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Ask HN: How do you force yourself to do boring tasks?

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Re: Ask HN: How do you force yourself to do boring tasks?

#31

Post by elliottkember »

I have a hunch that the fatigue you're encountering is caused by having to make decisions all the time.

I have found it can be helpful to split the task up differently than I otherwise would. In your case for example, I would try writing out all the paragraph headers first, then writing the sub-headers, then the first line for each one. It keeps the tasks short, which means fewer decisions and more process.

Once I'm in that flow, and don't have to stop to make any decisions, it's a great feeling and the work is much more fulfilling. Here's an Alan Watts quote that comes to mind: https://gist.github.com/elliottkember/a00076db27b0008b0cc622...

Re: Ask HN: How do you force yourself to do boring tasks?

#32

Post by chrsig »

isbvhodnvemrwvn wrote: post #11

Your brain likes finishing stuff. You get a small award of dopamine whenever you do. Divide it into smaller specific goals. I don't "read books", I "read chapter X of book Y", it's much easier to get idea of how much is left and you can finish it in a reasonable amount of time. I also don't "clean" in one go, I have smaller tasks spread out over the week. Typically missing one thing won't make much difference, which…

> Your brain likes finishing stuff

Person with adhd here. No it does not. It’s quite content to give me that dopamine at 80% and then let me wander off to the next interesting thing.

Re: Ask HN: How do you force yourself to do boring tasks?

#33

Post by karmakaze »

Plan to do the smallest 'next' thing. Don't think about the size of the entire work, which can be daunting and discouraging. Always only think about the first smallest thing you can do. For me this will often be a meta-thing, like prepare my physical space with what I need close-by, or make an empty directory for the files that will be there and one empty outline.txt file, etc. Basically even while procrastinating, reduce the barrier to actually starting.

Also don't think you have to follow any particular approach or methods. Write in whatever sequence you find yourself drawn to, and whatever means you choose (dictation, phone/tablet, at coffee shops, etc). To alleviate boredom, find some ways to add subtle humour into your writing--maybe only you'll know but that's enough if it entertains you while writing.

Re: Ask HN: How do you force yourself to do boring tasks?

#34

Post by chrsig »

topicseed wrote: post #27

If you're anything like me, the hardest part is to get started. Look at "Getting Things Done". Perhaps you need to dig deeper into what should you do next to get that documentation written? For example, maybe it's just coming up with the outline. Or one smaller section. Or showing some example codes perhaps. And as others have said, reward yourself with a treat if/when you complete (some of, all of) the task.

> Look at "Getting Things Done"

Is there a link you could share? seems like a pretty vague thing to google, and it’s not immediately clear if you’re referring to a book, blog post, video, etc.

Re: Ask HN: How do you force yourself to do boring tasks?

#35

Post by chrsig »

DarylZero wrote: post #22
anaisbetts wrote: post #12

Amphetamine salts, how else?

Cocaine?

Tends to wear off too quickly - amphetamine salts are cheaper, definitely last longer, and even come in extended release forms. they can also be prescribed, so that’s nice.

cocaine’s more fun though, I’ll give you that. and would probably make for a good reward system. Write a paragraph, do a line. I wouldn’t recommend a 1:1 write a line to do a line ratio.

Re: Ask HN: How do you force yourself to do boring tasks?

#36

Post by bane »

> I've never wrote any documentation before, and always struggled with writing descriptive content.

Respectfully, I don't believe you think it's boring, but that you don't know what makes the task successful. To compensate for this you've used the very common strategy of mentally categorizing the task as "beneath you" ergo "boring".

In this case, there's plenty of great suggestions already here, but the most important one is to become aware of this mindset and work to overcome it. Writing, of any kind, requires some measure of creativity. Documentation can be tedious. But is this any different from writing software! You need a strategy that taps into what you enjoy and already have, that makes the tedious bits effortlessly fall into the background.

In my case I ask myself this question "how can I make this task interesting? (but also accomplish it on time)" and then simply make a game of it. But that might not work for you.

I know one person who looks at documentation as "programming other people to be able to work with the tool he developed". If people read the documentation and can't use the tool, then it's a bug to be squashed and the programming language to use is "English".

Re: Ask HN: How do you force yourself to do boring tasks?

#37

Post by theonemind »

chrsig wrote: post #34
topicseed wrote: post #27

If you're anything like me, the hardest part is to get started. Look at "Getting Things Done". Perhaps you need to dig deeper into what should you do next to get that documentation written? For example, maybe it's just coming up with the outline. Or one smaller section. Or showing some example codes perhaps. And as others have said, reward yourself with a treat if/when you complete (some of, all of) the task.

> Look at "Getting Things Done" Is there a link you could share? seems like a pretty vague thing to google, and it’s not immediately clear if you’re referring to a book, blog post, video, etc.

Probably the book/system by David Allen. It has a cult-ish following. The google results aren't very vague about it:

https://www.google.com/search?q=getting+things+done

I tried the book. It seems nigh unreadable due to fluff and the author's ego. (I think some reviews say the first edition is better.) However, the system seems good for what it is in principle. (It looks like a well-thought out to-do list system with things like pruning the list not left to chance. It's not a miracle or a silver bullet.) I learned with this:

https://hamberg.no/gtd

and use Mac's OmniFocus for the lists, as such.

Re: Ask HN: How do you force yourself to do boring tasks?

#38

Post by gremlinsinc »

bane wrote: post #36

> I've never wrote any documentation before, and always struggled with writing descriptive content. Respectfully, I don't believe you think it's boring, but that you don't know what makes the task successful. To compensate for this you've used the very common strategy of mentally categorizing the task as "beneath you" ergo "boring". In this case, there's plenty of great suggestions already here, but the most importan…

I'd disagree... I often feel a task is 'boring', or maybe 'complicated' and it's not that It's beneath me, it's that it feels like it'll overwhelm my ADHD brain, so I procrastinate till the last minute, at which the adrenaline makes me do the best job i ever would have anyways... but boring is why I don't do a lot of things I should...

even as a kid my biggest fear when doing anything was being 'bored'... I have a very talkative inner monologue and I guess we don't like having to talk to each other, when you're not 'bored' you're too busy to be contemplating stuff.. Probably why I also spend a lot of time needing new input from reddit or hackernews...

Though I have been meditating more, and when I found out I had ADHD at 38, meds helped greatly...

My advice for tasks like this though is set a deadline, and if you miss the deadline it's fine..but it'll put you into oh shit it's due mode, and you'll get the procrastination inspiration to finish it.

Alternately schedule on the calendar dedicated times when you'll either work on it or stare at the computer monitor and work on nothing else and no interruptions... maybe you can use a journal and free-write shit or doodle if you are doing a creative task like writing and are 'blocked' ..it sometimes helps get unblocked to just stare at a doodle as your subconscious churns..

Re: Ask HN: How do you force yourself to do boring tasks?

#39

Post by throwawaydoc22 »

bane wrote: post #36

> I've never wrote any documentation before, and always struggled with writing descriptive content. Respectfully, I don't believe you think it's boring, but that you don't know what makes the task successful. To compensate for this you've used the very common strategy of mentally categorizing the task as "beneath you" ergo "boring". In this case, there's plenty of great suggestions already here, but the most importan…

Thanks, I like the idea of looking at documentation as "programming other people to be able to work with the tool he developed".

When I said boring, I didn't mean it to be "beaneath me". On the contrary, I actually find it quite challenging, but not the kind of challenges that I enjoy. For some reason, I simply hate doing it.

Re: Ask HN: How do you force yourself to do boring tasks?

#40

Post by gremlinsinc »

brtkdotse wrote: post #5

Editing is easier than creating (blank page paralysis). When I wrote my masters thesis I auto-generated 50 pages of Lorem Ipsum, properly formatted, and started editing it. “The title is clearly wrong, I’ll change that. Oh look, the first heading is also wrong, let’s put something else in here. Now the paragraph doesn’t match the heading, better fix that” By the time I get to the paragraph I’m mentally invested and c…

Right now they could probably use gpt3 to generate like actual text that's probably 75% of the way there.. get a lot further than lorem ipsum ... and easier to edit.
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