Living a purposeful life is often described as whether or not we engage in meaningful, nontrivial activities in our daily life (Scheier et al., 2006). The assumption behind this description is that when we are guided by purpose, we allocate resources and organize activities in a way that move us towards our goal. So, how do we do this? How do we live more purposefully on a daily basis?

With Thanksgiving and the beginning of the holiday season, we are constantly reminded to turn our attention toward celebrating the good things in our lives with family and friends. However, this year will be different. Most of the things we have done in the past will drastically change. Because of this, many of us might be having difficulty finding reasons to feel grateful. With this in mind, I decided to share a personal story to offer a little inspiration.

Many of us are now working at home, saving hours of commuting time. Think about it, how much time are you saving each day? To find out just how much time we’re saving and what we’re doing with this time, researchers surveyed 10,000 Americans earlier this year. What they found out was quite interesting.

In early 2020 the pandemic caused many of us to be suddenly thrown into working from home. We are now having to share our workspace with other family members who are also trying to work from home or attend school virtually. This brings about many impacts to our work and our relationships. Let’s find out what we can do to overcome these challenges.