What makes a good day
About a year ago, I started the habit of keeping a daily journal.
One of the most important parts of that routine is giving each day a “happiness score” on a scale of high to low.
It’s a subjective score that reflects how I feel about what I did that day. After a year of this habit, it’s becoming clear to me what makes a day “good” in my mind.
Before I share that, please let me share what seems to make a day “bad”:
Time without structure.
Is that as interesting and surprising to you as it has been for me?
Days with no deadlines, meetings, obligations, or plans end up being unhappy, unproductive days that end with regret and sometimes shame.
“Good days,” however, focus on goals and move through a plan that I set in advance. Deadlines, meetings, and obligations actually help. I go through the day with drive and focus.
The kind of deadlines, meetings, and obligations make a difference. An unproductive meeting–especially one that I should have declined to take in the first place–can bring down an entire day.
Guess what day of the week consistently scores highest for me.
It’s Sunday.
Sunday is a day full of meetings and obligations: Bible class, church, life group or outings. We’re rushing around from place to place as much as any work day during the week.
On Sunday, however, I devote every moment to faith, family, and friends. I do not turn on the computer or look at my phone. When I’m not with someone important to me, I’m reading a good book.
The things that make Sundays so good are also the things that make other days of the week good, too. When I enjoy an evening with my family, it boosts the “happiness score” of the dreariest weekday. When I meet an old friend for lunch, it makes an otherwise dull day at the office seem more lively.
Doing good work is a source of great fulfillment and stimulation for me.
But I notice a law of diminishing returns. Doing good work all hours of day and night actually begins to have the opposite effect. There seems to be a right number of hours to work each day. Anything less or more degrades my happiness.
Time with family and friends and God, however, work different. The better and more time I devote to them, the better I seem to be and feel. I am more in tune with my soul when I am living on purpose with them.
Thus, I am devoting more time to “Sunday things” and less time to “workday things.” I believe that this will actually greatly enhance the quality and productivity of my professional work. More important, “Sunday things” are the true work I’m here to do on this earth. Nothing could be more important to humanity than loving the humans God put in my life.
We Americans seem to believe that the harder and more we work, the better our quality of life will be. We seem to think that there will be time later for enjoying the people who are most precious to us.
I can tell you from a year of empirical evidence that I don’t buy this anymore.
Our quality of life and work depends on the quality and quantity of time we invest in faith, family, and friends. These are the bedrock of our lives and the source of our energy and purpose.
I’m making every day more like Sunday. What about you?