How do you motivate yourselves to finish unpleasant (work related) tasks?
I have a project at work right now that is due in a week or so, and I’m starting to fall behind on it. Ok, that’s a lie. I’m already fairly far behind. I think I can still finish it on time, but it’s going to require some serious effort on my part.
The problem is that I really don’t like what I’m doing. The reason I’m behind in the first place is that I find the whole thing distasteful and basically just don’t want to do it. And yet, it must be done.
What mental games, checklists, motivational techniques, or other tricks do you use on yourself to help motivate you to finish unpleasant, long, arduous tasks? Any bones you can throw my way will be gnawed on appreciatively.
Can you break it down into parts: easy, moderate, and icky? What I try to do is switch around. Work on some of the really hard, icky stuff until I can’t stand it, and then switch to something easier to decompress for a while. Then, at the end of the day, make an outline of what you want to do on the icky part at the next session. That way you are continuously making some kind of progress.
With school projects, I give myself an hour on and an hour off. For every hour of work I do that actually results in something substantial (I cannot emphasize how important that part is), I get to do an hour of whatever I want. Knitting, reading the SDMB, going for a walk, a nice long dinner, whatever.
If it’s something that can’t be measured in time, then I set goals and reward myself when I reach each goal. Not anything big – if I finish a rough draft for a paper, then I get a cookie. If I finish the paper ahead of schedule, I get yarn.*
I’ve also been known to set my clock to the right hour, but to a random minute, and change whenever I feel like it, so I’ve no idea how long I’ve actually been working. This is also effective if you cover the time on your computer screen with masking tape or post-it so you can’t see it. I usually get caught up in what I’m doing and forget about the time.
*Yes, it’s a habit. But if loving yarn is wrong, I don’t wanna be right.
If it’s a really horrible task, you can also set a timer and make yourself do 15 minutes at a time. Do 15 minutes, get up and walk around, get a drink, stretch. Then 15 more. Then 15 more. After a while, even if I’m doing something I loathe, I get caught up in whatever I’m doing and want to finish, so I don’t bother getting up any more.
I tried the “rough draft for a cookie” thing in grad school. Got good grades, gained 10 pounds. It’s a trade-off.
I also have more luck if I approach a task by breaking it down into its component parts. I divide the work by the number of days I have left before I have to turn it in, minus one. The extra day gives you a margin of error, and if you don’t need it, you look great for turning stuff in early.
After I break the work down by days, I look at the workload in any given day. If possible, I do the hardest thing first, then the second hardest, on down to the easiest. Makes me feel better to realize that things will be getting progressively easier as I work.
If this isn’t a good workflow for you, tackle the easiest first and work up to the hardest.
If the project is all the same – as in, a paper to write – I give myself a minimum number of pages to produce per day.
Thanks for the tips. Breaking it down into manageable pieces is definitely something I need to do. I usually tackle things kind of piecemeal, and when I run into a particularly unpleasant or difficult task I tend to get frustrated and stop. Maybe if I can give myself a large list of things to do I can just switch tasks at that point.
