How to Relieve Boredom at Work

We all have boring, tedious tasks. Some of us have to sit behind a desk doing the same thing all day long. It can drive you crazy. And some of us, for whatever reason, can’t cope with boredom at all. I think that I’m one of those people.

After I left school I had a number of temp jobs and one of my first jobs was working in a factory that made old fashioned electric fires. I took a strip of metal from by my left hip, put it in a machine that punched half a dozen holes in it and then placed it in a pile by my right hip. That was it. All day long. Nothing else.

I couldn’t stand it. Bored out of my wits I got into all kinds of trouble trying to make people laugh, singing songs very badly, amongst many sins. After a week I left before I became institutionalised.

So I gravitated toward a career in recruitment which meant a bit of travel to meetings with candidates and with clients, from engineering to sales to marketing and now back again and I jumped from company to company. Anything at the time to stop me sitting at a desk 24/7.

A few conversations with colleagues later and we’ve compiled a short list of things, apart from playing games, which should help you relieve boredom at work.

• Know yourself. If you love what you do, you’ll be successful at it. Unfortunately, the opposite is just as true. If you’re not the kind of person who can stand a straight desk job or boring tasks, don’t do that for a living. You’ll be miserable and not very good at it.

• Travel. Most people hate work travel so those jobs aren’t as hard to get as you might think. But if you travel 10/20 % of the time you can strike a balance between relieving boredom and living in a constant state of chaos.

• Take your job to the next level. I know it’s a cliché, but if you think out of the box, you might actually be able to turn your mundane job into something more exciting. Set lofty goals for yourself that nobody would think are possible. It’s doable. Just don’t make crazy commitments you can’t deliver on.

• Get into sales and marketing. Most sales and marketing jobs involve quite a bit of travel, getting out and about, team meetings, customer interaction, that sort of thing. Never a dull moment. Outside sales, product marketing, communications, PR, project management, they’re all good.

• Work in a busy retail environment. Believe it or not, some people actually like talking to strangers, helping people find things, and working on their feet all day. And if it’s a product area you’re passionate about, all the better. If you love shoes, get into the shoe business.

• Do not start your own Internet-based business. That’s the real dark side of being an Internet entrepreneur. You’re tied to your computer, 24×7. If you love that sort of thing, more power to you. But if you’re not, forget it.

• Take long breaks. Don’t laugh. If your job permits flexible work hours or if your company values you and your work, you can probably get away with taking plenty of long breaks. You can even work longer hours to make up for it. Go out to lunch, work out, run, and take walks, whatever it takes.

• Climb the corporate ladder. That’s right; very few executive management jobs are boring. How can you be bored when you’re under all that pressure to perform? Seriously, some people live for that type of existence. Many then burn out. But still … good times.

And, if you’ve got a tip for relieving boredom at work or an exciting career that most people wouldn’t think of, please please tell me so that I can pass it on.

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