Dealing With an Incredibly Boring Job

You spend half your work day bumming around because you just have nothing to do – and it drives you crazy. Here’s how to make the change so you don’t just waste time on Facebook waiting for the clock to strike five.

Dear employees,

This is a question that has plagued me throughout my professional life. How can I keep myself from going crazy knowing that I have essentially been urinating my whole life by twisting my fingers around? I’ve heard that the average office worker that I am spends about 45% of their day on real work. The rest of the time is spent doing other things like web browsing, texting, and just doing nothing.

This definitely describes my working day. If it was up to me, I would be doing my job and getting in and out of the office in just a few hours. But due to the fact that I am bound by rather vague “working hours”, I get stuck here from morning to evening. So I divide my workouts and spend hours between them, painfully aware that I can do other, more enjoyable, productive and interesting things elsewhere. What can be done?!

I’m not sure about these statistics, but the general idea is probably correct: many of us waste a lot of “work” day. I believe one solution would be a shorter work week, an idea that has merit but also requires a society-wide restructuring of labor standards. You may not want to wait for this.

And whatever the cost, even people like me who are self-employed and work from home are time wasters. I don’t need to “look busy” for someone, and yet it took me 15 minutes to write this paragraph because I stopped in the middle to google some supposedly significant fact and somehow ended up that watched Taylor Swift’s video.

So, the key question to ask yourself is what you would rather do with your silly minutes and hours. And the most important piece of advice is ask yourself . This is because no one else will ever appear in your work life and say, “Please tell me what would make your days truly fulfilling, and I will find a new set of responsibilities and opportunities and a schedule that will make this all possible! ” So here are a few possibilities.

Become ambitious

Let’s say your answer is that all you really need is more stimulation during your workday. There is a good chance you can pull this off. Think about what projects or initiatives in your company you can participate in. Think about what projects or initiatives you can start.

Talk to your manager about the areas you need help and your skills that might be useful to you. Think about the skills you would like to learn and what you can do to get on this path. Maybe it has to do with working to achieve a professional goal, or maybe it’s about acquiring skills for our own sake.

Help your peers. Take on new responsibilities. If you’re comfortable with a harder day at work, challenge yourself.

Change your situation

But let’s assume that all of this sounds terrible to you because you really don’t like and care about your company or the job you get paid for. Fair! Consider finding a really interesting work situation.

In addition to finding a better job, which can be a productive project in and of itself, consider working for yourself. You may be able to find a way to consult or work on contracts that give you better control over your schedule. (You may need to make less money to have more free time, but maybe that will suit you?) Or start something new that is closer to your real interests. (You can work longer , but maybe you will like it?)

You may well, like me, end up wasting chunks of your day. But at least you won’t do it in agreement with someone else’s demands.

Just declare victory

Finally, consider the possibility that your boring, uncomplicated, and time-consuming job could be an opportunity. This realization may require some psychological reboot, and for that I consulted my friend (and frequent co-author ) Joshua Glenn , who, among other things, authored The Loafers Glossary , a great book on what doesn’t work that I suggest you read in secret. while on the clock.

“I was in this situation,” Josh said when I described your plight, working for a large company where “I didn’t have enough to do every day. Or maybe I was just doing my job more efficiently than they expected? “For a while, he was killing time shopping on eBay or playing games.

“But then I started thinking of my employer as a Medici-like patron of the arts: air conditioning, stationery, internet access and – during each day – a few hours of free time,” he said. … He wrote his first books and spoke to people whose work he admired. And he adds: “I regularly walked around the building, poked my nose in places that did not belong to me, and asked everyone about their own work.”

He eventually left, co-founded the business, and produced a series of entertainment side projects. But it’s not that you need to become an entrepreneur or write books as such. This is what you should think of your free time as a kind of gift that you can use.

“I didn’t have a specific plan or ultimate goal in my head,” Josh concluded. “But for me it was important to use this time creatively, and this is not the same as being productive.”

The last point is important. This may take some thought and experimentation. But if you want to make the most of your free time, it’s worth putting in a little effort – for a change.

Send your work questions to humanresource@lifehacker.com . Questions can be edited for added volume and clarity.