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I just finished Al Abdaal’s “Feel Good Productivity,” which is a welcome salve to the endless river of productivity optimization literature. Abdaal’s book launch was, in a microcosmic way, a triumph of marketing: in about 12 hours, one of his videos showed up in my YouTube feed, he was interviewed on a podcast I listen to and I happened to see his distinctive book cover in the new releases section at the library. Clearly the algorithmic fates thought I should read it, and I did.

As an annoying parent, I often find myself cheerleading my kids when they’re not feeling motivated. They’re teenagers, so that’s an overwhelming majority of the time. One of my longstanding parental cringe cliches has been to “make it fun” or, in short, to “MIF it.” I’m pretty sure both of my kids hate when I say this, but it came out of an almost-aborted vacation several years ago. A hurricane had gone through Clearwater Beach the day before we were due to fly out, and tried to cancel the trip because we were pretty sure that we’d be flying into horrendous weather. They wouldn’t let us cancel, so we had a decision to make: forsake the trip and stay home or hope the weather cleared up.

With a few hours before our flight, we made a decision: we’d go on our trip and, whatever happened, we’d make it fun.

As it turns out, it was one of the best vacations of our lives. The storm was clearing right as we arrived and we were treated to beautiful sunsets and perfect beach weather. It could have gone the other way — there were no guarantees — but we went into it with the right attitude and got lucky.

Since then, “MIF it” has become family jargon whenever something has a likelihood of sucking. Expecting a bad day? Try to MIF it. Have nine meetings? MIF it. SAT prep class? MIF it.

Abdaal’s thesis with “Feel Good Productivity” is that we tend to do more of what we’re doing when we enjoy it. He keeps a sticky note on his computer that reads: “what would this look like if it were fun?” as a reminder to approach life with an attitude of trying to find a way to enjoy yourself as much as possible. Finding ways to gamify work and chores and take life less seriously is the core of his philosophy, and there’s a lot to recommend it.

The book is broken down into three areas: “Energize,” “Unblock” and “Sustain,” with subchapters outlining specific experiments, guidance and suggestions. Abdaal’s philosophy is less around “getting things done” than it is around “enjoying the things you get done.” As someone who has tried every method of getting organized, making lists, journaling, reminders, calendars, and productivity hacks, I agree that the thing that’s always worked most is to try to create an environment where I feel physically comfortable and can focus on finding the joy in my workday. Or, in short, to MIF it.

The book is a brisk read, and it’s better than most of the hustle culture books that tell you to either work 22 hours a day to become a 27-year-old millionaire or that tell you to create a vitamin drop-ship business to work four hours a month. For most of us, neither extreme works, so the best we can do is to try to enjoy ourselves along the way.

My favorite piece of advice in the book is “Be sincere, but don’t be serious.” Thinking that way has served me well in my career.

Definitely read the book if you’re interested, or at least check out Abdaal’s YouTube channel. He’s a smart cat.