Tedium and how to overcome it.

How to get through the long middle.

Eventually, you’ll know what you’re doing. Then all that will be required is to do the work. At this point the work might start to seem tedious.

How do you over come it?

This is really a question of how much time can you manage responsibly, before you go to your distraction of choice. How long can you concentrate for.

Work in increments that match your focus/concentration levels.

💎 Set a time to work on a task, and stop when the time is up.

The trick is that “stopping when the time is up” can be perceived as a reward, and that desire for a reward is what will help you keep focus.

“I just need to keep working on this tedium for x minutes, then I get to stop”.

If you do it right the task will be done!

If it’s not, take it as a learning point:

1. Either your task was not defined in sufficient detail and broken down into a manageable chunk.

2. Or you misestimated the time you need to do such a task.

The next time toy set a time to work on a task, use this learning to adjust the task or the time and try again.

Our brains are simple machines, you can train it with a reward. Even if the reward is you get to stop after x minutes.

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The alternative is work on a thing until it’s done. I find that that approach will ultimately take up more time as the tedium becomes filled with distraction, and energy levels drop, and resentment for the task goes up.

It’s way more fun to work in short manageable burst and make progress towards a larger goal. It turns work into a fun game.

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