Disclaimer: this isn’t a lecture in productivity and time management. Ha!
I’ve been waiting patiently for 4 months.
Yesterday was the day of glee and surprise.
I popped into the greenhouse and there it was…the colour green.
Popping up everywhere from the seeds sown in January are little shoots, new life has finally sprung.
In a few months, if conditions are just right, these little lovelies are going to be a leafy and flowering parade of colour, smells and beauty.
But.
There’s a bit in the middle looming.
Before they are planted in the garden.
Long before the time of bloom.
Otherwise known as transplanting.
(When the seedlings need to be moved to a bigger pot to allow for growth. Thousands of them!)
Boring.
Slightly tedious.
Don’t get me wrong for the first 10 trays, it is therapeutic.
By tray 15, the garden therapy has ended.
By tray 22, I’m seeing double and it’s a case of ‘started a daybreak, ended with backache’. I do think at this moment, “why the hell don’t I just make my life easier and buy plants from the garden centre?”
Answer: no fun in that!
See, part of the reward is witnessing something you cared and nurtured for grow into a spectacular sight: all the way from seed to bloom. (Idea to Realisation?)
A few moments of tedious and boring, is more than a fair trade to what’s going to appear around here in July and August.
Does the same happen in life?
Doing the work that really fires you up, your love work, or your great work isn’t always 100% excitement, all the time.
Some stuff is just boring.
Examples:
How do you feel about paperwork? To me, boring.
Twitter used to be painfully boring (although I’ll admit that was because I had no idea how it worked!)
Generally, meetings to me are tedious. Some. Not all.
Cleaning up databases. Boring. Always.
Traffic jams: Urgh! Triple boring, depressing and painful as a Tori Amos CD. (Just my opinion, no offence if you’re a fan of TA!)
Take my career change clients, they don’t exactly do flips of happiness when they have to:
- Update and tweak their CV, they say it’s boring.
- Write cover letters. Again, pretty boring.
- Filling in another online application. Boring.
But we can’t ignore the boring work.
It still needs done.
Introducing the…
The Self Slush Fund
How do you get through your least favourite tasks and boring work?
When I’m doing the boring stuff I’ve tried different music: from the energy pumping to the tinkly-pinkly-running-rivers affairs, neither worked.
I’ve thought about rewarding myself with coffee and cake once the boring stuff was done but cake and coffee is a regular habit around here, didn’t work.
So, to get the boring stuff done I had to take this internal motivation to the next level.
I now have, what I will call a Self Slush Fund.
Think of the Self Slush Fund as your reserve of goodies and promises to yourself.
A self reward and points system, if you like.
When you get through the boring stuff you add to your Self Slush Fund.
Things for me are:
- A bathe (note I said bathe, not bath. One is luxury, the other is functional!)
- Going out for a coffee to the local bookstore, that always works.
- A date with myself usually does the trick.
- A day out with the doglets, pecking up a hill.
- Promise of an afternoon 30 min nap.
- Chinese for tea!
Simple easy things.
If you want to try it, there is one rule: you have to be committed to withdrawing from the fund, as and when required.
There is nothing wrong with rewarding yourself for a job well done, whether it’s exciting or slightly tedious.
My point:
The way we can see the end result in it’s full glory is by doing all the work.
If an idea is worth seeding, is it not worth making all the conditions perfect for it to bloom?
(Oh and if all your work is boring, and has been for sometime. You may need a heck more than a Self Slush Fund, this is for you)
Your Turn:
How do you reward yourself?
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