Tips For Procrastination

Years ago, back when I was young and naive, I used to think that doing office work would be, well, maybe not exciting, but at the very least mildly challenging.  But after several years of working temporary positions for various companies I've realized the biggest challenge of the average office worker is to NOT die of boredom. 

To be fair I'm sure there are some office positions that are challenging, maybe even too much so, but for us bottom rung employees striving to ward off boredom is a daily part of the routine.  So if you have an unchallenging job where the majority of your work routine is doing the same thing over and over and over and over day after day - most data entry job suffer from this, which unfortunately is one of my key job skills - what do you do to break up the monotony?

Here's some things I have picked up as a matter of maintaining my sanity.  And no, I don't do these things for extended periods of time.  Only for a few minutes here and there.  

1.  Shuffle paper.  Of course this only works if organizing papers in some fashion is part of your job.  For example, filing, sorting mail, etc.  And also if the task in question isn't something that needs to be done in some sort of timely fashion.   Also if you have a supervisor or co-worker who is constantly checking on your progress this particular ploy may not be in your best interest.  But for any casual passerby, if they see sitting at your desk shuffling papers around, even if your only doing it for show, most likely they won't notice anything amiss.  

I've also used this ploy with success for longer periods of time for whenever I truly had nothing to do, or I can't do what I need to do because someone else is using something I need.  We all know it's not a good idea to just sit at your desk doing nothing even if you have a good reason for doing nothing.  Most of the time some supervisor will take issue with this and "suggest" you do something that is even more distasteful than what you normally do.

2.  I take mini-breaks.  Breaks in between my normally scheduled breaks.  Things that normally take only a minute or two.  And these are things most of us would do during a normal work day anyway.  Things like using the restroom, getting a drink of water, or getting a snack from the vending machines.   This may sound strange but I've found that if I'm sitting at my desk looking at the clock and thinking - ugh, I have another hour and half before my next break - it can make doing the task I need to be doing all that much more unenjoyable.  But if I think -  I'll do this for a few more minutes and go get a cup of coffee, or go ask Mary that question I've been meaning to ask her - the length of time until my next break doesn't seem so long.  

It's amazing how even a few minutes of a break in the routine can make the work slightly more bearable.  Or course constantly getting up and wandering around isn't a good idea, but a few times a day for various reasons it's unlikely anyone will take issue.

 3. Look through your desk. You know, open and close drawers, shift things around, even if you have no real reason to be looking through your desk it looks like your looking for something.  And if you want to get energetic and actually clean out your desk, you can buy yourself some more down time. And this goes without saying, but I'll say it anyway, this of course only applies to when you have nothing pressing that needs done and no one is liable to question why you're poking around your desk.

There are other things that can be done, but many offices frown upon them.  Like personal computer use, personal phone calls, reading books, etc.  Some offices tolerant some of these behaviors to an extent but whether you can use them to break up your routine depends on how strict your office environment is, and how visible your work area is.  I'm not saying. . . I'm just saying. . .

Those are my top three procrastination tactics.  And please, I mean no offense.  Nor am I recommending to anyone that they slack off from the work they need to do to the extent it interferes with their productivity.  I'm just sharing a few tips I have picked up that helps me get through some of my more tedious days.     

So does anyone have any more tips, or am I the only slacker in the group?