Repetitive work makes me want to claw my eyes out

May 20, 2005 9:01 AM

How do you stay awake, alert and keep from getting bored or broody when your work is extremely repetitive? I have an iPod, but no internet/computer access at work.
posted by Jeanne to work & money (11 comments total)

Any chance of getting up and moving away from your work area once in a while? Being stuck in one spot with no chance to move sucks. If you can at least punctuate this with occasional short breaks (stand, stretch, just move a little) it might make things more bearable.

That and a lot of coffee.
posted by caution live frogs at 9:07 AM on May 20, 2005

(on preview, I'm parroting the live frogs) Figure out the most frequent interval of breaks that will still allow you to get your work done and not raise any unwanted attention, then get up, walk around, get a drink of water, stick your head outside, etc. Bring some sort of timer in if you need a reminder.

I often sit at my desk during breaks, and I find I'm much more refreshed if I move around, even if it's just a 15-second lap of the office.
posted by jalexei at 9:10 AM on May 20, 2005

Music, counting, rythm. I tend to let my mind wander just enough to mull some ideas around without losing track of the task at hand. I find if I let it go too much I actually disconnect completely, and going back and forth that way is much more disheartening.

I second small breaks of physical activity (stretching, short lap around the work area) as ancillary actions outside the mental approach.
posted by prostyle at 9:33 AM on May 20, 2005

Luckily, I don't have this problem any more (I have a great job), but I spent years in your situation. Here are some ideas (and I think the trick is to come armed with MANY ideas, but you might get tired of one -- in which case you can switch to another one). I'm assuming you always need to appear to be doing real work:

1) In GAMES magazine, they have code puzzles. You need to decode a message to find out what it is. These can be copies (by hand) into a notebook. And if you work at them, you look like you're doing real work.

2) If you get tired of listening to music on your iPod, what about spoken word stuff? I'm a member of audible.com, which allows you to download recorded books. I also have a program called Total Recorder (google it if interested) which allows me to record streaming content off the web. So at night I use it to record episodes of NPR and BBC shows that interest me. I haven't checked out the whole universe of podcasting, but you might try that too.

3) Do you have a phone and a bored friend? Is there a game you could play over the phone, i.e. chess? You both have boards or diagrams on paper. Make quick calls and tell each other your moves.

4) Try playing some word-games: fill a notebook with rewrites of famous quotes with rules like you're not allowed to use a word that contains the letter "e".

5) Build scultures out of office supplies (paper clips, etc.). You might have to skip this one if your employer watches you closely.

6) Watch entire movies in your head. See if you can remember each thing that happens, event by event.

7) Write "love letters" to everyone you know, going deeply into memories of times spent with them, why you enjoy their company, etc.

8) At home, go to guttenburg.org and print out entire novels. Read them at work with a pen in your hand, every once-in-a-while making a meaningless note in the margin.
Try giving yourself a goal, such as reading all of Shakespeares plays.

9) Make up a soap opera starring all your co-workers. Your job is to come up with a different episode each day.

10) Learn a foreign language. Each night, write down (or print out) a list of vocabulary words that you'll spend the next day at work memorizing.

Also, could you invest in some small computer-like device that could send/receive email? I.e a Palm Pilot.
posted by grumblebee at 9:42 AM on May 20, 2005

If the problem is staying awake, then you're likely not getting enough sleep or enough exercise, or you're eating too much and/or the wrong thing at lunch. If the problem is staying alert and not being bored, then I'd go with many of the suggestions here, especially the spoken word on iPod and taking an occasional walk around the office or factory floor or whatever.
posted by anapestic at 10:21 AM on May 20, 2005

When I had no internet access and was doing VERY mechanical, repetitive, isn't there a database that should be able to do this, why are we doing this manually, brain-not-necessary work, what helped me the most were audiobooks. I listened to Assasination Vacation, Naked, Garlic and Sapphires and Lama Surya Das. I could do my mechanical task while listening to a story, laughing, thinking about something else. The time went by much faster, and the work did not numb my emotions and brain.
posted by scazza at 11:50 AM on May 20, 2005

If your work requires thinking, verbal ability, or logic, then audiobooks/podcasts would probably distract you, but they are great for work of the stuffing-envelope variety.

Also, get up frequently to fill your water glass at the farthest away water cooler, and then when you have to pee, walk to the farthest away bathroom. Repeat.
posted by matildaben at 2:04 PM on May 20, 2005

I usually set myself little challenges or adventures when I'm stuck doing something boring. Like I'll try to figure out the rate at which I'm doing the task, then see if I'm right, then try to beat my time. Or do tasks simultaneously, as a challenge (though this can backfire... sometimes I'll have to go through phone menus a few times because my other task stops me from listening to which option I need to press). I also like to have other tasks on hand for the tiny boring moments that happen when switching among computer programs or waiting for things to print or being on hold. Things like adding up receipts or filing -- I do all that stuff while I'm on the phone.
posted by xo at 4:04 PM on May 20, 2005

My last job we had a radio in our two-person office that we just left tuned to NPR all day. Music to work by, news, interviews, Science Friday... I always liked how at the end of the day, in addition to getting my work done I had also learned stuff just by the radio being on.
posted by blueberry at 7:56 AM on May 21, 2005

Download episodes of This American Life via Audible.com or thislife.org and put them on your iPod. That'll kill an hour at a time. Likewise, Talk of the Nation's Science Friday episodes are all archived too. Getting a stream into a saved file, takes a little work but is doable. Look into AudioHijack if you have a Mac.
posted by pwb503 at 3:53 PM on May 21, 2005

grumblebee has covered most of my suggestions, but I'd add writing a play or novel to that list -- keep a notepad to hand for any ideas that come up, but I find that the creative thinking that repetitive tasks afford are a great way to establish storylines and character outlines in my head. If you want to write a book you could probably spend a day or two on coming up with a basic storyline, and then the days after that on what you want to happen in the individual chapters.
posted by nthdegx at 5:08 AM on June 4, 2005