Fighting a Final Boss [5/n]: Getting stuff done

...When you’re not particularly interested

Photo by Priscilla Du Preez from Unsplash

These past couple of months, I’ve been struggling with completing tasks that I’m not particularly interested in or find to be low-/no-leverage.

Here are some tactics that helped me get these dull tasks done:

1. Time-box with Parkinson’s Law in mind. Plan to complete the task within a certain timeframe with a definite end time, such as joining a meeting that I must attend.

2. Co-work with someone. Make a plan to be on a call with someone else to work on my task (who is perhaps also struggling with task boredom or disinterest!)

3. Work on another, quick activity that I find interesting or mentally stimulating, or a small task that I find easy to complete, to shift my mindset from bored to engaged or playful.

4. Use https://goblin.tools/ to break down an open-ended task into smaller tasks.

5. Set a weekly reminder for myself every Friday near to my end-of-day to pre-plan out 1-3 items of focus for the next week. If possible, break down these items into smaller tasks and time-block my calendar to pre-schedule when I commit myself to working on them.

6. Switch between doing dull tasks and interesting ones.

7. Tell a coworker (or my manager, if I’m feeling bold!) by when I plan to get X task done.

Here are some tactics that I experimented with and personally found ineffective. Even though I found them ineffective, you might find they work for you!

1. Start the task before I plan to end your workday. This is intended to give me a head start, so I can continue working on the same task the next day.

   • Why this didn’t work for me: I couldn’t stop thinking about the task after signing off for the day. 🙈

2. Tell myself, “Just do it.”

   • Why this didn’t work for me: It’s not a foolproof tactic. If this tactic worked every time, I wouldn’t be writing this blog post!

Here is how I experimented with each tactic:

1. Choose a task that I needed to do yet had been putting off.

2. Pick a technique that I hadn’t yet tried to accomplish the task that I chose from Step 1.

3. Observe and introspect on the following:

   • Did I complete the task?

   • Was it easy, hard, or somewhere in between to implement the tactic?

If I found the tactic easy to implement, I added it to my toolbox. 🧰

If I found the tactic hard to implement, I crossed it off. ❌

If I found the tactic of medium difficult to implement, I tried using it to get another task done to re-evaluate it. ↩️

You might notice that I didn’t bother to try again with a tactic that I found challenging to implement. I figured, if I was already having difficult getting something done, why add more complexity to it?

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While I hope you don’t need to resort to tactics, may these help you through boring to-dos! 🙏

What tactics have you tried to help yourself complete uninteresting tasks?