TOW#545 — What can I do when I’m bored?

All my tasks done and now, what to do? If this is a question you often ask yourself, I think we can easily find an answer. The thing is, I read some research which said that most employees are bored at work for an average of 10.5 hours per week. That’s more than an entire working day that people are sitting bored at work!

It’s perfectly normal to feel bored sometimes and to not know what to do about it. What really matters is how you choose to spend that time. Yes, you could spend those 10.5 hours playing a game on your phone or checking your social media, or you could use it for something useful:

-Research — look up things related to your job position. Be creative and take an interest in ways to improve your work and the work of the entire team;

-Declutter — now’s the time to clean the area around your workspace, sort out the mess in your computer, delete messages you don’t need in your mailbox, make some changes;

-Help — don’t just sit around at work being bored, but make yourself available to your colleagues and offer to help them. Start with colleagues in your sector, since you know the job, and then go to other areas where you have some knowledge;

-What is it that you find boring — find the source of your boredom: is it that you don’t have enough responsibilities? Is it that you finish things ahead of time? Are you bored with a particular part of the job? Find the source and start solving the problem;

-It’s not my job — stop thinking like this in moments like these, on the contrary, do something that’s not your job or was not asked of you. You don’t have to start with a radical change in the company/department in which you work; it can be something that’s not part of your responsibilities but can still contribute to the development of the company;

-New skills — learn new skills that can positively contribute to the development of your position at work, or some that are complementary to your position/education, which can only add value to what you do;

-Games — if you really can’t do anything about your boredom, and you’ve done all the things mentioned above, then go ahead and play some games, but at least choose ones that’ll work your brain like Sudoku, a crossword puzzle in a foreign language (to practice that language), and so on;

-Another job — if none of the aforementioned things work, and of course there are a million more you can do, then it’s probably time to move on and find a job that bores you less. It’s not you, it’s the job!

There are many things you can do when and if you’re bored, but it always comes down to — what is it that’s boring? And one thing should be clear to you — don’t think that your superiors haven’t noticed that you’re bored at work.

Wishing you success with the changes to come,

@kalinbabusku

Wishing you success with the changes to come,

Petar Lazarov

Member of the Team

MACEDONIA-EXPORT Consulting

*If you want to read the original interview follow the link.

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