Ali Abdaal is a doctor, one of the world’s most-followed productivity experts and author of Feel Good Productivity: How To Do More Of What Matters To You.

“After watching Mary Poppins one day back when I was a junior doctor (“In every job that must be done, there is an element of fun. You find the fun and snap! The job’s a game,” says Mary Poppins), I decided to apply the film’s philosophy to my own life. In a late-night burst of inspiration, I grabbed a Sharpie and a Post-it note and wrote nine simple words: what would this look like if it were fun? I stuck the note to my computer monitor and went to sleep.

“By the time I spotted the note on my monitor the following day, I’d forgotten I’d put it there. I’d just got back from work and was making a start on relearning some biochemistry pathways for my medical exam. I sat down with my usual grin-and-bear-it expression. But when I saw the Post-it it got me thinking again. What would this look like if it were fun? The answer came to me immediately: if this were fun, there would be music. I realised that memorising tedious biochemistry pathways magically became a lot more interesting with the Lord Of The Rings soundtrack playing through my headphones.

“‘What would this look like if it were fun?’ has now become a guiding question in my life. And it’s surprisingly easy to draw upon. Think of a task that you don’t want to do right now and ask what would it look like if it were fun. Could you do it in a different way? Could you add music or a sense of humour or get creative? What if you set out to do the task with friends, or promised yourself a treat at the end of the process? Is there a way to make this draining process a little more enjoyable?”

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