Everyone has a few tasks in their life or job that elicits a huge groan. Hate laundry? Dishes? Billing? Data entry? We each have duties that we would like to avoid all together, but it’s just not likely. So how can we get through these burdens quickly, efficiently and relatively pain free? Here are five suggestions.
- Distract yourself. If you can pair a manual undertaking to a mental one – you can often trick yourself into ignoring the manual one, or at least not focusing on how long you have been doing it.
- Take pride in perfecting the mundane. There is pride in good work. Do it because it feels good when it’s done and you can be proud of the work you have completed.
- Cut it into small chunks. You can do anything for 15 minutes. Set a timer and go as hard as you can for a short duration. Then come back later to complete it. Doing something for 15 minutes, 4 times in a day is a lot easier to swallow than a full hour of something you hate.
- Do the work at your lowest energy point in the day. We often think that we need to do tedious tasks when we have lots of energy to burn, but in reality, some of that work will just drain that natural energy away.
- Reward yourself. It’s not a bad thing to have some bonus to look forward to at the end of the project. Be it 15 minutes of free time to finish a tv show, or a few bites of candy, it’s a bit of incentive that will keep you focused.
