The most underrated tool for getting things done

One of the lesser-known burdens of overthinkers is this: We take ourselves and life way too seriously. We dream big but act small. Or worse, not at all.

You want to start a blog? You tell yourself you need three months’ worth of posts ready before you launch. You want to start a business? Not until your savings can rival a small nation’s GDP. You want to get fit? Better wait until you can afford that high-performance gym + celebrity trainer combo.

There’s nothing wrong with preparation. But if you make “ideal” a prerequisite, you'll delay indefinitely.

Instead, start small. It’s okay to be messy. It’s okay to be imperfect. It’s freakishly effective—and wildly freeing—to be playful!

Seriousness ≠ Commitment

When a project feels too serious, we procrastinate. We get stuck in someday. That someday is the most crowded graveyard for creative dreams.

Most things that take off—side hustles, creative outlets, well-being rituals—they don’t begin with pressure. They begin with play.

• Write 200 words that feel authentic and post them. No one’s grading.

• Do 3 squats in your bedroom. It still counts.

• Instead of dreaming of building a 50-feature product, build a micro-offering. A page, not a platform. A tool, not a marketplace.

We need a first step, not a grand entrance. Playfulness makes it surprisingly easier to take the first step.

Playfulness is wildly underrated

It’s not about cracking jokes or high-fiving your boss in a boardroom.
It’s about weaving lightness into the heavy things. Especially the big, ambitious, meaningful projects.

Big projects are ultimately made up of many small ones. If you can’t enjoy the small ones, you’ll never get to the big ones.

Playfulness gives you the permission to begin before you're “ready.” Spoiler alert: you're never fully ready.

It lets you experiment without demanding perfection.

It keeps you curious when you might otherwise shut down.

It makes the process the prize, not just the result. It makes doing fun.

🍋 Lemonading life

During the pandemic, a study published in Frontiers in Psychology found that people with a playful approach to life had better resilience.

They weren’t in denial. They weren’t ignoring how hard things were.

They had a lighter cognitive frame, a more flexible emotional posture. It gave them a buffer against burnout. A way to bend without breaking.

The researchers even gave the playfulness-resilience connection a name: Lemonading—the ability to imagine and generate positive experiences even in difficult circumstances.

While more and less playful individuals reported feeling equally vulnerable and isolated during the pandemic, highly playful people actively altered challenging situations, found creative substitutes for what was lost, viewed obstacles as opportunities for growth, and maintained a sense of control over their responses.

Where to add playfulness?

You don’t have to show up in meetings wearing a unicorn onesie.

You don’t have to pretend everything is fun when it isn’t.

But the things that matter to you? The dream projects, the creative ideas, the personal growth goals?

They thrive when you stop forcing perfection—and start inviting play.

• When you see the blog post not as a brand statement, but as a conversation.

• When you see the workout not as a punishment, but as a gift.

• When you see the project not as a career move, but as a curious exploration.

Playfulness isn’t just for kids

It’s an essential ingredient in adult happiness, too.

It gets you moving. It keeps you going. And sometimes, it turns out—it’s the very thing that helps you win.

Go light. Go curious. Go start something without the pressure to get it all right.

Playfulness doesn’t mean you don’t care. It means you care enough to keep going.