There Will Always Be Filing
Do you rail against the routine, dull parts of your work? Do you
imagine a life in which there are no boring tasks? Well, dream
on! There will always be filing. There will always be dust. Like
it or not, there is a housekeeping component to any lifestyle or
profession you can imagine. If you think there is a lifestyle or
profession that doesn't involve humble, repetitive tasks, you
haven't looked closely enough. Ask someone who lives that life.
She'll tell you about scheduling the interns, scanning vast
numbers of emails, going to the dump, emptying the dishwasher,
compiling the bibliography, and so forth.
The critical issue, when it comes to mundane maintenance tasks,
is to get over your resistance to it. As humans, we only have
resistance to things we think we "shouldn't" have to deal with.
Have you ever seen anyone have a tantrum about gravity? Of
course not. No one in their right mind complains to friends and
loved ones about what a burden gravity is for them. About how
annoyed they are that when they let go of objects, the objects
fall to the ground. How if it weren't for gravity, shoveling
snow would be a piece of cake. How much more fun their life
would be if they could go up a flight of stairs in a single
bound. We don't complain about gravity because we know it to be
an immutable fact of life on this planet.
"Filing" is also a non-negotiable fact of life. The creative
challenge is to continually get our low-level tasks handled with
the least amount of fuss and labor. Yes, the papers in your
office have a life of their own, and when you go home in the
evening, they rearrange themselves into unsightly and
disorganized piles. The task at hand is twofold: get over your
surprise, dismay, and your wish to have it be otherwise, and
just deal with it.
Here are some suggestions to support you deal with it:
1. Save your mindless jobs for a time of day when you are not at
your sharpest. I do my office cleanup, filing, bill-paying,
routine phone calls (like making medical or dental
appointments), and so forth at the end of my workday, which is
when my mental energy is low. Other people do these jobs early
in the morning, because it helps them ramp up their energy and
focus for the day ahead.
2. Set a specific time period to work on these job and stick to
it. If you set up a 2-hour block, honor it - start on time and
stop after two hours.
3. Multi-task some of the housekeeping jobs. While you are on
hold for customer service, examine some "probably junk" emails
and straighten up your desk. I'm not a great fan of
multi-tasking except when it comes to these kinds of tasks.
4. Another way to multi-task is to do these jobs while doing
something pleasurable or distracting. Play some great music
while you do the data entry for your taxes. Watch a video while
you stuff envelopes.
5. Buy yourself a headset for your phone. It frees up your hands
miraculously. And it saves untold wear and tear on your back,
neck and shoulders.
6. Bunch these jobs. Carve out blocks of time when that's all
you do. You can do an amazing amount of work in concentrated
blocks of un-ambiguously committed time. You might even begin to
look forward to these blocks of time - they can be relatively
stress-free, and it can be quite a boost to get several of them
off your list at once.
7. Delegate the work. Find someone else to do the job for you -
hire, barter, trade, beg, cajole, call in your favors, indenture
your pre-teen children. Do not be stopped by failure of the
imagination!
8. "Disguise it." This is a suggestion from an audience member
at a talk I gave recently. In particular, the person suggested
hosting a task-party - a social event at which your guests will
be doing some work for you, like putting your photos in albums.
Meanwhile, there's a lovely social event going on.
9. Ditch it. SOME of the low level jobs on your list don't
really have to get done. Ever. If you have had some items on
your to do list for years - face it - it's not going to happen.
You seem to be surviving without it, so get it off your list and
get on with your life. For many people, the photos-into-albums
job fits into this category. Buy some nice looking storage
boxes, put your envelopes of photos into the boxes and be done
with it.
10. Share your progress with friends. Celebrate your successes.
It may not be rocket science, but then again, that's what's hard
about it!
If you're considering hiring a coach to help you with challenges
like these, contact me at sharon@stcoach.com for an initial
consultation at no charge.
COPYRIGHT 2002, Sharon Teitelbaum. All rights reserved