What is the main message of The Joy of Work?

The main message of The Joy of Work is to find happiness and fulfillment in our professional lives.

Who is the author of The Joy of Work?

The author of The Joy of Work is Bruce Daisley.

Career & Success

The Joy of Work Book Summary - The Joy of Work Book explained in key points

Listen to the Intro

00:00

The Joy of Work summary

Name: The Joy of Work
Rating: 4.3 (207 reviews)
Author: Bruce Daisley

Bruce Daisley

30 Ways to Fix Your Work Culture and Fall in Love With Your Job Again

4.3 (207 ratings)

23 mins

Brief summary

The Joy of Work by Bruce Daisley is a practical guide that reveals the secrets to finding happiness in the workplace through achievable, evidence-based techniques. It helps create a happier, more productive working environment.

Topics

Work Culture

Table of Contents

The Joy of Work
Summary of 8 key ideas

Audio & text in the Blinkist app

Key idea 1 of 8

What’s in it for me? Discover some easy-to-implement ideas for improving workplace productivity.

There are some days when getting through a day at work can feel like an epic struggle. You’ll be facing a fast-approaching deadline while coworkers seem to be lined up at your desk vying for attention, and the number of unread emails in your inbox is reaching staggering new heights. It all seems like more than any one person can possibly manage!

Fortunately, there are some simple steps you can take to reclaim peace of mind – and, while you’re at it, increase productivity. While finding ways of working undisturbed can be part of the solution, as author Bruce Daisley makes clear, there is a less intuitive part of productivity: the social aspect.

Yes, we need to block out distractions while we work, but there are limits to how much time we should spend working before the harmful effects of exhaustion set in. Plus, what we do when we take our much-needed breaks can also have a tremendous impact on our well-being and overall efficiency.

In these blinks you’ll find

how to get a productive day started before 11:00 a.m.;
why you may want to take your next meeting outdoors; and
why it’s important to laugh, even when things are grim.

Distractions are detrimental to work efficiency and a Monk Mode Morning can help counter this problem.

If you’ve worked in an office, you may have had bosses or company executives that would stay hidden away in her office for hours on end. Perhaps you even thought poorly of them for being so detached and unsociable. However, if we look at the reasons behind good working habits, those aloof bosses may have been onto something.

For starters, keeping your workspace free of distractions is a key component to working efficiently.

In 2011, Danish management researcher J.H. Pejtersen conducted a study that revealed how people working in open-plan office spaces tended to take more sick days than workers who have private offices. The study also showed that those working in an open office space tend to be interrupted from their work on an average of once every three minutes.

These breaks in concentration aren’t just due to colleagues popping over to ask you a question – they also take the form of distracting conversations coming from neighboring desks and cubicles. What makes these interruptions so bad for your efficiency is that once your concentration is broken, it takes a long time for you to get back to that same level of focus.

This is the same reason why you shouldn’t try to juggle too many tasks at the same time. In his book Quality Software Management, the computer scientist Gerald Weinberg found that software managers who tried to jump between five different projects during the same day would only manage to work at a quarter of the efficiency they’d have achieved if they stuck to one project at a time.

One excellent way of reducing distractions is to practice the Monk Mode Morning, which involves shutting out all incoming calls and visitors until 11:00 a.m.

At first, your office mates may not appreciate this distraction barricade, but if you explain that it isn’t about being antisocial, but rather an attempt to put in a few hours of uninterrupted work before engaging with phone calls and meetings, then they’ll likely understand.

If Monk Mode Morning sounds appealing but you don’t have an office door to enforce it, you can try using headphones until 11:00 a.m. in order to create your own space.

Walking boosts creative thinking, so walking meetings can be a great productivity tool.

If you’re feeling stuck with a creative task, especially one with a quickly approaching deadline, you may not feel like stepping away from your work to go for a stroll. Yet, as J.K. Rowling, author of the world-famous Harry Potter books says, “There’s nothing like a night-time stroll to give you ideas.”

As it turns out, Rowling’s claim about the creative benefits of going for a walk are supported by science.

Too much connection and information can lead to hurry anxiety, but there are ways of quieting the pace.

It’s common to feel like you’re in a rush or under pressure to get things done, but did you know that having a persistent level of stress can affect your behavior?

Just think of those times when you’ve been waiting for the elevator and feel the need to keep pressing the call button again and again, even though you know it won’t make the elevator arrive any faster. This is a typical example of what’s known as hurry anxiety.

There’s a limit to how much work can be done, so it’s best to work less than 40 hours a week.

In a 2013 interview, British tennis champion Andy Murray explained just how exhausting a tennis match can be. As he explained it, physical exhaustion is only part of it. A tennis match also results in a great deal of mental exhaustion, due to having to make so many split-second tactical decisions.

As Murray’s comments suggest, we are only capable of making so many decisions before we’re left feeling exhausted, which is why there’s a limit to how much work we can do before our productivity begins to suffer. Ultimately, the more decisions we’re asked to make, the more exhausted we become and the more we’ll gravitate toward undemanding tasks.

New technology makes it possible to observe workplace dynamics and see how important social interactions are for productivity.

Have you ever dreamed of having an all-seeing eye and monitoring every worker in your company to see how they’re really spending their time? If the answer is yes, then your dream may already be a reality thanks to the new technology behind sociometric badges.

Developed by Alex Pentland, a professor of computer science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, sociometric badges combine traditional ID badges with smartphone technology, and make it possible to monitor workplace dynamics. Now, all the data behind an employee’s movements and interactions can be recorded and analyzed to reveal valuable information about individual behavior, such as how much time an employee spends in face-to-face conversations, as well as group behavior.

A social break gives an unexpected boost to productivity, as social interaction balances out work challenges.

Finding the right data to monitor productivity can vary from job to job. But at a call center, the information is pretty straightforward: there, we can easily see the number of calls being made and the success rate of those calls. And because these numbers are so apparent, employees at call centers feel a lot of pressure to spend more time making more calls to boost those numbers.

However, this approach isn’t very effective. It may sound counterintuitive, but a better way to boost productivity in a call center is to give people more social breaks.

If communication is not flowing in your company, it’s worth organizing company social gatherings.

There’s one group of people who shouldn’t get left out when it comes to the productive benefit of social interaction at the workplace, and that’s the employees who are working remotely. While working from home may make it easier to enter Monk Mode and block out distractions, it doesn’t help when it comes to taking social breaks.

While they didn’t announce their reason, the lack of communication between colleagues is likely why Yahoo recently launched a policy that forbade remote work. Yahoo and other companies know that, when employees spend too much time away from company headquarters, it can hurt productivity.

Laughter cheers up employees in army hospitals, so it’s worth giving laughter a chance in offices, too.

There’s a good chance you laughed a lot more as a child than you do now. Children can be such constant gigglers that they even get on the nerves of more serious adults. But the fact of the matter is, every adult could benefit from more laughter in their lives.

As we’ve come to find out, laughing is an effective and valuable way of coping with life’s challenges – even if you’re experiencing the stresses of war.

Want to see all full key ideas from The Joy of Work?

Key ideas in The Joy of Work

More knowledge in less time

Read or listen

Get the key ideas from nonfiction bestsellers in minutes, not hours.

Find your next read

Get book lists curated by experts and personalized recommendations.

Shortcasts ^New

We’ve teamed up with podcast creators to bring you key insights from podcasts.

What is The Joy of Work about?

The Joy of Work (2019) offers tips and techniques for making work less stressful and a lot more fun and productive. It examines many of the productivity pitfalls that can be found in today’s workplace, and provides solutions for both increased efficiency and more peace of mind. It also provides ideas on how to improve the atmosphere in the office and with your colleagues in order to engage in effective and harmonious teamwork.

The Joy of Work Review

The Joy of Work (2019) by Bruce Daisley is a refreshing exploration of how to find happiness and fulfillment in the workplace. Here's why we highly recommend this book:

With practical strategies and insightful anecdotes, it provides actionable advice on improving productivity, fostering creativity, and creating a positive work culture.
Drawing on scientific research and real-life experiences, it offers a well-rounded perspective on the challenges and opportunities in today's work environment.
The book's witty and relatable tone makes it an enjoyable read, capturing our attention with its engaging stories and practical tips.

Best quote from The Joy of Work

So next time youre in a lift, press the button and then wait. Those extra few seconds might be your path to a brilliant new idea.

—Bruce Daisley

Who should read The Joy of Work?

Employees
Managers and CEOs
Coaches and psychologists

About the Author

Bruce Daisley was born in Birmingham and began his career writing for magazines and radio. He went on to work for giant companies like Twitter and Google, and currently heads the European branch of Twitter. Daisley is also committed to enjoyment at work, something he speaks about on his podcast eatsleepworkrepeat.fm.

Categories with The Joy of Work

Career & Success Corporate Culture

Book summaries like The Joy of Work

Eat Sleep Work Repeat

Bruce Daisley

30 Hacks for Bringing Joy to Your Job

24 min

4.1

Yoga for Better Sleep

Mark Stephens

Ancient Wisdom Meets Modern Science

15 min

The 15 Commitments of Conscious Leadership

Jim Dethmer

A New Paradigm for Sustainable Success

17 min

4.4

101 Essays That Will Change The Way You Think

Brianna Wiest

Philosophical Meditations That Will Change Your Life

How to Find the Work You Were Meant to Do

16 min

4.1

The Art of Positive Thinking

Elizabeth R. Brown

Eliminate Negative Thinking I Emotional Intelligence I Stop Overthinking

365 Days to Become the Person You Truly Want to Be

The New Psychology of Success

Little Things That Can Change Your Life… And Maybe The World

How Compassionate Accountability Builds Vibrant Relationships, Thriving Workplaces, and Meaningful Lives

20 min

4.4

Consciousness Explained

Daniel C. Dennett

Redefine Your Understanding of the Mind and Consciousness

18 min

4.3

Million Dollar Habits

Brian Tracy

Proven Power Practices to Double and Triple Your Income

Optimize Your Brain to Transform the Way You Work

The Science behind Atheism

Timeless Stoic and Buddhist philosophy

An Amazing Way to Deal With Change in Your Work and in Your Life

Choosing a Focused Life in a Noisy World

20 min

4.5

Positive Communication for Leaders

Julien C. Mirivel & Alexander Lyon

Proven Strategies for Inspiring Unity and Effecting Change

How Millennials Became the Burnout Generation

The Secret to Achieving More with Less

18 min

4.3

The Brain’s Way of Healing

Norman Doidge

Stories of Remarkable Recoveries and Discoveries

18 min

4.4

The Art of Witty Banter

Patrick King

Be Clever, Quick, and Magnetic

A 9-Step System to Level Up Your Finances and Build Wealth

16 min

4.0

End the Insomnia Struggle

Colleen Ehrnstrom and Alisha L. Brosse

A Step-by-Step Guide to Help You Get to Sleep and Stay Asleep

14 min

4.0

Willpower

Roy F. Baumeister and John Tierney

Why Self-Control is the Secret of Success

19 min

3.8

The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership

John C. Maxwell

Follow Them and People Will Follow You

20 min

4.4

Who We Are and How We Got Here

David Reich

Ancient DNA and the New Science of the Human Past

28 min

4.3

The 12-Week MBA

Nathan Kracklauer & Bjorn Billhardt

Learn the Skills You Need to Lead in Business Today

Why Should I and How Can I?

16 min

3.3

Sex at Dawn

Christopher Ryan and Cacilda Jethá

How we mate, why we stray, and what it means for modern relationships

Enhance Your Performance at Work with Mindfulness

An uncommon guide to rapid fat-loss, incredible sex and becoming superhuman

How to Make It to the End with No Regrets

The Surprising Science of Human Goodness

How to Apply the Science of Happiness to Accelerate Your Success

The Art of Seeing Others Deeply and Being Deeply Seen

Why English Won’t – and Can’t – Sit Still (Like, Literally)

How Constant Innovation Creates Radically Successful Businesses

18 min

4.6

Man’s Search for Meaning

Viktor Frankl

The harrowing experiences of the author in a concentration camp

17 min

4.4

Warren Buffett's Ground Rules

Jeremy C. Miller

Words of Wisdom from the Partnership Letters of the World’s Greatest Investor

16 min

4.2

The Psychology of Money

Morgan Housel

Timeless Lessons on Wealth, Greed, and Happiness

22 min

4.4

The Innovation Mindset

Lorraine Hudson Marchand

Eight Essential Steps to Transform Any Industry

18 min

Think Again

Adam Grant

The Power of Knowing What You Don't Know

22 min

4.6

Talk to Me Like I'm Someone You Love

Nancy Dreyfus

Relationship Repair in a Flash

9 min

3.9

Mindfulness

Mark Williams and Danny Penman

An Eight-Week Plan for Finding Peace in a Frantic World

Stop Drama, Eliminate Entitlement, Maximize Results

19 min

4.3

I Didn't Know I Needed This

Eli Rallo

The New Rules for Flirting, Feeling, and Finding Yourself

The Psychology of Persuasion

Breaking Through the Invisible Boundaries of Global Business

21 min

4.6

People ❤️ Blinkist

Sven O.

It's highly addictive to get core insights on personally relevant topics without repetition or triviality. Added to that the apps ability to suggest kindred interests opens up a foundation of knowledge.

Thi Viet Quynh N.

Great app. Good selection of book summaries you can read or listen to while commuting. Instead of scrolling through your social media news feed, this is a much better way to spend your spare time in my opinion.

Jonathan A.

Life changing. The concept of being able to grasp a book's main point in such a short time truly opens multiple opportunities to grow every area of your life at a faster rate.

Renee D.

Great app. Addicting. Perfect for wait times, morning coffee, evening before bed. Extremely well written, thorough, easy to use.