by Asim Jalis
Here are some techniques for enjoying mundane work:
- Make a todo list
- Estimate and time each task with a stopwatch
- Do it beautifully for no reason
- Solve the general problem
- Look for ways to automate the work
- Look for ways to improve the process
- Adopt playful attitude
- Alternate work with play
The technique of using a stopwatch is inspired by Rico Medellin's
technique of turning work into play, which was reported by Mihaly
Csikszentmihalyi. See Google for more.
Here is how it works: To pay bills I timed how long it took me to
pay each bill. The first one took 6:32 minutes. With some focus I
was able to bring this down to 4:25, which is my current record.
In one case I had to call up Verizon to verify the amount. I
stopped the watch so that the phone call didn't mess up my score.
Normally I get exhausted after paying a few bills and put off the
non-urgent ones until they become urgent. With the stopwatch I
was craving to repeat the process again and again, to see if I
could improve it. And I actually ended up doing all 11 bills in
one shot.
