How To Deal With A Totally Boring Job

Do you feel stuck in a mind-numbing job? If so, you’re not alone. A recent Harris Poll survey found that 36% of employed Americans want to ditch their current position for a job that allows them to be more creative. 

Still, given the prolonged economic downturn, jumping ship or starting your own business might not be an option. If you need to stick it out in your present job for now, look for ways to make changes that will help turn boredom into creativity. Research shows that change — whatever it is — improves our mood and productivity. Here are ways to cope with the corporate grind.

1. Vary your routine. Your brain needs stimulus. Try doing your humdrum tasks in a different way, at a different time, in a different seat or with different people.

Set an agenda. If you’re bored because you feel you don’t have any goals at work and you’re just wandering aimlessly through the day, be more strategic. Write down definite, achievable goals for each day, week and month and plot the steps you’re going to take to reach them.

2. Work from home. Increasingly, companies allow employees to work off-site on a regular or occasional basis. Working at home can cut down on commuting time, or relieve work-life pressures caused by caring for children, aging parents or an infirm spouse. For other benefits and tips on building flexibility into your company culture

3. Shift your focus. If your responsibilities are homogeneous or you’ve had the same duties for the entire time you’ve been at the company, ask your boss if you can alter your workload or the kind of work you currently do. Whether you’re overworked and overwhelmed, or completely unchallenged, your boss will respect your desire to master something new.

4. Help out. Even if you don’t necessarily hate your co-workers, it can refresh your outlook on your work and the aspects of it that bore you to involve different people. On upcoming projects, ask colleagues if you can lend a hand.

5. Vary old themes. Inject new thinking into your work. Take something you’ve already done or your team has already done and see if you can transpose it into a new – or different – medium.

6. Draw a “mind map.” If your progress with a certain project is stagnating, find a visual way out of the rut. Draw a diagram with the main topic or theme in the middle of a piece of paper, circle it and put 10 little lines around the circle – like spokes in a wheel. At the end of each line, write 10 ideas or tasks that relate to the central theme.

7. Brainstorm. Get together a group of innovative colleagues and tackle an issue together. Don’t worry about only writing down the “good” ideas or separating the “definitelys” from the “maybes.” Just capture as many new ideas as you can. There will be plenty of time to sort through them later.

8. Expand your horizons. Finding subjects or subject areas that inspire you and energize you makes it easier to be creative. We can put up with almost anything when there’s something in the background or offstage that we are passionate about.