from Hacker News

Suppressing boredom at work hurts future productivity

by ryanblakeley on 3/29/24, 11:29 PM with 58 comments

• by itqwertz on 3/29/24, 11:55 PM

  If you work remotely, a good cure for boredom is working 2+ jobs with minimal responsibilities or expectations. Spinning plates, keeping a mediocre output for keeping the job, is a great wealth and boredom fix.

• by bittercynic on 3/30/24, 12:23 AM

  Suppressing boredom diminishes productivity and the likelihood of finding meaning at home, as well.

  Guarding against the things I use to avoid boredom is the most effective way I've found of doing the things I'll feel good about later.

• by edem on 3/30/24, 2:41 PM

  When I realized that the gervais principle was not a joke _at all_ I became a contractor, and I moved to 100% remote. This way I produce the output they expect while working on my own products. Best of both worlds and everyone is happy.

• by tbrownaw on 3/30/24, 4:11 AM

  Of course this only works if you really do have enough non-boring tasks that there's always one available to switch to, and if the boring tasks aren't so boring that you get bored with them before making enough progress.