Further Tricks on How I Stay Focused When Bored by Tedium

This strategy is somewhat quirky but if it helps others stay focused, great. It’s complicated, so hang in here. We begin with three mental images: 1) Superman, 2) time lapse photography, and 3) high speed photography.

1) In the TV show Smallville, Clark Kent (Superman) runs really, really fast. When he does, the world around him slows down. From his point of view, he’s just plodding along. But compared to the world out there he’s lightening fast. It’s a “relativity of time” sort of thing. At first glance it seems like that would be a cool skill—speed up you, slow down time. At second glance, however, if we all lived at a Clark Kent pace 24/7 we’d eventually want more time. It’s human nature; if we were given a 36 hour day it wouldn't be long until we’d want a 48 hour day. It’s the human condition for our reach to exceed our grasp.

Okay, got this “relativity of time” thing in your head?

2) Now, think of all the things around you that slowly decrease, little by little. Over time I can barely see the amount of coffee grounds in the one pound coffee can in my kitchen slowly diminish. I barely see the toothpaste in the tube gradually empty out. But if we were to take a time lapse photo of the coffee can or toothpaste tube every day and then watch them sped up, our cans and tubes would empty instantly. In real time it takes weeks to empty those things. Like those sped up shots of growing plants, moving clouds, or blooming roses--time is condensed. We need not take actual photos to visualize this; with our imagination we can see time sped up.

3) Finally, think of all those high speed photography Youtube clips you’ve seen of bullets slowly puncturing balloons, drops of water slowly falling into a sink, or the spray of germs from a slow motion sneeze. When filmed at super high speed (like Superman), and watched at a slower speed (like those of us not from the planet Krypton), fast actions slow down.

With these three goofy images in mind, let’s turn our attention to your tedious tasks using my tedious tasks for illustration.

When I see a pile of 428 pages each of which requires ten to fifteen minutes of tedious editing, my heart sinks. I shudder at the hours I’m going to “waste.” I cringe at the thought of missing out on sunshine, fresh air, and hanging with friends. To combat those negative thoughts I do the following.

I pretend I’m Superman running real fast and the world around me is moving real slow. While traveling at that super human pace I feel like Superman feels, just plodding along, tweaking one tedious page at a time. Even Superman feels like he’s going slowly, but he’s doing his best. This relieves me of the pressure I feel to “work faster.”

I pretend I’m taking daily photos of the stack of un-edited pages in front of me and in my mind I speed up the film and weeks of real time are condensed to a fifteen second video clip. The height of my papers magically shrinks. This relieves me of the illusion, “I’m not making any progress.”

I pretend each tedious task (clicking a mouse 100s of times on each page) is being filmed at high speed and will be replayed in slow motion. This reminds me of how many actions I actually do per page. What takes a tedious minute in real time looks in slow motion like an infinite number of muscle movements, eye/hand coordination, and precise acts. This relieves me of the faulty notion, “This is unskilled work.”

If the above mental tricks don’t work for you….repeat after me:

1. Instant gratification takes too long.
2. We over estimate what we can do in a day but under estimate what we can do in a year.
3. “He who gathers money little by little makes it grow.” (Proverbs 13:11).
4. "Moments tumble like grains of sand falling through an hourglass of time" is a stupid metaphor in this high tech age but sounds more poetic than “digital minutes on our cell phone alarms tick away.”
5. The world will beat a path to my door, folks will stand in the snow to get a glimpse of my work, and what doesn’t kill me makes me stronger.
6. Upon completion of this task I will win a Nobel Prize in one or more the following categories: peace, economics, literature, physics, chemistry, physiology and medicine.

Making Tedious Work Tolerable

As I near the end of Draft Four (oh joy, oh rapture) I wonder how I slogged through the weeks of mind numbing tedium. Here are the ideas I found helpful.....from the book of Ecclesiastes, of course. To make your tedious tasks tolerable I suggest you...


Fight aimlessness by answering these five questions 

1. What do people gain from all their labors at which they toil under the sun?
2. What do they gain since they toil for the wind?
3. What do people get for all the toil and anxious striving with which they labor under the sun?
4. What do workers gain from their toil?
5. For whom am I toiling, and why am I depriving myself of enjoyment?

In Ecclesiastes these five questions are existential, cosmic, and rhetorical and Qoholet’s specific answers are “Nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing, and nobody.” If you don’t have time to be existential, if you've got bills to pay and tasks to accomplish, then write out your long term objectives, outcomes, and immediate goals. What are you going to gain from all your effort? What's the hoped for pay off?


Fight boredom with these seven reminders you’re not the first to feel this way 

1. What a heavy burden God has laid on mankind! 
2. I hated life, because the work that is done under the sun was grievous to me.
3. My heart began to despair over all my toilsome labor under the sun.
4. All their days their work is grief and pain; even at night their minds do not rest.
5. When I surveyed all that my hands had done and what I had toiled to achieve, everything was meaningless.
6. There was no end to his toil…
7. I applied my mind to observe the labor that is done on earth—people getting no sleep day or night. 

Fight slothfulness by repeating these eight calls to diligence 

1. Fools fold their hands and ruin themselves. 
2. Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might.
3. Skill will bring success.
4. Whoever watches the wind will not plant; whoever looks at the clouds will not reap.
5. Through laziness, the rafters sag; because of idle hands, the house leaks.
6. Invest in seven ventures, yes, in eight; you do not know what disaster may come upon the land.
7. Sow your seed in the morning, and at evening let your hands not be idle, for you do not know which will succeed, whether this or that, or whether both will do equally well.
8. For there is a proper time and procedure for every matter, though a person may be weighed down by misery.

Fight tedium by repeating these thirteen positive affirmations

1. My heart took delight in all my labor, and this was the reward for all my toil.
2. A person can do nothing better than to …find satisfaction in their own toil.
3. There is a time to build.
4. There is a time to weep (at the tedium) and a time to laugh (at completed tasks).
5. There is nothing better for people than to be happy and to do good while they live. 
6. Find satisfaction in all [your] toil—this is the gift of God.
7. Enjoy [your] work, because that is [your] lot.
8. God keeps [us] occupied with gladness of heart.
9. It is appropriate for a person to …find satisfaction in their toilsome labor.
10. Be happy in [your] toil—this is a gift of God.
11. Banish anxiety from your heart and cast off the troubles of your body.
12. I commend the enjoyment of life.
13. Joy will accompany [you] in [your] toil all the days of the life God has given [you] under the sun.

Recall the six factors that make work interesting

1. Complexity Labor with wisdom, knowledge and skill. Give yourself little challenges to increase complexity (and interest). I asked myself, "how many pages can I complete in an hour, how many pages in a day or a week?"
2. Competition All toil and all achievement spring from one person’s envy of another. We don’t want to covet another person’s job, but we can emulate and try to exceed other's skill.
3. Deadlines Remember your creator …before the days of trouble come and the years approach when you will say, “I find no pleasure in them.” Keep the grave in mind; we’re all in a race against the clock, the grim reaper, and the coming days of trouble.
4. Variety Better one handful with tranquility than two handfuls with toil. Take breaks, break up the tedium with leisure…change work locations. I'd go from the living room couch to the kitchen table to my office desk.
5. Ethics: Follow the ways of your heart and whatever your eyes see, but know that for all these things God will bring you into judgment. There are lines which should not be crossed and staying within those bounds requires creativity.
6. Completion: The end of a matter is better than its beginning. Dangling finished task in front of you eggs us on. 

I've turned the book of Ecclesiastes into a "how to" book which it definitely is not. Yet, because I've marinated my brain in absurdities, ambiguities, and anomalies for the last seven months I give myself permission to throw hermeneutics out the window.