Using fun to guide our decisions can also make us more productive. Many of us in white-collar jobs get sucked into doing things that give us the impression we’re being “productive”—say, checking email constantly, or ticking small things off our to-do lists, or getting sucked into office politics and gossip—when in reality we’re just filling time to make ourselves feel like we’re getting stuff done. (Take a hard look at your workday, in other words: How much of your time are you spending on things that are meaningful or essential to your job—or you—versus on being reactive?)

