Why Joy deserves a spot on your to-do list

Why prioritising joy isn't selfish, it's strategic (+ 4 ways to start today)

Last week I laughed so hard I snorted oat milk latte out of my nose.

It wasn't glamorous. But it was absolutely glorious!

I was having brunch with a girlfriend, and we laughed so hard that the people at the next table were both amused and a little concerned.

I've had a really tough few weeks at work, so it felt like someone had hit the reset button on my whole nervous system.

And it made me realise something: I hadn't had that kind of laugh in weeks!

Like, proper belly laugh. Snorting kind of laugh.

Which is wild. I consider myself to be a fairly sunny person. Also, I spend a lot of my time helping people feel better, live better, do better.

But like a lot of high-functioning humans, sometimes I forget about joy.

Joy is not a bonus. It’s not a weekend-only luxury. It’s essential.

Now, I know that we live in tricky times, and joy doesn't always seem to be in obvious abundance.

So how can you sprinkle a little bit of it into your daily life?

Joy is a design choice, not a personality trait.

According to designer Ingrid Fetell Lee, joy isn't just an inner state. It’s a physical experience.

And it’s all around us if we know what to look for.

We can design our environment with what she identified as the ten “aesthetics of joy”: colours, shapes, patterns, and textures that bring us joy.

Think: bright colours, symmetry, round shapes, bursts of confetti, sunlight, balloons, nature, bubbles.

It’s childlike, yes. But it’s also deeply human.

And here’s the good news: you can curate it!

Try this:

• Replace your black coffee mug with a bright yellow one.

• Swap your neutral desktop wallpaper for a photo of cherry blossoms or ocean waves.

• Add a small plant with nice round leaves to your workspace.

I have a lot of plants, wood, and natural soft furnishings in my home. I work from home, so having a bright, cosy environment really helps with my focus and overall mental wellbeing.

One client hung cute fairy lights around the mirror in her home office. Now she looks forward to her morning video calls instead of dreading them.

It may seem superficial. It’s not.

It’s nervous system regulation.

Joy isn't a reward for good behaviour. It’s an input.

🎈 What's one joyful detail you could add to your environment today?

Fun is fundamental, not frivolous.

Journalist Catherine Price calls it True Fun: a magical trifecta of playfulness, connection, and flow.

True fun isn't zoning out with Netflix and wine while double screening (no judgement, though).

It's that moment when you're FULLY present, doing something enjoyable or silly or spontaneous, often with people you love.

And when we don't make space for that? We feel flat. Disconnected. Tired but wired.

Try this:

• Try a new hobby! Pottery class, salsa dancing, rock climbing, bookbinding, or learning ukulele. I know this one seems to be copy paste from every single "self-help" read out there, but try something new, extra points if you do it with a friend.

• If it makes you forget to check your phone, it probably counts.

Fun isn't just a mood boost. It’s resilience. It’s creativity. It’s fuel!

People who play often score better on resilience tests. They also have more activity in brain areas linked to creative problem-solving.

So why do we treat fun like an afterthought??

🎈 What were you doing the last time you felt genuinely, joyfully alive? How can you add a little more of that to your life?

Happiness is about attention, not achievement.

You become what you give your attention to.

If your attention is constantly hijacked by stress, comparison, or doomscrolling, no amount of success will ever make you feel good. I talked about this in my last article here.

But if you deliberately shift your focus towards things that bring pleasure and purpose? That’s where sustainable happiness lives.

People who savour positive moments (that is, deliberately slow down to enjoy them) report up to 25% higher life satisfaction than those who don’t.

Try this:

• Instead of checking your phone first thing in the morning, spend two minutes noticing three things you can see, hear, or feel.

• When walking to lunch, look up at people, buildings, the sky! Savour the walk instead of looking down at your screen.

• Before bed, think of one moment from the day that made you smile. No matter how small or silly that might be.

And no, that doesn't mean a full lifestyle overhaul. We're not big fans of this over here.

It means paying attention to the things that already feel good, and intentionally doing more of that, more often.

🎈 Where is your attention going this week? Is it where you want it to be?

Positivity builds brainpower.

Turns out, joy, love, laughter, and awe don’t just feel nice.

According to social psychologist Barbara Fredrickson, they literally expand your cognitive capacity.

In her studies, participants who experienced positive emotions had better attention spans and performed better on creative thinking tasks.

She calls this the Broaden-and-Build theory.

Positive emotions help you build resilience, strengthen relationships, and boost your immune system. People with more positive emotions even have better antibody responses to vaccines.

Try this:

• Begin meetings with a 2 minute check-in. Everyone can share something positive from their week.

• Take your brainstorming session outside or to a cool café.

• Keep a “wins” folder in your email where you save positive feedback, and actually read it when you're stuck.

• Play upbeat music during team planning sessions. I stole this playlist from the d-school at Stanford, and it's always a winner.

So that 5-minute dance party in your kitchen? That playful chat with a friend?

It’s not a waste of time. It’s brain gym.

🎈 What’s one tiny dose of joy you can intentionally build into your day?

This week's experiment: the Fun Audit

Don’t overthink it. Just ask yourself:

• What were the last 3 things I did that made me feel alive, playful, or connected?

• Who was I with? What patterns do I notice?

• Then… 🎈 How can I design more of that into this week?

Fun doesn’t happen by accident in grown-up life.

You have to make space for it.

Schedule it. Protect it.

Here's the thing about joy: it's not selfish, it's strategic.

Focusing on small joys, like switching that black mug to sunshine yellow, planning a daily kitchen dance party, or noticing how light hits your living room in the morning, isn’t silly at all.

You're fuelling your resilience, creativity, and capacity to handle whatever life throws at you.

Joy isn't the reward you get after you've ticked everything off your to-do list. It's what gives you the energy to tackle that list in the first place.

So go ahead. Put joy on your calendar, design it into your environment, and protect it like the critical life skill it is.

Your nervous system (and everyone around you) will thank you for it.

It isn't the icing. It's the whole damn cake!

With love,
Noemie x

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P.S. Forward this to a friend who needs a reminder that joy counts too!

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