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WAKE UP: Are You Stuck In A Monotonous Routine?

Anything related to matters of the mind

MaxKhalus

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Why Is This Taking So Long?



I know you all of you have the stuff to do, so I'll be brief with my introduction. A few weeks ago, I asked for advice in this forum on how to start an eCommerce business. Before that moment, I was unproductive and was barely making any progress due to work ethic issues. Surprisingly, in these three weeks I have been extremely productive: hitting the gym in the morning routine, doing product research, removing all bad habits, freelancing, contacting suppliers, and whatnot. I've sorted out that part.



Here is where the next challenge appears. In e-commerce, there are some parts that don't depend completely on your work, forcing you to put your focus on side tasks and organize, especially when negotiating with suppliers and waiting for the inventory to ship.



There is nothing going on! It barely feels as if there were more work to do. There is not enough progression and workdays feel dull and repetitive. In short, it seems that things don't move faster, regardless of my dedication. In fact, everything would be the same if I didn't work today. That is why I wonder...:



Why Is This Taking So Long?

27997

Now, don't get wrong. I am aware of the price of success and how long it takes. Obviously, I haven't stick long enough to make it happen yet (because three weeks is nothing compared to months and years!). My only problem is monotony. I don't believe I can give my best in business If I am uninterested in the execution of the task.



Of course, this is not about adding more unrelated activities to stay busy. It is smart to stay focused on one thing.



Do you think there is a way to add more variation inside the same activity?

27998

It is not very different from this graph. You should follow the green line to get to success, which is "I won't stop until I get to the end".
You already know how the purple works. On the middle of that process, there appear many other attractive opportunities, making your current path look uninteresting. If you give up, you would have wasted your time, having to start a new path from zero, and repeat the cycle. I feel on the middle spot, struggling with monotony and engagement.

Why Is This Taking So Long?

It doesn't take long. Maybe your routine is simply too repetitive and nothing is happening. It is about adding more experiences and life to your routine.

Unfortunately, I haven't found a solution for this yet.

I'd really like to hear your thoughts about this. Lastly, don't confuse Monotony with Boredom. Let's say that boredom is being unengaged because of low difficulty and challenge. Monotony is about the lack of variation or novelty.



How do you overcome monotony without adding unessential things?
 
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MaxKhalus

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How can you get through monotony?
 
Last edited:

Andy Black

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Why Is This Taking So Long?



I know you all of you have the stuff to do, so I'll be brief with my introduction. A few weeks ago, I asked for advice in this forum on how to start an eCommerce business. Before that moment, I was unproductive and was barely making any progress due to work ethic issues. Surprisingly, in these three weeks I have been extremely productive: hitting the gym in the morning routine, doing product research, removing all bad habits, freelancing, contacting suppliers, and whatnot. I've sorted out that part.



Here is where the next challenge appears. In e-commerce, there are some parts that don't depend completely on your work, forcing you to put your focus on side tasks and organize, especially when negotiating with suppliers and waiting for the inventory to ship.



There is nothing going on! It barely feels as if there were more work to do. There is not enough progression and workdays feel dull and repetitive. In short, it seems that things don't move faster, regardless of my dedication. In fact, everything would be the same if I didn't work today. That is why I wonder...:



Why Is This Taking So Long?

View attachment 27997

Now, don't get wrong. I am aware of the price of success and how long it takes. Obviously, I haven't stick long enough to make it happen yet (because three weeks is nothing compared to months and years!). My only problem is monotony. I don't believe I can give my best in business If I am uninterested in the execution of the task.



Of course, this is not about adding more unrelated activities to stay busy. It is smart to stay focused on one thing.



Do you think there is a way to add more variation inside the same activity?

View attachment 27998

It is not very different from this graph. You should follow the green line to get to success, which is "I won't stop until I get to the end".
You already know how the purple works. On the middle of that process, there appear many other attractive opportunities, making your current path look uninteresting. If you give up, you would have wasted your time, having to start a new path from zero, and repeat the cycle. I feel on the middle spot, struggling with monotony and engagement.

Why Is This Taking So Long?

It doesn't take long. Maybe your routine is simply too repetitive and nothing is happening. It is about adding more experiences and life to your routine.

Unfortunately, I haven't found a solution for this yet.

I'd really like to hear your thoughts about this. Lastly, don't confuse Monotony with Boredom. Let's say that boredom is being unengaged because of low difficulty and challenge. Monotony is about the lack of variation or novelty.



How do you overcome monotony without adding unessential things?
Things I do for boring and repetitive tasks (not quite what you’re asking but maybe a start of an answer):
  • Schedule it. It’s in my calendar for a period of time today and I know it will end.
  • Try to enjoy it. My dad told me if you’re not enjoying the ironing then you’re doing it wrong.
  • See if I can get better at it. Time myself and see if I can get more done in the time, or finish it earlier.
  • Document it. Write an SOP so it’s repeatable. Maybe even make a course out of it and sell it?
  • Delegate it. Use it as a tool to find out if someone can do boring and repetitive.
  • Automate it?
 

MaxKhalus

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Things I do for boring and repetitive tasks (not quite what you’re asking but maybe a start of an answer):
  • Schedule it. It’s in my calendar for a period of time today and I know it will end.
  • Try to enjoy it. My dad told me if you’re not enjoying the ironing then you’re doing it wrong.
  • See if I can get better at it. Time myself and see if I can get more done in the time, or finish it earlier.
  • Document it. Write an SOP so it’s repeatable. Maybe even make a course out of it and sell it?
  • Delegate it. Use it as a tool to find out if someone can do boring and repetitive.
  • Automate it?
That was interesting and I've looked to apply most of them since you mention them. The only one I don't get is "enjoying work". Here's what I've done.

Schedule It: I commit to do my work only today, but I cannot uncommit the same day I am already living. Also, I have no obligation to do it in the future, which is relaxing. It helps to thing without hostile emotions.

Get Better: I use livesplit to see how quickly I get my work done. I am starting a lead generation business. My repetitive task is collecting data from B2B companies to cold email them later.
I always look to get more than 300 emails collected by he end everyday, but procrastinate because monotony makes it look unactractive, only collecting 50 emails per day.

Document It: Not really sure of how to do this. Whenever I don't feel like working, or get some stuff done, I open GoogleDocs and start writing my thoughts there. That's how I uncover the solutions to my problems most of the time.

Delegate It: I've got very efficient doing this task. I can collect ~30 company emails per hour. I only want to delegate this once I have so many clients that I have no more time left (30 to 60 people per month).

Automate it: I'd hire a personal assistant to do it, but only after I get my first client and get to the mentioned numbers.

So far, I've collected ~1100 emails in 24 days. Poor performance: the pattern you would see is me getting 200 emails in one day, 50 emails on the next day, then stop for 3-5 days, and repeat.Hate it.

To enjoy work, I thought of gamification, but didn't find enough useful tricks. What do you think of all this?
 
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MaxKhalus

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One last thing. Because I am a freelancer, I have all the free time of the world. My objective is to work on lead generation as much time as possible. I barely need any breaks because this service requires no skills. I can work 12 to 14 hours per day without reducing my work quality, but I don't know how to do it.
 

Andy Black

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That was interesting and I've looked to apply most of them since you mention them. The only one I don't get is "enjoying work". Here's what I've done.

Schedule It: I commit to do my work only today, but I cannot uncommit the same day I am already living. Also, I have no obligation to do it in the future, which is relaxing. It helps to thing without hostile emotions.

Get Better: I use livesplit to see how quickly I get my work done. I am starting a lead generation business. My repetitive task is collecting data from B2B companies to cold email them later.
I always look to get more than 300 emails collected by he end everyday, but procrastinate because monotony makes it look unactractive, only collecting 50 emails per day.

Document It: Not really sure of how to do this. Whenever I don't feel like working, or get some stuff done, I open GoogleDocs and start writing my thoughts there. That's how I uncover the solutions to my problems most of the time.

Delegate It: I've got very efficient doing this task. I can collect ~30 company emails per hour. I only want to delegate this once I have so many clients that I have no more time left (30 to 60 people per month).

Automate it: I'd hire a personal assistant to do it, but only after I get my first client and get to the mentioned numbers.

So far, I've collected ~1100 emails in 24 days. Poor performance: the pattern you would see is me getting 200 emails in one day, 50 emails on the next day, then stop for 3-5 days, and repeat.Hate it.

To enjoy work, I thought of gamification, but didn't find enough useful tricks. What do you think of all this?
By “Enjoy it” I mean it almost becomes something therapeutic. You go through the motions trying to do them perfectly. They’re so habitual now that doing them can have a calming effect on you.

For documentation, how about recording yourself doing it using Loom or similar, and getting someone else to write the SOP?
 

Andy Black

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Because I am a freelancer, I have all the free time of the world.
?

I don’t follow.

Being a freelancer just a means you’re not paid as an employee, and you don’t have employees.

I think it’s dangerous to think we have all the time in the world.

1) We don’t.

2) Thinking we have unlimited resources stops us being *resourceful*, and being resourceful is a hallmark of an entrepreneur.

My objective is to work on lead generation as much time as possible. I barely need any breaks because this service requires no skills. I can work 12 to 14 hours per day without reducing my work quality, but I don't know how to do it.
If it requires no skills then why don’t you outsource it?
 
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Andy Black

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Something to bear in mind:

We make progress by overcoming problems in our way. What most perceive as hurdles are in fact stepping stones in disguise. Get past each hurdle and we’re one step further.

If in a month’s time we’re still trying to solve the same problem, then we’re stuck.

It sounds like this particular task could be outsourced and you’d have moved a step or two forward?
 

Jaxon

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Something to bear in mind:

We make progress by overcoming problems in our way. What most perceive as hurdles are in fact stepping stones in disguise. Get past each hurdle and we’re one step further.

If in a month’s time we’re still trying to solve the same problem, then we’re stuck.

It sounds like this particular task could be outsourced and you’d have moved a step or two forward?
@Andy Black : Andy, I just realized, I'm REALLY stuck!

I found myself reading about your course on the AdWords course for quite some time before realizing that the thread was from 2017. To refresh your memory, I'm the 65 year old beginner, considering local lead generation. It occurred to me that using AdWords, or now, GoogleAds might now be ancient, and out of reach for the beginner...budget-wise. I was going to try to help an electrician friend get more jobs. In searching for "electrician in [my location]" there were pages of paid ads.

Am I beating a long dead horse here? It occurs to me that positioning such a campaign would be insanely expensive and therefore completely un-do-able for a small service company like his. It appears that Home Advisor, Annie's List, Yelp, Thumbtack, etc are his only choices, at least her in the US. Am I right?
 

Andy Black

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@Andy Black : Andy, I just realized, I'm REALLY stuck!

I found myself reading about your course on the AdWords course for quite some time before realizing that the thread was from 2017. To refresh your memory, I'm the 65 year old beginner, considering local lead generation. It occurred to me that using AdWords, or now, GoogleAds might now be ancient, and out of reach for the beginner...budget-wise. I was going to try to help an electrician friend get more jobs. In searching for "electrician in [my location]" there were pages of paid ads.

Am I beating a long dead horse here? It occurs to me that positioning such a campaign would be insanely expensive and therefore completely un-do-able for a small service company like his. It appears that Home Advisor, Annie's List, Yelp, Thumbtack, etc are his only choices, at least her in the US. Am I right?
“Overthinking is the art of solving problems you don’t have.”

Run a test and find out if you can get leads for electricians in your city, and for an affordable price.
 
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MaxKhalus

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This is not going anywhere. I was a fool expecting to solve my problem asking in the Internet. Don't bother keeping this thread active.
 

Andy Black

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This is not going anywhere. I was a fool expecting to solve my problem asking in the Internet. Don't bother keeping this thread active.
I thought it was a useful thread.

Did you not get any value or ideas from people’s replies?

Are you saying I shouldn’t have bothered replying?
 

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