiday round of Bank Boost starts November 2. Join us here!) 

I told them to schedule fun into their week.

Why you need to literally schedule fun into your life

If you don’t schedule fun, it probably won’t happen

I’m sure you’ve witnessed this in your own life, right?

Somehow, it’s been six months since you saw that friend and the art exhibit you were looking forward to has been and gone. You have yet to visit the new bakery down the street you were so excited about. You waited for months to get that library book and now it’s due and you haven’t cracked it.

I know scheduling fun doesn’t feel particularly sexy. Fun should be spontaneous! Wonderful experiences should fall into your lap as though life were a musical montage in a rom com!

That would awesome. And it might even happen sometimes!
You’re a lot more likely to have fun if you make time for it and commit to making it happen. Click To Tweet

Scheduling fun gives you something to look forward to

Did you know that 30% of the happiness you get from a given experience comes from anticipating it?

You can suck 30% more happiness from the fun stuff you’re already doing just by putting it on your calendar. When you scribble a reminder into your planner, you’ll see it every day. You’ll get a little jolt of joy thinking about how much fun you’re going to have at that dinner party, concert, beach day, or camping trip.

These scheduled bits of fun can also give you the push you need to get through that interminable meeting, big project, or long commute. It’s a lot easier to pay attention to Dana from Accounting when there’s a food truck festival in your immediate future.

When you schedule fun, you’re less likely to over-spend, over-eat, over-drink, or over-Netflix

When we feel deprived or bored, it comes out in all sorts of super cool ways!

When we don’t schedule time with our friends, we might try to get our social fix via Facebook or Instagram, falling down a rabbit hole of less-than feelings and the comparison trap.

When we don’t make time to eat delicious food at restaurants we’re excited about, we might stand in front of the fridge eating leftovers and chips, every hour on the hour. And we’re not even enjoying ourselves or our food!

When we don’t make deliberate space for seeing fun movies, time in nature, trying new things, or moving our bodies, we scratch that itch with shopping, food, alcohol, or binge-watching.

So how do you schedule fun?

Make scheduling fun a Sunday night or Monday night habit

Sunday night is peek Moping Time. Monday night is high season for Oh God I Still Have Four More Days Of Work Till The Weekend.

Why not use that time to tuck more fun into your life? Clear off the dining room table and pour yourself a glass of something delicious. Open your calendar and start filling it with stuff that makes you happy.

Email a friend you haven’t seen in ages and invite them over for dinner. Look at your city’s event calendar and choose a few things to attend.

Join a Meetup group for a hobby you love that none of your friends care about. Pencil in time to try that hiking trail you’ve been eyeing or a day trip to a cute town nearby.

These things don’t have to be huge, expensive, or time-consuming! They’re just little things that make you happy that might not happen if you don’t make time for them.

Related: if you’re not sure what makes you happy, this will help

Create accountability with invitations, reservations, classes, or non-refundable deposits

Maybe you don’t need to be held accountable to fun. Maybe you make plans to attend a fun dance class and you don’t get deterred by a long work day, bad traffic, and overcast weather. You are an awesome human! Congrats!

But some of us put off happiness and fun – even when we know we shouldn’t!

If that’s you, you can create accountability by building a bit of structure around your fun. Invite your most Type A friend to join you so you won’t back out.

Make reservations you won’t cancel. Sign up for a class that advance payment. Do something fun that involves a non-refundable deposit. You already paid for it! You might as well do it!

But I want to hear from you! How often do you make time for fun? Do you schedule it or does it just ‘happen’? Tell us in the comments so we can learn from you!

Photo by EveryGirlBoss.com on Unsplash