Busywork. We’ve all had to deal with this mind-numbing, soul-crushing, oft-ridiculed yet somehow essential task since our earliest school days (coloring, anyone?), and yet few ever learn how to master the most tedious of all tasks. We sit in quiet servitude, procrastinating and hitting our heads against walls as we try to deal with the most boring of all possible workplace responsibilities.
Well, I love busy-work. And it’s all because I’ve developed a number of strategies to deal with what most people see as an encumbrance to getting out of the office early, and made it fun.
Hogwash, you say? Why not try out one of these tactics first and then decide for yourself…
- Develop a story. Yesterday, I was a spy who had to crack the code to fix a website that a fiendish villain (“Dr. Misalignment”) had mucked up in a plot for world domination. I had to rescue hypnotized villagers whose confinement was making them ask questions on the support desk, and only answering the questions correctly would heal them. By re-contextualizing your work into a more exciting story, you can increase productivity and focus, especially if you make accomplishing the task a part of the story.
- Narrate in the third person (internally). ”Andrew looked at the stack of unsorted invoices, noting that it would probably take an hour just to make sure they were all facing the same direction…” And so begins a tale I like to call, “Andrew and the Stack of Unsorted Invoices,” a story I continuously narrated within my head for one day at one of my old jobs. By taking myself out of the situation (even though I was doing it), I was able to be more relaxed, and kept my focus on the work. It was almost like listening to a book on tape!
- Try to figure out a new method. Sometimes, the way you do things, be it entering info into a database, making calls or organizing files, is done inefficiently simply because you haven’t tried to figure out a better way. break your routine and experiment with other methods to increase your efficiency and effectiveness. By breaking your usual patterns, you’ll approach the task like you were doing it for the first time.
- Batch tasks. I check work email no more than three times a day. I check support tickets twice a day. I call my boss as little as possible. All of this eliminates the chance of distracting myself with other uncompleted tasks, and allows me to focus on what needs to be done. Instead of worrying about what other stuff I can do to waste time, I get it all out of the way so I can put more focus on my essential responsibilities for work.
- Make a game of it. For every twenty emails I send, I get a point. For every three points I get, I’m allowed one minute to just relax an air out my brain. By setting up a basic reward structure for performing busywork, I have more incentive to get the work done. I occasionally combine it with #1 when stronger motivation is called for.
- Move around. Our minds process time differently when we move around – going to another building, another floor, or even another room (or just outside) makes time seem to go faster. If you can, change up where you work. The new scenery will make anything you do there feel like new, and you’ll feel more accomplished once you’ve finished.
- Un-partition the task. Busywork can seem imposing because there can be several components that need to get done in a large quantity. By condensing the work into its core elements, then batching them (see #4), you’ll be able to move through it quicker and with less stress.
It’s easy to get bogged down with a lot of work that seems frivolous. But this work is often a necessary evil. So try looking at it from a different perspective to keep your spirits up, and you’ll be done before you know it!
