Daily Utility

Work - that four letter word that causes us to spend 8-5 Monday through Friday away from our loved ones and dealing with people that frustrate us. Hopefully you enjoy your job, but no matter what you do, there are plenty of frustrating days.

While there is a distinct difference between a job and a career, I will just use "job" to mean both for the purposes of this post.

When we start a job, we have a couple of sources of utility in mind 1) disposable income and 2) fulfillment. We recognize the utility from the first factor each time we receive a cash dispersal (aka a pay check). The second factor, fulfillment, is the tricky one because it is really a long-term play. Like any other long-term goal, you need to set shorter-term intermediate goals to celebrate in order to realize some utility and keep your momentum. As such, I think it is extremely important to stop and smell the proverbial roses when you complete something that pushes you to grow, when you accomplish a personal goal, when you get promoted or recognized, etcetera. Those moments when you can recognize utility gains because you feel fulfilled are wonderful things, but sadly they too are somewhat far between.

This means that on a daily basis, you may not receive much utility from your job, so what are you to do? The majority of your day is consumed with work and you can't recognize very much utility, so you need to pay attention to the margins of your day - that time before and after work - for other sources of utility. Assuming you have a job that you find intellectually and/or physically challenging, it is important to get some low hanging fruit (a favorite term for consultants) by figuring out how to make necessary tasks more enjoyable.

Some examples of me finding utility in the margins of my day-
1) Listening to NPR while I shower. I get a great primer on what is going on in the world as well as local weather and traffic every morning when I shower.

2) Watching TV while I iron. Obviously I need to pay attention to what I am doing, but having the TV on (particularly on sports or SportsCenter) allows me to keep up with my favorite teams/players while I get ready for work the next day.

3) Listening to music while I fold laundry. The socks won't pair themselves, but at least I can listen to some music that I like while I take care of this tedious chore.

4) Eating with friends as much as possible. Don't get me wrong, I thoroughly enjoy eating... but there is just something to be said for sharing a meal with a friend. So when possible, I shuffle my schedule to accommodate my friend's schedule so we can have lunch or dinner together. Boost the utility by adding a bottle of wine or a nice Scotch :)

I'd love to hear how you find utility in the margins of your day. Maybe your practices will help others find more utility, so please leave them in the comments.