|
 Everyone
has things they hate to do, but need to do anyway. Sometimes it is
doing basic chores that need to be done. In other cases, it’s the
boring part of an otherwise interesting project. People who get things
finished (as opposed to people who just get things started) have
mastered the ability to push through the things they hate doing, to
work on the things they love.
Getting over activities you hate means combating a special type of
procrastination. Everyone procrastinates. Even on things that they
normally enjoy doing. I occasionally procrastinate with writing, even
though it is one of my favorite things to do.
While a few minutes or an hour of procrastination for a neutral task
happens occasionally, you can procrastinate for years on the jobs you
really hate. If there are things on your to-do list that never make it
to the top, you probably know which jobs these are.
Stomaching Unappetizing Work
There are a few strategies you can use to make bad tasting tasks a
little more pleasant. The first is simply to focus on it. You might
have noticed that you chew a lot more when you don’t like the food in
your mouth. This is probably an instinctive reaction to force you to
carefully examine what you’re going to eat before you swallow.
You can do the same thing with the work you don’t like. By focusing on
boring or awful work, it is easier to overcome your reflex to spit it
out and work on something else. I’ve often found that focusing on work
intensely can even make me like tasks I once hated. I normally hate
cleaning, but if I invest 100% of my attention towards it, the chore
becomes a lot more fun.
Normally, the first reaction to unenjoyable tasks is to “get it over
with”. Finishing as quickly as possible so you can move on to something
better. However, with this attitude, it is a lot easier to never get
started at all, and procrastinate forever.
Try taking a reversed approach. The next time you have an activity
you hate, commit to focus on it completely. Invest all of your mental
energy and concentrate on the activity until there is nothing else in
the world. You might be surprised how much easier the task becomes when
you do this.
Make it an Art
Sometimes tasks can be unenjoyable simply because there is no
quality in doing them. For me, writing an article is more enjoyable
than cleaning dishes. While an article has incredible depth, ranging
from complete trash to life affirming, dishwashing is a narrower
activity. I either clean the dishes or they stay dirty. That on-off
approach usually makes a task incredibly boring.
One solution I’ve found is simply to take that on-off task and give
it more depth. See your boring activity as a previously unrecognized
art form you can master. When you give an activity more depth, the
interest level goes way up. More importantly, it becomes easier to
focus on the task completely, making it easy to swallow.
Several years ago I did part-time work as a janitor. Although this
wasn’t a glorious position, I found I was able to enjoy it by doing
this step. Instead of seeing my job as being an on-off task, I gave it
more depth. I saw that there were many ways I could increase the
quality of what I did. Taking on those little steps made the work far
more enjoyable.
Leverage Yourself With Another Goal
Despite your best efforts, the first two steps might not work. In
those cases, trying to transform an ugly task into a beautiful activity
won’t help. You might be better off just trying to get the work done,
instead of wrapping a bow around it.
The first way you can push through the muck is to use your goals as
leverage. Reconnect with why you started important projects and how any
activity fits into your bigger picture of success. If you can do this,
you can bring some of the motivation towards your final goal and use it
to finish an ugly task.
This is why it is important to constantly remind yourself of your
goals, and why they are important to you. Those reminders are often
necessary to push through the tasks that don’t excite you.
Don’t Do the Work at All
The best solution is to simply not do the work you don’t enjoy. This
may sound like a fantasy, but there are ways you can get away with
avoiding the stuff that doesn’t interest you:
- Outsource or delegate it to someone else.
- Eliminate it from your project. (Is it really necessary?)
- Find a better way to do it. Technology and tricks can often help you shortcut boring steps into ones that are more interesting.
Ultimately, you should try to minimize the amount of work you need
to do, but don’t enjoy. Productivity shouldn’t be about pushing through
the muck, but enjoying work you love. However, if you can’t get
yourself to stop procrastinating on an ugly task, these are a few ways
to move through it. | 
