Hate is a strong word and not one I’m a big fan of, if I’m perfectly honest. However, I’m using it in this article for impact, as well as contrast to things that we love. This is following on the back of a recent article on “Doing more of the things you love”. So how do you do less of what you hate at work?
In simple terms, doing more of the things you love and less of the things you hate should help you to rekindle your love in what you do, or at least give it a good try.
What do you hate at work?
I am making a bold assumption that your work comprises a mix of tasks, including some that you love and others that you, well, don’t.
Take some time to identify what the things are that you hate. This could be very quick, if you feel strongly about them! Try to be as specific and honest as you can be. You don’t need to share these with anyone else, although feel free to if you think this could be helpful.
Hopefully these things constitute a minority, not the majority, of what you do If not, that’s a whole other discussion and maybe we should talk!
Why do you hate these things?
We may hate components of our work for all manner of reasons, but I’m summarizing these into the 7 major ones that jump out for me, from personal experience and talking to others:
Energy drain
Some tasks may completely sap your energy. Are you left feeling exhausted by some aspects of your work?
Boring
You may just find them dull. The actual tasks may not be boring, but they certainly don’t flick your switch.
Don’t see the point
Sometimes we’re asked to or required to do things that just seem utterly pointless to us. It’s hard to buy into something if we don’t see the point of them in the first place.
Distractions
These tasks might distract you from other work or things that you need to concentrate on. They may take you away from much higher value-added tasks, for instance.
Time consuming
They make just take up too much of your most precious resource – time!
Too difficult
Sometimes we don’t like tasks because we find them difficult.
Same old story
The tasks themselves may be repetitive in nature or similar themes keep cropping up time and time again.
I’ve experienced this with a few projects in my old job that would periodically rise up and die down again. It can be hard to get excited when you know the ultimate end result.
OK, that’s enough about these tasks we hate. We don’t intend to dwell on them, but we do need to understand the what and why to be able to do less of them.
Do less of what you hate at work
Here are some ideas on how to do less of the tasks you hate:
Delegate or outsource
Just because you hate these tasks, it doesn’t mean everyone else does. Find someone who’s more suited to them, or even likes or loves doing them. You could actually be helping someone else out by doing this – by giving them work or helping them to learn and develop.
Reset boundaries
This could relate to your own boundaries e.g. the amount of time you dedicate to them, or whether you even do them at all. You might also require boundaries with others, for example pushing back when asked to do things outside your remit (again).
Reduce the time spent on them
Find ways to automate, streamline or condense these tasks into specific time blocks. By reducing time on them, they may seem less awful and it will allow more time for other, more enjoyable tasks.
Have some fun
If you have to do them, challenge yourself to find a way to make them fun. Draw up a checklist, challenge yourself to do them quicker or in a different way, work with others, treat yourself when they’re done etc.
Find a different job
This may sound drastic, but maybe there’s a similar job out there full of the bits you love (and without the bits you hate). It could well be worth some investigation!
Wrap-up
With many roles there are typically components we love and other parts we hate.
Doing more of the things you love and less of the things you hate could help you to rekindle your interest in your work, or even your passion in it.
- Identify the components that you hate
- Understand what it is you hate about them and why
- Challenge yourself to reduce (or even eliminate) them from your role
Get in touch for your free career discussion, if you could do with a sounding board on this or our Career Compass.
Thanks for reading. Check out other Blue Diamond articles to help you take control of your work and life.
