Salon post: August 17

[jenett]

Welcome to this week's salon post!


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Topic of the week
What stuff do you do that makes necessary but perhaps tedious work go faster or better or be less dire?

We are doing a major catalogue upgrade this summer, which involves editing a lot of records so they are not completely baffling (so people can filter on them usefully, in large part), and I am making it through with lots of podcasts (because the editing work is mostly pretty brainless) and awarding myself metallic stars every 25 records.

What I've been up to
Catalogue editing. Recovering from last week's many appointments. Making more appointments.


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Comments

[senmut]

What stuff do you do that makes necessary but perhaps tedious work go faster or better or be less dire?

Counting, for the tedious bits, like sorting papers and scanning them. My brain loses track of time when I am counting to 5, 10, or 20 over and over for some reason.

Music, for pressing things that MUST be done and the timeframe is tight. While the beats per minute thing applies to making physical work go faster and smoother, I find with clerical work, it is more that the music be present, not too intrusive, and generally something known, so if I need to sing along I can do so without devoting a piece of my brain to that.

Dire things? Get "outlined". The steps and needed bits laid out in my head just like an outline, so I can check them off the mental map, giving me a feeling of accomplishment, a hill that eventually has a downslope to keep my momentum up.

[jenett]

Answering my own question:

For mindless tasks, podcasts are great (I have one where a friend is interviewed to listen to this morning!) Whether that's rote edits in the catalogue for things like format or titles of journals or house cleaning.

For writing, it's music, and I've been slowly building playlists in Spotify (there are a bunch of RPG lists designed for gaming that people have done that don't have words, which are a handy starting point.)

But metallic star stickers, also surprisingly useful. Or other abilities to tick things off, or mark physical progress.

[auroracloud]

I'm one of those odd people who can't write with music. The music starts influencing my writing too much, even if it's without lyrics. (I can, on occasion, use music as writing prompts, though.)

Maybe I need to buy star stickers. Or, I don't know, somehow blackmail myself with stuff I want. Withhold Classic Who DVDs until I've cleared up the chaos on my bedroom floor?

[havocthecat]

I cannot reward myself with stickers or other small items like that. My brain does not work that way. How does that work for people? It has never worked for me, not even as a child.

[alexseanchai]

I wish to distinguish a few things I think you're conflating.

The star sticker for, say, sink zero at bedtime? Maybe it's a reward in itself. Maybe it's just a tally mark that sparkles.

Goddamnit DW mobile

[jenett]

It doesn't work for me for most things, but it turns out that "You have 1200 records to edit" it works really well for giving me a marker of how far I've gotten, and when taking a break might be a good idea.

I took a piece of copy paper and made little squares, big enough for a star and a number below in small handwriting, and a bigger label for each section. And each 25 gets a star.

(I discovered 25 is the optimal number for me: that's about 10-15 minutes at a go for most of what I'm editing, depending on website load times and if someone asks me something in the middle.)

[alexseanchai]

But the sparkly tally mark isn't devoid of usefulness. It's more visually appealing than a simple tally line, and you can set up with yourself or a friend to, say, cash in seven for a movie night.

[havocthecat]

To be clear, I'm not saying it's not useful for anyone. I'm saying it's not useful for me due to the way my brain works for a reward system. Most reward systems don't really work for me. Knowing that other people cash in X amount for Y reward is interesting!

I'm not trying to be all "I'm a special snowflake," but after an entire childhood of dealing with bullies and an abusive first boyfriend, my reaction to attempts at operant conditioning is generally a very skeptical eye. Even self-attempts at operant conditioning. Finding the reinforcement and punishment that works for me does happen, because I'm a human being like anyone else, but a sparkly tally mark doesn't do it for me specifically.

[alexseanchai]

Gotcha! And sorry.

[jenett]

I have been listening to Productivity Alchemy a lot (I'm trying to play catchup at the moment) which is a podcast from Ursula Vernon (author and illustrator) and her husband Kevin Sonney (computer geek) which includes interviews with other people.

He's got a set of standard questions (seven now) that he asks all the interviews, which includes how people reward themselves - and there's a huge range of answers, which doesn't surprise me, but does fascinate me.

I mostly don't need a reward of 'yay, did a thing' other than the thing being done, but I do turn out to do a lot better with some measure of how much of a really long thing I've done (like editing 1200 records) because somewhere in the middle I will slide into the slough of despond of never being done.

And yes, I theoretically see it because the search of whatever I'm working on has less results, but that doesn't feel solid like it does when I have a star on a sheet of paper or a tick mark or something. (But stickers are fun.)

(Physical stuff, where it's possible to see what needs doing still, is less of an issue for me.)

[julian]

Music/talk radio/podcasts, and interesting things to drink.

Plus, yes, the occasional reward system.

[alexseanchai]

Music. Podcasts. *nods*

I should...put one of those on and get to work.

[havocthecat]

I listen to a lot of music. A LOT OF MUSIC. I really need to download Spotify on my phone so I'm not just relying on Pandora. (I should just do that right now.)

I will sometimes take mental internet breaks that I shouldn't necessarily do at work, but, eh, I need a break to let my brain chew on things. At home I sit and read things.

[auroracloud]

I use podcasts as well, having discovered the joy of them within the last year. I also use Big Finish audio dramas on occasion; I first tried them out with Torchwood, which has too little canon with the characters and eras I like most; and then I discovered Classic Who and Troughton era and found out just how many audios Frazer Hines (Jamie) has done...

This is with those chores that don't require me to actually pay close attention to what I'm doing, obviously. But I mostly have tons of household chores to do, since I'm way behind on all the non-urgent ones thanks to the lack of energy this year. I get way more cleaning done when I bribe myself with a podcast or a Jamie episode or two. :-D

I used to use music a lot. But lately I've had trouble finding music I really want to listen to, and if I have to change CDs/playlists every ten minutes (and spend another ten minutes wondering what to change it to), it makes things more complicated. I tend to go through phases in music, where I may listen to just a few CDs or artists for even a year or so, and then suddenly they don't do it for me anymore and I need to find new ones. I'm kind of in between phases now and don't know what's coming next, so I'm glad I've got podcasts and audio dramas.

[jazzyjj]

I mainly listen to music I've either downloaded to iTunes or copied off of CDs. I do this while doing the dishes, and other apartment chores. A neighbor of mine suggested listening to music on my iPhone whilst waiting for rides. I'm definitely gonna take his suggestion to heart, once I master everything on my iPhone if that ever happens, lol! He also suggested games. But another neighbor of ours--the one who lives across the hall from me--has been coming over constantly to hang out with me. I also go to his place. We hang out mainly because we like each other and get on very well, but also because he is a huge procrastinator. I also like to listen to music while doing other things on my computer, such as checking email and the like. Speaking of email, I'm super behind on that and some other things because of said neighbor. He's a great guy and all, but just saying.