Split Up Monotonous Work

A ProcessPattern or one of the OrganizationalPatterns, perhaps?

Context:

You're faced with a large piece of work, which is extremely monotonous and boring.

Problem:

You don't want to do the work.

Solution:

Split up the work into small pieces, and work on it in increments over time. This does not mean, "Only worry about working on it for the next hour. Then, when you're done with this hour, only worry about working on it for the next hour." It means, in an eight hour day, only spend (for example) one hour working on this large, monotonous piece of work. Spend the rest of your time working on other things.

Resulting Context:

You are not discouraged or depressed during your slog through the boring work. The work is still accomplished.

Sometimes this pattern cannot be applied, as the monotonous work absolutely has to be done before anything else. However, it can be surprising how rarely this is actually the case.

Alternate Solution: Automate the boring work (AutomateBoredom). If you can achieve the automation in approximately the same time as doing it by hand, it is a win for three reasons: a) the automation is more interesting, b) you learn more about automating as you do it, and c) the automation itself may be re-usable.

CategoryProcessPattern