Ian's Messy Desk

I remember a supervisor at one of my first jobs picking up on a number of silly mistakes I had made and saying, "I don't think it's that you're careless, I think you couldn't care less." She was right. There were a dozen things grabbing my attention and the job wasn't one of them. It's easy for productivity or the quality of work to suffer if the job is not grabbing your interest. However, there are some things you can do if you find a care-less attitude preventing you from doing your job.

1. Look for creative ways to make your current tasks more interesting. For example, you might be able to take certain tasks outside the office —say, to a coffee shop— and complete them, without the usual office distractions.
2. See if it is possible to trade or share tasks with a coworker One person's tedium is another's challenge. You might hate number-crunching in a spreadsheet, while a co-worker hates writing documents. Trading tasks could address the attitude problems for two or more employees.
3. Ask for more challenging responsibilities. Job boredom often comes from not having enough to do. Adding responsibilities can make an old job seem fresh and new.
4. Schedule your work to best manage routine or tedious tasks. Most jobs have some parts that are less desirable than others. Making use of scheduling to optimize the completion of such parts. You can group low-energy tasks together and schedule them for a time when your work energy is low. You might alternate tedious tasks with challenging tasks giving some balance to the day.
5. Look for a new job. In the end, if you can't make the changes necessary to stimulate you current situation, perhaps it's time for a job change; either an internal move, a position in a new organization or a career re-direction.

Don't stand by and let boredom hold you back. Grab a hold of opportunities to make your work more interesting.

Steve Pavlina takes the concept of the 30-day trial period from shareware and morphs it into a tool to create new or break old habits. Rather than focusing on behaviour change as a long-term fight, look at making it a “trial” for 30 days.

“Yet we often psyche ourselves out of getting started by mentally thinking about the change as something permanent — before we’ve even begun. It seems too overwhelming to think about making a big change and sticking with it every day for the rest of your life when you’re still habituated to doing the opposite. The more you think about the change as something permanent, the more you stay put.”

“But what if you thought about making the change only temporarily — say for 30 days — and then you’re free to go back to your old habits? That doesn’t seem so hard anymore. Exercise daily for just 30 days, then quit. Maintain a neatly organized desk for 30 days, then slack off. Read for an hour a day for 30 days, then go back to watching TV.”

‘if’ by Rudyard Kipling

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream - and not make dreams your master,
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build ‘em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it all on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: “Hold on!”

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings - nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And - which is more - you’ll be a Man, my son!