5 ways to make boring tasks less so
Work feels boring when it’s repetitive or like there’s nothing in it for us.
It becomes more interesting when we’re building something larger, like a valuable accomplishment, our skills, or our mental strength.
Occasionally, we label a task boring when the bigger issue is that it stresses us out or triggers self-criticism. The stress of the task intensifies the boring aspects, and vice versa.
Try one of these five strategies to make what’s mundane more meaningful and enjoyable.
1. Focus on One Element of Your Process to Actively Improve
Most of us focus on one or two metrics to determine if our performance on a task was good or not. Often this will be some variation of:
- How fast we did the task
- Our endurance (how long we worked)
- Some type of overall success (e.g., kudos we got)
For example, you judge your report-writing based on speed and whether your boss asks for revisions.
Instead of your usual metrics, pick a specific element of your process to improve in each work session you do.
This often involves honing your craft. For example, when writing a blog article, I might focus on better storytelling in my examples, or writing snappy headings.
Focusing on something different than your usual success metrics makes the task more interesting.
If you’re stuck for ideas, think about starting or finishing your work session well. Think creatively. Starting well might involve setting your game plan or your attitude. Finishing well might involve ending your session feeling excited to do another one tomorrow or with an attitude that you did the best work you were capable of today.
You might focus on doing less, like being less pedantic.
2. Complete the Task With the Least Unproductive Mental Effort
We often layer extra mental chatter into our activities. This could be worry, doubt, resentment, or self-criticism about the task.
Try completing your task to the same high standards you expect of yourself, but without mental load that doesn’t contribute to performing well.
Notice when your mind adds commentary like “I’m terrible at this,” or “this is taking too long,” or jumps to the future. Bring your focus back to just executing the current step you’re on. Act as if you feel relaxed about the task.
As the marathoning saying goes, “Run the mile you’re in.”
Make this a drill you do from time to time. Use it to increase your awareness of when you add unproductive mental load to your tasks, and to practice not doing that. The first few times you try it, pick a simple task like washing dishes to get easy practice.
Like the first strategy, this one makes tasks less boring by creating a new challenge.
3. Frame It as Creating a System, Not Just Doing the Task
Frame your task as improving your system for doing the task, rather than merely doing it.
You’re not just cleaning your kitchen, you’re improving your system for cleaning your kitchen. You’re not grocery shopping, you’re improving your system for grocery shopping.
This strategy won’t appeal to everyone, but it will appeal to people who like efficiency and systems thinking and don’t like repetition.
This mindset especially helps with tasks that need doing again almost as soon as you finish them. For example, when you have to clean the kitchen just to have to do it again next week.
If you focus on creating a better system, you’re becoming a better version of yourself, helping your future self, designing a workflow that beautifully meets your exact preferences, and honing your skills at creating good systems.
4. Work Around Others (e.g., a “Working Bee”)
I grew up in New Zealand, and we use the phrase “Working Bee” for a voluntary gathering when people come together as a community to get something done. For example, your friends come over to help you paint the exterior of your house. They supply the effort and the jokes, and you supply the paint, the food, and the drinks.
There are many ways of working alongside others that can make tasks feel lighter and more enjoyable. For example, I homeschool my 9-year-old. These days, she mostly works independently. I’ve noticed that even us working productively alongside each other on our respective laptops spurs us both on.
Think about what could help you feel more supported and less alone during tedious tasks, given your own social resources.
5. Celebrate Your Focus and Concentration as You Go, Not Just at the End
We often wait until the end of a work session to celebrate what we did, but we don’t need to wait. Learn to celebrate your focus and concentration periodically during your work session, in a way that keeps that rolling rather than distracts you.
You can do this through positive self-talk, by physically checking off a list of milestones, or by enjoying your pitstops (celebrating your effort by enjoying well-earned breaks).
If you never feel like you’re doing enough, celebrating your effort and focus mid-task is especially helpful. If we make work unpleasant for ourselves by turning it into a self-criticism fest, then we’ll procrastinate or dread it.
Celebrate the productive work you’re accomplishing when you could be lounging around or pretending to work.
Make Boring Tasks Simultaneously Lighter and More Purposeful
All the strategies here help make tasks simultaneously emotionally lighter and more purposeful. Once you see this pattern, you might have your own ideas on how to accomplish that. We don’t have to grind harder or force positivity to change our relationship with tasks. We can do it by changing our perception of effort – making the effort feel lighter – and by seeing the task as having more in it for us. This allows us to feel more empowered to manage our mental state effectively rather than just endure what feels boring.