While you might love your job, there are always going to be some things about it that you just dread doing. You may hate, loathe, or fear some of the things on your plate. Like a picky child, we end up pushing them around, poking, prodding, and procrastinating.
We’re all going to encounter tasks like these. You might be avoiding a tough, potentially confrontational conversation. Maybe you just can’t muster up the energy to tackle a mentally or physically demanding job. The task might be boring or feel like busy work. It might be more advanced than you’re comfortable with and you fear failure.
Whatever the reason, the uncomfortable truth is that all of us must do things we hate from time to time. Here’s how to get them done as painlessly as possible:
4 Tricks to Accomplish the Tasks You’re Dreading
1) Reward Yourself
Humans respond well to rewards. We all enjoy a hard-earned treat or a pat on the back! Don’t be afraid to incentivize yourself with rewards for doing the stuff that you get stuck on. It may be treating yourself to a fancy coffee after work, your favorite meal out, or a small, indulgent purchase. These rewards help us celebrate wins and get through the tough stuff. And while you’re in the thick of it, it gives you something to look forward to on top of the relief of getting it done.
If you don’t like the idea of spending money on yourself as a reward, choose a different kind of treat: time spent with a favorite book, career enrichment, an unplugged, relaxed evening, or quality time with good friends.
2) Think About Time
Time is the non-renewable resource. If you’re procrastinating, you might just need the pressure of a time crunch. Wasting time only hurts you in the long-term. You’ll feel ineffective! Focus on the fact that time is precious. It’s one of the most important commodities we have in this life, and when you spend it avoiding things, you only take away time from the things you really love.
Embrace what you hate and get it done. You’ll have time on the other side of it to spend on the things that matter. Time marches on. We have the daily choice to make the most of it…or not.
3) Drop Perfectionism
Being a perfectionist is not a good thing, and it’s often at the root of procrastination. You might feel ill-equipped to do the task before you. It might be totally new and outside of your realm of experience, or you may just doubt your hard-earned skills and abilities in the moment.
Perfectionism tells you that the only things worth doing are the things you can execute perfectly the first time. Because we’re not confident we can do things to perfection, we procrastinate in hopes that later we’ll be able to do it right. Perfectionism comes down to a fear of failure. We don’t want to mess up, appear foolish, or as though we’re not good enough.
You must kill your inner perfectionist. Making mistakes is a natural and necessary part of personal growth. If you don’t take the chance, you’re never going to improve.
Allow yourself to feel that anxiety and dread but recognize where those feelings are coming from. What are you so afraid of? If the need to appear perfect is stopping you from getting things done, it’s high time to embrace the infinite value of failure!
Ask yourself, “what’s the worst that could happen?”
Chances are, the worst outcome is not as bad as you feel or imagine. When you recognize that you can overcome the worst-case scenario, you will be bolder in tackling the things you may fail at.
4) Focus on the Benefit
There’s a benefit in doing the things that we dread. Focus on the benefits. For you, it may be as simple as the relief of not having to think about it anymore! But there are wide, varied benefits in having the tough conversations and doing the difficult tasks:
Personal growth
Sharpening existing skills
Solving persistent problems
Strengthening relationships
Creating something good in the world
Improving someone’s life
Securing your income
Increasing your professional value
And more!
Focus on why you need to do these tasks you hate. Allow yourself to make a list of the good rather than fixating on the bad. When you do, you’ll find that these tasks are not so insurmountable after all.
How do you gear up to tackle the tasks that you hate? Share what motivates you in the comments.