Here’s the thing: I love 95% of my work. It’s awesome and enjoyable and challenging and wonderful. Anything related to editing makes me very happy, and nearly all of my writing tasks are also highly interesting and enjoyable.

But as a new freelancer, I occasionally have to take on work that is only vaguely related to writing and editing, and which isn’t particularly interesting. Let’s face it: sometimes, the work we’re given can be a little bit boring. And in that case, rather than procrastinating, it’s better to actually find a way to enjoy it!

Listening to your favorite music while you’re working is one way to do it, as long as you don’t require a huge amount of focus for your type of work (it’s much better suited to tedious, mindless tasks). But the other way I’ve found is even better:

Break up your work tasks with more enjoyable tasks.

This strategy works best if you can take frequent breaks throughout your work tasks without it disrupting the flow, and if you aren’t being paid by the hour (otherwise it would be annoying to try to keep track of it all).

If your work is more of a mindless task with lots of smaller components, you can complete one small component, then reward yourself (such as reading an article from a blog or news source), and then complete another small piece, and then reward yourself, and keep doing that, going back and forth.

[tweetthis twitter_handles=”@Saganlives”]Break up work tasks with more enjoyable tasks to avoid #procrastination. #worktip[/tweetthis]

It means that the task will take a lot more time to actually complete the project, but if you do it during one of your usual *down times* (for me, in the afternoon), when you wouldn’t be as productive anyways, then it works great!

Another important thing here is that this only really works if you are charging a set project-based fee rather than an hourly rate, so you don’t have to worry about separating *fun* hours from *work* hours.

Of course, you can always power through work tasks. But it’s nice to occasionally mix in some more fun tasks in there. And you know what? It has also made the slightly boring work tasks more enjoyable in and of themselves!

Do you prefer to power through work tasks or break them up? What’s one of your most effective productivity tips? Share in the comments section below!

Did you like this article? Share it with your friends!