Harness Happiness as an Input to Productivity

"Work hard, then be happy" gets it backwards.

Most of us carry a deeply embedded belief: happiness comes after success. Work hard first, then you earn the right to be happy.

This mindset has birthed an entire “grind culture” that wears misery as a badge of honor. Even “successful” people keep pushing happiness into the future — after the next milestone, after the next achievement, after the next mountain is climbed.

There’s another problem, though: the research shows that happy people are 31% more productive than those in a negative or neutral state.¹ Not only are grinders less happy, they’re less productive.

So how do we flip this script and start using happiness to fuel our productivity? Here are three practical steps:

1. Make Your Own Top 5 List

In a study of 250,000 respondents,² researchers found that the following are the top five activities that made respondents the happiest:

1. Making love

2. Exercising

3. Talking and investing in their relationships

4. Playing

5. Listening to music

These might be universal triggers for happiness, but you likely have your own unique sources of joy. Your task is to identify your personal Top 5 happiness triggers — especially those that energize your work rather than just serving as escape hatches from it.

For instance, “Play” doesn't do much for me and not because I have a problem playing. It’s just not specific enough for me. I’d sub “Being in nature” for that one. Hiking, camping, trekking, motorcycling, sightseeing — doing any of those is going to make me happy because they’re all “being in nature.” Many of them stack with other members of the Top 5, too, which is a great way to experience more happiness in the same unit of time.

The 10 Dimensions of Life Framework may also give you a good starting point, too. High-satisfaction domains will likely give you a clue about your Top 5.

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The 10 Dimensions of Life

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If it supports you to rank them in the order of how happy they make you, go ahead and do so. I think it’s enough for you to know your Top 5 and it’s often better for it to be unsorted so you focus more on what’s available to you here and now instead of waiting to get one “higher up the list” and missing the moment.

Five is enough that you have some options, but not so many that you forget them or get into the paradox of choice. This is the Awareness key of 5 Keys to Overcoming the Air Sandwich.

2. Weave Your Top 5 into Your Work

The key insight here isn’t just to squeeze moments of happiness into your workday. It’s to intentionally redesign your work around your happiness triggers. Some, like “listening to music,” might already be naturally integrated. But what about the others?

The real opportunity is in transforming how you work, not just adding pleasant breaks.

For instance, if you value social connection, a co-working group or buddy may be supportive. This is why we started facilitating co-working groups back in 2014 — way ahead of the curve — and kept doing it through 2023.

Let’s return to “Being in nature” from my Top 5, which you might think would be hard to weave into my work. I’ve learned that I love writing and doing coaching sessions while I’m camping and/or in nature. In the spring and summer, some of my clients and I do coaching sessions while we're walking or hiking.

Even our retreats have evolved to embrace this principle: held near beaches, mountains, or forests rather than in sterile conference rooms. We integrate music, movement, and nature because these elements don’t just make people happier, they fundamentally enhance the quality of our work and thinking.

I know I’m the best version of myself when I weave in as many of my Top 5 as possible. When these happiness triggers are active, my leadership is more inspired, my coaching more insightful, my writing sharper and more creative. This isn’t just about personal enjoyment — it’s about delivering dramatically better results.

The same is true for you and your craft/job.

3. Do Your Top 5 Before You Work

For many people, the last practice is the warmup for making space for their Top 5 before they work because they get to tell themselves that they’re being more productive. The “self-worth is tied to being productive” head trash is hard to shake that way.

Doing your Top 5 before you work requires truly centering yourself, permission to nourish yourself, and trust that you’ll do what matters most or that things will work out.

Start by “micro-dosing” your Top 5 before you work. It’s too hard for most of us to start with hour-long activities, but we can find five, fifteen, or thirty minutes here and there throughout the day. I strongly suggest 15-20 minute chunks because that’s about the amount of time it takes for our brains to transition from the context to context, but I know that feels like too much for many people. Even though they’ll spend the same amount of time social media grazing, doomscrolling, or in the Loop.)

The Habit Switcher worksheet and methodology may help you upgrade more of your moments to your Top 5.

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Elevate Your Day with the Habit Switcher

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As Jonathan Fields and I discussed, many people spend their entire day chasing 15 minutes they lost or misspent earlier in the day. I’m amending my thesis from that conversation to suggest that the 15-minute task folks are chasing is probably something in their Top 5.

What if, rather than chasing it all day, you made space for that activity up front and let something other than your happiness be the acceptable loss for the day?

The Happiness-Productivity Loop

Let’s return to the previous stat that happier people are 31% more productive than those who are in a negative or neutral state. If we are to believe the research, it means that we may be able to get the same amount of valuable work in less time. Harnessing your happiness as an input to productivity may take a little time, but you end up getting the time back.

But, more than getting that time back, you get better-quality time back. And if you practice #2 above, you get better-quality time while you work. It’s all wins here, y’all.

Unless, of course, you have a no-win scenario or head trash about your happiness counting or allowing yourself to be happy.

Odds are, you’re already weaving your Top 5 into your work or doing some of it before you work. Even when we have some head trash, we humans have a tendency toward making our experiences a little more joyful. Aristotle wasn’t that far off when he said the end of all activity is flourishing.

If you’ve already unconsciously been practicing some of the ideas above, I hope this post helps you lean into it more. And if you haven’t, give it a shot.

With what’s going on in the world these days, we could all use a little more happiness and pride in the great work we’re doing. You can create that today for yourself instead of waiting for someone else to come save you.

The reading time on this post is about five minutes. Will you carve out another 10, right now, to do one of your Top 5?

1. I discovered this through Chris Bailey’s Hyperfocus and he’s referencing Shawn Achor’s research found in The Happiness Advantage. Hat tip to both.

2. Killingsworth and Gilbert, “A Wandering Mind Is an Unhappy Mind.”