Ask HN: How do you force yourself to do boring tasks?

For documentation, an approach that works for me is to think of all the questions someone might reasonably have about the software, and start with those as section headings:

* What is this?

* How do I install it?

* How do I use it?

* Is there a change log?

* What license is it released under?

etc

At some point when doing that, the content starts to flow and it gets easy to just naturally edit the whole thing into a doc that makes sense.

This is my method.

- I make a list of things I need to get done.

- I risk and priority rank the list.

I then entirely ignore the risk and priority for each item on the list and instead do an extra 10 pushups, leg lifts, kegels and sit-ups for each item every day.

Personally I find it hard to get bored. When I'm facing serious work inhibition (anything worse than compulsive HN use) I take it as a serious sign to look for change.

Documentation is a big part of the "definition of done" for most projects, I've seen it make the difference between an open source project that gets users and one that doesn't. Probably the work that you want to do to finish a small project is 1/3 of the work that it takes to make it into something that connects with other people.

Editing is easier than creating (blank page paralysis).

When I wrote my masters thesis I auto-generated 50 pages of Lorem Ipsum, properly formatted, and started editing it.

“The title is clearly wrong, I’ll change that. Oh look, the first heading is also wrong, let’s put something else in here. Now the paragraph doesn’t match the heading, better fix that”

By the time I get to the paragraph I’m mentally invested and continuing is easy

Many people think I'm a work-a-holic. My dirty little secret is that I'm actually very lazy (my wife knows :-). I can't say I have a good strategy, it's just that when I do get into a rare flow state (a few times a week) I can stay there for quite a while and little can distract me (thank you ADD!).

But here is what I would say: pick the smallest of tasks that is part of the larger work and convince yourself it's okay to only get that part done today. Also convince yourself that it's okay to do a 'Mad Dash' on it - focus on making progress, not making perfect. Save the edits and polishing for when you are in the zone.

This is how I get myself to the gym a few times a week. So many times I've told myself it's okay to just go for 10 minutes (and then sit in the hot tub :-). But once I'm there I almost always do my full regimen (which is only 45 mins).

So maybe that is my strategy: only focus on 'getting started', not on getting done.

When I run into this I’ll try to block out some time to just get started on a small part.

Usually once I’m working on it I’ll keep going.

It also helps me to change my scenery, e.g. spend the afternoon at a cafe while working on it.

- see a professional to determine if there’s anything like adhd in play that may be making it harder for you

- break things down into smaller tasks

- just try to get one of those smaller tasks done, dont worry about the rest

- if the smaller task is still too big, keep breaking it down

— start things like documentation with outlines of what you want to communicate

- after you’ve got an outline, you don’t need to write it linearly. it’s ok to jump around and follow where your attention brings you

- create a slow distraction environment so you’re less likely to go off task

- see if there’s a buddy that you can pair with to get it done

- it’s better to just get something done than nothing, don’t worry about being perfect, you can come back and update it later

- ask around for what people struggle with understanding, this will help you prioritize what documentation to write

- pictures say a thousand words. try making some diagrams, and annotating them

Your brain likes finishing stuff. You get a small award of dopamine whenever you do.

Divide it into smaller specific goals. I don't "read books", I "read chapter X of book Y", it's much easier to get idea of how much is left and you can finish it in a reasonable amount of time.

I also don't "clean" in one go, I have smaller tasks spread out over the week. Typically missing one thing won't make much difference, which is also nice.

Amphetamine salts, how else?

I've sometimes used this method: break the work into pieces, and invent little rewards for the completion of each piece, e.g., next cup of coffee, walk around the block, read one story on website, get snack, etc.

Get paid for it. If I’m billing $100-$150 / hr I don’t need my work to be entertaining.

Maybe not a tip, but a perspective. Someone posted it here, and I've tried to make it my life.

https://jacobian.org/2021/apr/7/embrace-the-grind/

I try to trick or bribe myself mostly.

Either, do it and spend the time after doing something I like, or try to spin the boring thing as possibly interesting.

Like documenting a potential usecase and seeing how that would actually happen. Though I end up messing with the code/configs instead

Force myself and time box it. Set up my workspace, pour myself a coffee, listen to classical music, and give myself a hard deadline. Not easy, but I find having the right set up gets me in that mentality to get it done.

Here is my trick when it comes to documentation or even writing - I record myself doing a voice or video explainer - less daunting than blank page. Assume the audience are not techies... then transcribe it which end up being like editing & fun at the same time.

I have difficulty with tasks that have no clear ending, like documentation. Sometimes it helps to tell people I'm having trouble with it:

Task: "Research and prepare for upcoming feature"

Me: "I'm having trouble with this research task, it feels like the task is to discover and document everything that will be needed to implement the feature, and the easiest way I know of doing this is to actually implement the feature and write down what was needed. I don't know where this thing ends."

Boss: "Just make a list of the existing project dependencies and put it in a Word doc and send it in an email." (Yes, this barely matches the original task description, but this happens often.)

Me: "Ok, I can do that."

If you're anything like me, the hardest part is to get started.

Look at "Getting Things Done". Perhaps you need to dig deeper into what should you do next to get that documentation written?

For example, maybe it's just coming up with the outline. Or one smaller section. Or showing some example codes perhaps.

And as others have said, reward yourself with a treat if/when you complete (some of, all of) the task.

Outsource it if you can.

Otherwise I keep my brain entertained by multitasking while doing the boring thing : I’ll play a turn based RPG, or have German lessons or a Knuth lecture playing. Or music.

Theres a fine balance between distracting enough to keep your mind stimulated and engaged, and too distracting so you’re getting nothing done, so keep varying the task until you find one that clicks.

Also time your work, for me these boring tasks are better to do slowly in the evening when I’m tired, so it becomes almost a meditative / wind-down work

I have a hunch that the fatigue you're encountering is caused by having to make decisions all the time.

I have found it can be helpful to split the task up differently than I otherwise would. In your case for example, I would try writing out all the paragraph headers first, then writing the sub-headers, then the first line for each one. It keeps the tasks short, which means fewer decisions and more process.

Once I'm in that flow, and don't have to stop to make any decisions, it's a great feeling and the work is much more fulfilling. Here's an Alan Watts quote that comes to mind: https://gist.github.com/elliottkember/a00076db27b0008b0cc622...

Plan to do the smallest 'next' thing. Don't think about the size of the entire work, which can be daunting and discouraging. Always only think about the first smallest thing you can do. For me this will often be a meta-thing, like prepare my physical space with what I need close-by, or make an empty directory for the files that will be there and one empty outline.txt file, etc. Basically even while procrastinating, reduce the barrier to actually starting.

Also don't think you have to follow any particular approach or methods. Write in whatever sequence you find yourself drawn to, and whatever means you choose (dictation, phone/tablet, at coffee shops, etc). To alleviate boredom, find some ways to add subtle humour into your writing--maybe only you'll know but that's enough if it entertains you while writing.

> I've never wrote any documentation before, and always struggled with writing descriptive content.

Respectfully, I don't believe you think it's boring, but that you don't know what makes the task successful. To compensate for this you've used the very common strategy of mentally categorizing the task as "beneath you" ergo "boring".

In this case, there's plenty of great suggestions already here, but the most important one is to become aware of this mindset and work to overcome it. Writing, of any kind, requires some measure of creativity. Documentation can be tedious. But is this any different from writing software! You need a strategy that taps into what you enjoy and already have, that makes the tedious bits effortlessly fall into the background.

In my case I ask myself this question "how can I make this task interesting? (but also accomplish it on time)" and then simply make a game of it. But that might not work for you.

I know one person who looks at documentation as "programming other people to be able to work with the tool he developed". If people read the documentation and can't use the tool, then it's a bug to be squashed and the programming language to use is "English".

> The task is so boring that I just can't put any effort into it. I've never wrote any documentation before, and always struggled with writing descriptive content. The last time I did it was for my internship report and it was so daunting.

Try to make the writing exercise less about yourself. Who is the documentation for? A new hire or someone else whose never worked with this product before. Try to make the documentation exercise more about them.

If you were asked to ramp up on this product, what information would you want to know? How can you help others be successful?

A good technical leader isn’t just about to churn out code and make trade offs in design. A good technical leader is able to take a complex space and drive clarity for others.

You have an opportunity to disambiguate a topic here to help others. You get to choose what’s the right level of detail to provide.

I saw this a while back and it's really helped:

How to fight procrastination

Behavior = Motivation + Ability + Trigger

If you're lacking motivation: build motivation by remind yourself "why" (even if it's just "so it's done" but could be "do my taxes so I don't go to jail"). Add personally meaningful reasons to the tasks. Remind yourself why you took on the task.

If you're lacking ability: break down the task, make a timeline, build the timeline backwards from the due-date.

If you're lacking a trigger (like a task that can be done "whenever"): Create a cue. A cue is what+when+where. Take <15mins to decide which subtask to start with. If you still can't decide after 15mins, pick one at random.

I get so bored, I write software to auto-generate that stuff.