How to Embrace Boring Tasks.

Our careers and our everyday lives are filled with boring yet essential tasks that we often struggle to commit to because they zap our energy and will to live. Even activities that are enjoyable on the surface from reading a novel to learning an instrument involve a certain amount of boredom before they become enjoyable and rewarding. Our working lives are particularly associated with boredom and drudgery and if we do not know how to overcome our resistance to doing unstimulating things we can find ourselves with a huge backlog of unfinished tasks, a reputation for poor performance and loss of confidence that comes with it. If any of this sounds relatable do not despair and think yourself as a failure. Procrastination and an aversion to boredom are common amongst successful people too. There are many characteristics that make a task boring the most common of which is perhaps that boring activities do not offer instant pleasure and few short-term benefits. Our brains evolved in harsh conditions in which survival was a real challenge. Humans had to respond to immediate threats such as grizzly bears or food shortages and therefore, our brains have a natural tendency to prioritise instant gratification and security over long-term success.

It is naturally difficult to buckle-down and do something painful when there is no immediate reward. Luckily we can minimise our default state of seeking instant gratification by training ourselves to become more productive and steadfast in working towards our goals . It takes years of perseverance, patience as well as a capacity to tolerate boredom to achieve great things. Whether we plan on launching our own business, improving our performance in our current job or learning a new language we all have to tolerate the monotony of memorising complex grammar or spending days trawling through annual forecasts or updating spreadsheets.

Neuroscientists say that ‘neurons that fire together wire together’. This essentially means that the more you do something the stronger the circuits in your brain for that activity will become. The brain’s capacity to change depending on the task we put it through is known as ‘neuroplasticity’. It should be noted that our brain’s ability to adapt to our behaviours is a double-edge sword. Although we can change our brain so that it can better cope with productive tasks we can also shape our brains to become addicted to pleasure if we procrastinate or engage passive entertainment excessively. Once our brain becomes use to being productive, we do not balk at the prospect of hard-work because staying on task and focused eventually becomes second-nature. Knowing these facts are a good start but knowledge is useless until you act on it. I have come up with four actionable suggestions that will not only enable you to embrace boring yet necessary things but will also improve your satisfaction with life in general.

1.Clarify your life’s goals

A classic job interview question is where do you see yourself in 5

years? and there is good reason that companies are looking for

employees who know what they want in life. Employees who have a

purpose nearly always have better job performance and a much higher

rate of job satisfaction. In relation to productivity and doing boring

tasks, knowing why you are doing something and how what you do relates

to your organisation’s goals will instill a sense of pride that you

are making a difference and that the work you do matters. In addition

to knowing your companies’ goals, it is also important to have your

personal goals at the forefront of your mind because by doing you will

be able to maintain a high level of performance especially if you

understand how a menial tasks will bring you closer to achieving your

long-term goals. Even if your current job is far from ideal, the

skills you learn when doing something tiresome like updating a

contacts list or responding to an enquiries is excellent training if

you ever intend to start your own business. In many cases actually, it

is not the activities themselves that are boring it is rather that you

think your work serves the interests of the boss or anyone else’s

rather than your own, making you much less motivated. If you reframed

your current job as a form of training for your own career and life

goals you will see monotonous tasks as being much more meaningful and

useful than they would normally appear to be.

2. Be fruitful

Most people can focus for a maximum of 20 minutes before their mind

begins to drift. The pomodoro technique is a popular method amongst

students preparing for exams and office workers tackling many tasks or

big projects. The pomodoro technique involves 5 minute breaks for

every 20 minutes of work. This method also has the advantage of making

large tasks appear less intimidating by breaking them up into smaller

intervals of work rather than one huge block of time.

3.Always ensure that you have something to look forward to when you

finish your work.

It helps to reward yourself after you have completed something

challenging. Knowing that you have a reward at the end of your working

will keep you motivated. Moreover by habitually placing a reward at

the end of each task you reinforce the association between effort and

pleasure in your brain. You will gradually find hard-work to be a

treat.

4.Be aware of subconscious feelings and beliefs

The feeling of powerlessness is at the root of many difficulties at

work. Our dislike of being told what to do may stem from childhood

memories of a bossy teacher or perhaps a parent. Crucially, our

resistance to doing important things is not just due to the inherent

dullness of certain activities. Reluctance to begin work can be a sign

of a desire to make our own decisions and not be a slave to our

circumstances. Most people work because they have to pay their bills

and survive. For a small minority who love their job, working is more

than just a means to and end and they are to be considered extremely

fortunate. For most people however work is a constant reminder that

they are not living the life of their dreams and a feeling of

self-betrayal takes hold. We may be fearful of leaving a secure job

and this is very understandable. It may not always be viable to expect

someone to find their ideal work or follow their dreams but if you do

want to feel more satisfied with your career and life in general, it

is important to see your current job albeit a less than ideal one as a

stepping stone to a future career path that aligns with your values

and your life vision. No matter how tenuously related your current

field of work is to your ideal one, the ability to focus, tolerate

boredom and disappointment and maintain high performance are relevant

to any other career or life vision you might be aiming for.