More Tricks for Getting Past the Tasks You Wish You Didn’t Have to Do
You need to adjust your frame of mind, professionals say, to deal with drudgery.
Illustration: Yann Bastard for Bloomberg Businessweek
No matter how much we appreciate our jobs, there will always be assignments that we struggle to complete (or, uh, start) because they’re either boring or seemingly insurmountable—or both. Last week we introduced some mental tricks you can play on yourself to tackle this work. Here, we break it down by category, with tips from professionals who’ve come up with task-specific solutions.
Writing
Create do-or-die deadlines.
“When I’m preparing a proposal or write-up, I set challenge deadlines: ‘If I don’t finish the proposal by 6 p.m., I have to do 50 pushups,’ or, ‘If I don’t finish the write-up by 7 p.m., I have to give my friend $100.’ Set a deadline with physical, emotional, or monetary consequence,” says Rio Rocket, an actor and co-host of the Design Your Decade podcast, which discusses professional development.