How do you get through a boring task?
Make the task smaller, shorter and nicer: break it into a first step you can do in minutes, give it a fixed time box rather than an open-ended afternoon, and pair it with something pleasant like music or a good coffee. Then make the finish line visible, so you can see the pile shrink. Boring tasks rarely need willpower so much as a better setup.
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Some tasks are hard and some tasks are boring, and they need different handling. Hard tasks ask for focus and energy. Boring tasks ask for nothing much at all, which is exactly the problem: there's nothing to hold your attention, so it wanders off and takes you with it. Filing receipts, cleaning the oven, entering data, sorting the cupboard under the stairs.
Shrink it
A boring task looks worst as a whole. "Do the tax paperwork" is a cloud. "Find last year's form" is an action. Write down the first physical step, small enough that it feels slightly silly: open the folder, put the gloves on, pull everything out of one drawer. Then do only that. Once you are moving, the next step usually follows without the same resistance.
If the task is very large, cut it into pieces you could finish in a sitting. One drawer, not the kitchen. One month of receipts, not the year.
Put it in a time box
Open-ended boring tasks stretch to fill the afternoon. Give them an edge instead: "I'll do this for forty minutes and then stop, wherever I've got to." The end being in sight makes the time bearable, and you'll often find you finish within it, or near enough to carry on happily.
Some people like a kitchen timer for this. Others use the length of an album or a podcast episode. Either works; the point is a visible end that isn't "when it's all done".
Pair it with something pleasant
Tasks that don't need much thought leave room for something nicer alongside:
- Music for physical jobs like cleaning, sorting and gardening.
- A podcast or audiobook for repetitive work that doesn't need words of your own.
- A friend on the phone for folding laundry or washing up.
- A good setting. Do the paperwork at a café table, with a proper coffee. The task is still dull, but the morning isn't.
Some people save a favourite podcast only for boring tasks, so the task becomes the way you get to hear it. It's a small bribe, and it works.
Be honest about which jobs need your attention, though. Anything with numbers that must be right, or words that will be read by someone important, is better done in quiet, as we argue in focusing on one thing at a time.
Make the finish line visible
Boredom gets worse when you can't see progress. So make it visible:
- Two piles. Done and not done, side by side, with the done pile growing.
- Tick lists. Write out the steps and cross them off. Small, satisfying, slightly childish; effective.
- Before and after. Take a photo of the drawer before you start. The after looks better for having a before.
Do it at the right time of day
Most people have a slack part of the day, often mid-afternoon, when focus is low but energy for simple jobs is fine. That's the ideal home for boring tasks. Save your sharp hours for the work that needs them.
Finish with something good
Plan the thing that comes after. A walk, lunch outside, the first chapter of a new book. It gives the boring task an end that is worth getting to, and it stops the next one looking quite so grim.
FAQ
What if you keep putting the task off altogether?
That's procrastination rather than boredom, and the cause is often a mood you want to avoid rather than the task itself. Our page on why we put off things we want to do goes into it. The first-step trick above is still the best way in.
Should you do boring tasks first thing in the morning?
Some people like clearing them early so they don't hang over the day. Others prefer to save fresh hours for real work. Try both and notice which leaves you feeling better at lunch.
Is it better to do lots of small boring tasks in one go?
Often yes. Batching the dull jobs into one session, phone calls together, admin together, means fewer changeovers and one block of tedium instead of several scattered ones.
How do you stay accurate when you're bored?
Shorter time boxes and a quick check at the end of each one. It is easy to drift when boredom stretches on, so take a break before your attention does.
Written by the Zestasy editors. General information for curious adults, not medical, nutrition or training advice.