There’s no escaping boring tasks. While we all do our best to fill our personal and professional lives with engaging activities, there are countless menial, yet critical tasks that keep our organizations running.Pairing boring work with a secondary task that requires more attention can be an effective strategy to boost engagement and thus persistence. This insight can help individuals, managers looking to help their teams stay on track, organizations looking to encourage healthy practices, and product designers looking to improve customer retention.

Boring Tasks Are Inevitable: The Key Takeaways

<ul><li>People can really only pay attention to so much at one time. </li><li>﻿Tangential immersion, when there are two tasks of differing cognitive loads to be done, seems to increase persistence while decreasing boredom.</li><li>Tangential immersion only increases persistence if the two tasks together occupy most of - but not more than - one's total attentional capacity.</li></ul>

Tangential Immersion Decreases Boredom and Increases Persistence

So how can individuals, managers, and organizations start leveraging the power of tangential immersion? Many people already demonstrate an intuitive understanding of this effect in their personal lives — for instance, listening to immersive music or podcasts while at the gym is a great example of real-world tangential immersion. But there are also a lot of workplace situations in which both employees and their managers might benefit from this approach.

Putting Tangential Immersion to Work

When it comes to menial office tasks, many employees use monitoring tools such as <a href="https://todoist.com/productivity-methods/pomodoro-technique">work timers</a> to increase their persistence. In other cases, managers might rely on incentives such as extra time off or bonuses to motivate their employees. And to be sure, strategies like these certainly have a place.For tasks that don’t require much attention, tangential immersion may be more effective. That could mean encouraging workers to listen to an audiobook while filing paperwork, watch a video while cleaning their desks, or read a news article while stuffing envelopes.

The Office Use Case

There’s no escaping boring tasks. Of course, we should all do what we can to fill our jobs and lives with engaging activities — but given the prevalence and importance of low-attention work in our personal and professional lives (and the lives of our employees and customers), we all stand to benefit from finding ways to persist in these behaviors. Tangential immersion offers a simple yet effective strategy that can empower anyone to stick with the work they know they should be doing, boosting personal productivity, organizational success, and well-being on a societal level.

The Bottom Line

While doing a boring task, pair it with something interesting.

There’s no escaping boring tasks. While we all do our best to fill our personal and professional lives with engaging activities, there are countless menial, yet critical tasks that keep our organizations running — and we only stand to benefit by finding ways to get better at doing them. In this article, the author describes how a concept called tangential immersion can help anyone persevere in a boring task: Through a series of studies with more than 2,000 participants, she and her coauthors found that people often quit boring tasks prematurely because they don’t take up enough of their attention to keep them engaged. As a result, pairing boring work with a secondary task that requires more attention can be an effective strategy to boost engagement and thus persistence. This has implications not only for individuals, but also more managers looking to help their teams stay on track, organizations looking to encourage healthy practices, and product designers looking to improve customer retention.

Stashed ideas

Research: How to Power Through Boring Tasks

Every minute you spend planning saves 10 minutes in execution or getting the job done.  The most important thing you can do is plan your day the night before. If you couldn't do it the night before, do it first thing in the morning. Write down everything you have to do. Making a list helps to clarify your thinking and forces you to think at a higher level.  Working from a list can increase your productivity by 25%.

Start with a list

Organise your day by setting priorities on your to-do list before you start.  Look over the list and apply the 80/20 rule. For example, if you have 10 items on your list, two will be more valuable than the other eight.

Set priorities

Ask yourself if you could only do one thing on the list before you had to leave home for a month, what one task do you want to be sure to complete now. Identify the most important task, then do it until it is completed.

Do your most important task first

Here’s some ideas and tips to help you structure your day to be more productive and successful. http://bit.ly/2oGwsh0 1. Plan Your Day The Night Before Every minute spent in planning spends 10 minutes in execution. Sit down with a piece of paper and write down everything that you need to do the coming day. If for any reason you don’t do this, it should be the first thing you do every morning. When you write down a list you have a track to run on. Writing down a list clarifies your thinking and goals… Writing down a list forces you to think at a higher level… If you start working from a list you increase you output 25% each day. All successful people start their day working from a list. 2. Set Priorities On Your List Before You Start the Day. Work from the 80 / 20 rule. If you have 10 items on your list of things to do, 2 will be the more important than all of the other items put together. Go down your list and answer the question, “If I were to be called out of town for a month, what are the most important tasks that I must accomplish?” Last fall I was out of the country traveling across 15 countries in 36 days. When I looked at my list of things to do before I left, I had to get my most important tasks done. Once you identify these important tasks, it brings us to the final step in starting your day. Get my FREE Goals Report to help you structure your day and achieve your goals: Click the link above. _____________ Learn more: Give me a follow on Clubhouse! @briantracy — see you there! Subscribe to my channel for free stuff, tips and more! YouTube: http://budurl.com/zlsl Transcript here: http://budurl.com/y3sk Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/BrianTracyPage Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/BrianTracy Google+: +BrianTracyOfficialPage Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/BrianTracy Instagram: @TheBrianTracy Blog: http://www.briantracy.com/blog _____________ organize your day, planning a day, planning tips, daily planning, plan your day, how to plan, how to plan a day,

Tips to Structure Your Day | Brian Tracy

Carousels allow multiple pieces of content to occupy a single, coveted space. This may placate corporate infighting, but on large or small viewports, people often scroll past carousels. 
A static hero or integrating content in the UI may be better solutions. But if a carousel is your hero, good navigation and content can help make it effective.

Homepage Space Design Elements: Designing Carousels

The greatest benefit of using carousels is that they enable more than one piece of content to occupy the same piece of prime real estate on the homepage, which can help diffuse any infighting about whose content is most deserving. An additional benefit is that because more information appears near the top of the viewable area, there may be greater opportunities for people to actually see it.

Main Benefits Of Carousels

<ul><li>Include 5 or fewer frames within the carousel, as it’s unlikely users will engage with more than that.</li><li>Use crisp-looking text and images that coincide with the organization’s charter.</li><li>Use icons and links that are understandable and recognizable.</li><li>If offering a navigation button for each frame (rather than arrows to scroll through), ensure that each button looks different, and represents the frame.</li><li>Make links and buttons large enough to decipher and click.</li></ul>

Tips for Designing Better Carousels

Auto-forwarding through the frames in a carousel leads people through the information. But there are some instances where auto-forwarding is not recommended:<ul><li>When we are not sure about the timing.</li><li>When there are advertisements in the content.</li><li>The page is viewed on a mobile device.</li></ul>

Auto-Forwarding

Carousels allow multiple pieces of content to occupy a single, coveted space. This may placate corporate infighting, but on large or small viewports, people often scroll past carousels. A static hero…

Tips for Designing Carousels

<blockquote>Flywheel Effect: Positive feedback loops that build momentum, increasing the payoff of incremental effort.</blockquote>When good things you do lead to more good things “just happening”.

What is the Flywheel Effect?

The Flywheel Effect is used to describe a handful of concepts at once, which are rarely split apart:<ul><li>Momentum: Flywheels are hard to get moving. If they get moving, they are likely to continue.</li><li>Feedback Loops: The faster the wheel is spinning, the easier it is to add incremental speed.&nbsp;</li><li>Compounding Return on Effort: Continuous small inputs add up into an impressive output, eventually.</li><li>Direction: Sustained effort must be focused in one direction in order to maintain momentum and compounding returns.&nbsp;</li></ul>

Dissection of the Flywheel Effect

Network Effects and Flywheel Effect are very commonly conflated because they so commonly occur together.<ul><li>Network effects almost always lead to or create a Flywheel Effect, but the Flywheel Effect can occur where network effects do not, as we’ve seen in the previous examples.</li><li>Network Effects are the most powerful source of the Flywheel Effect.</li></ul>

Network Effects (Demand-side Economies of Scale)

<ul><li>Pick the right direction as early as possible: Changes in direction (except small corrections) reset the Flywheel. The earlier you can get moving in the right direction, the sooner the efforts will compound + the momentum will build.</li><li>Focus Efforts: Find the things really moving the Flywheel the most, and focus efforts on those pieces of work. Find ways to eliminate work that doesn’t push on those core pieces (like Atlassian), or fold them into current efforts.</li><li>Make Progress Visible.</li><li>Look for additional positive Feedback Loops.</li></ul>

How to Push the Flywheel

A fascinating adventure through Competitive Advantages, Mental Models, and practical lessons for operators. Also lots of fun pictures and diagrams in this one!

Flywheel Effect: Why Positive Feedback Loops are a Meta-Competitive Advantage

Just because you've set a goal doesn't mean that you will reach it. The best feeling about reaching a goal is the journey it took to get there. If all your goals were easy, then you'd feel nothing at the end of the process.  Solution: Take the goal you didn't achieve and try a different approach. Your heroes miss their goals too, but they don't give up.

You didn’t reach your goal

If you want to make a dent in this world, the critics will come out of the closet. The bigger your aspirations are, the more you'll be criticized.  Solution: You can't please everybody you meet. Critics are not all bad. Instead of being afraid, learn from criticism.

Someone criticized you

Your career is going to get messed up at some point. Things that you can't predict now are going to happen. <ul><li>The business you founded could go backwards and even bankrupt. </li><li>Your career skills could become outdated.</li><li> You could get fired for making a mistake. </li></ul> Solution: Career challenges are an opportunity to try something new. See it as a chance to grow.

Your career got messed up

Countless studies have shown that money isn't what your life's about. As humans, we seek meaning and love. It doesn't mean money doesn't matter, just that it shouldn't be our primary focus. Solution: A lack of money is a gift. When you don't have money, you become more resourceful and creative. You'll automatically prioritise the importance of feeding your family over buying another useless car that can't make you happy.

You have financial troubles

Our health has become a real problem. We wonder why we feel tired, sick and get headaches. We’ll all experience health challenges at some point in our life. Most health challenges we experience in our younger years are because of the wrong food and lack of exercise.Solution: Take ownership and do something about it.<ul><li>Change your diet.</li><li>Drink more water.</li><li>Go to the gym 3 times a week for 30 minutes.</li><li>Get up from your desk from time to time.</li></ul>

You’re unhealthy

Less than 1% of people who met 'the one' lived happily ever after and never experience a breakup. Even that 1% will have that relationship end at some point when either side passes away.  Solution: Your heart will get broken, just don't let it stay that way. Grow and move on. Find yourself, and the heart will be ready for love again.

A relationship ended

We're all going to get into situations with the best intentions or have all the experience in the world and still make a mess of it. Solution: Making a fool of yourself is a sign of courage. Making an idiot of yourself is accepting that you might fail in the short term but will eventually win in the long term with practice.

You made a fool of yourself

Car, home or other material possessions. None of these material things that got messed up is joining you in the afterlife.  Solution: What is important is that you don't get messed up. Take care of yourself so you can take care of others. When your junk gets messed up, you'll notice that you didn't need it anyway.

Someone messed your stuff up

There are moments where nothing makes sense. We’re not born with a meaning for our life. Instead, meaning comes from learning who we are and growing as a person.  Solution: A short term solution is to experiment with helping those who have nothing. The greatest meaning to your life is often tied to doing something to help others.

You feel like your life has no meaning

Some failures in life hurt more than others and can't be solved with inspiration. Solution: Seek real help. These dark thoughts must be treated, and seeking professional help through counselling is often the best.

You feel like you can’t go on

You wake up. You eat. You go to work. You eat. You come home. You eat. You go to bed. Days can feel the same when there's no purpose behind what you're doing.Solution: Find joy in the repetition by making them mean something. Add some variety by breaking your comfort zone.<ul><li>Travel to another country. </li><li>Talk to someone new. </li><li>Try learning a new skill.</li></ul>

Every day feels the same

Every relationship you have is a choice. People around us can hold us back and fill our minds with limiting beliefs or stories. Solution: Everyone deserves a second chance. Start by telling your toxic friends how you feel. Give them a chance to change with the new you. If they refuse, take a break from them. Then see if you really want them in your life.

Your friends are messing up your life

There are so many common fears — fear of spiders, flying, public speaking, dying, career change, heights and maybe even a fear of expressing yourself. Solution: Fear is conquerable. It is one of the reasons we love stories of battling with fear. Don't let the fear stand in your way any longer. Instead, make a decision to overcome each of your fears.

A fear is standing in your way

77% of people in the US experience regular stress. Stress can lead to brain fog, tiredness and a lack of mental clarity.  Solution: We need less to destress.<ul><li>Declutter your home and office.</li><li>Say no to more meetings.</li><li>Say yes to invites that make you feel like saying "Hell Yes!"</li><li>Buy less material things.</li><li>Listen to one podcast instead of many.</li><li>Read fewer books.</li><li>Invest and save more money so you can stress less about the unforeseen.</li><li>Take regular breaks.</li></ul>

You feel stressed

Death is the one life problem we all have in common and can’t solve.  Death can be our greatest motivator if we let it. Use your life to do something that gives you meaning, and then you’ll no longer see death as a problem.

Dealing with the concept of death

All of our problems are the same. This is the 156th time I’ve written this fact (for those of you counting). Problems are forever and we can’t avoid them. You’ll wake up tomorrow and have problems…

15 Typical Life Problems And How To Solve Them.

A typical process when applying for a job/internship is to apply to a couple of companies, get rejections or no replies, and repeat the process over and over again.The problem of not getting interviews can be approached by improving your application/ résumé as every company uses a résumé as a basis for evaluation. Therefore, focusing on the principles of writing a résumé can help you land your dream job.

The application/ résumé

A résumé has to pass numerous stages before it gets in front of a hiring manager: It has to bypass online keyword filters, stand out to a recruiter, and meet a hiring manager's expectations.<ul><li>One-page résumé. On average, recruiters will view your application for less than 6 seconds. Keep it short and to the point.</li><li>Sections (Header, Education, Employment, Software, Personal Projects, Skills). Put the sections in order of importance from top to bottom.</li><li>Consistent layout + font per section. A consistent style enhances readability.</li></ul>

The essentials of a résumé

“As to methods there may be a million and then some, but principles are few. The man who grasps principles can successfully select his own methods. The man who tries methods, ignoring principles, is sure to have trouble.”

Put your name at the top of your résumé in a large legible font. Keep it plain and simple. You want the recruiter to see this easily from a mile away. A happy recruiter is one who has minimum work to do. Making it easy for them is more likely to give you an interview.

Who Are You (1)

Your contact information should be very easy to find, like your name.Ensure you put the correct contact information or you will be uncontactable.

Contact Information (2)

<ul><li>In the first section, put down where you got educated. This information not only serves as an indicator of your successes but informs the recruiter that you are invested in learning and education. </li><li>Include only relevant coursework to the position you are applying for.</li><li>The primary purpose of a résumé is to highlight your knowledge, skills and accomplishments. Include things that will impress as you want to show yourself in the best light possible. </li><li>Only include your GPA if it is above 3.2</li></ul>

Education (3)

The primary objective is to show the value and impact you had in your previous employment.<ul><li>Focus on including relevant work experience for the position you're applying for.</li><li>Create a collection of various résumés tailored to the job you're interested in.</li><li>Order your experiences in descending order, starting with your most recent experiences. If the experience is outdated, leave it out.</li><li>Showcase your accomplishments, using the formula, "accomplished [x] as measured by [Y] by doing [Z]".</li><li>End each work experience with leveraged knowledge that include technologies you used.</li></ul>

Employment (4)

This section is important for those that do not have work experience.A personal project can be anything programming related, whether a python script, Java program, web page, mobile application, etc. It shows that you are dedicated to expanding your knowledge of computer science and that you are not afraid of putting in the extra work to do so. The other benefit of doing personal projects is that you inevitably gain the skills to work in the real world.

Personal Projects (5)

List all the relevant skills you want the recruiter to know you have. The more skills you list that match key technical words in the qualification section of the job description, the better your chances. Include an indication of your proficiency level. For example:<ul><li>Proficient - Languages that you are very familiar with, feel very comfortable using, and can interview with right now. </li><li>Familiar - Languages that you have used in the past but may not be as knowledgeable in currently, but can pick back up given time. </li></ul>

Skills (6)

I obtained these interviews by sending my résumé to the résumé black hole, also known as applying online. Applying online is the most common way people go about applying for a job and therefore the…

How to write a killer Software Engineering résumé

Programming is very much a creative pursuit. You’re creating something out of nothing, not with paint or words, but with code. If you have any desire to produce at a high level, then you have to practice. You can get a lot better, in less time, if you make your practice more effective.The quantity and quality of your output increase when you get better at being able to stay focused for longer, intentional periods.

Code is Art

This ability is not a natural gift. You aren’t born with it and it’s not something you can “turn on.” It’s a skill that you can, and must, practice and train.There are more open developer jobs than there are qualified developers to fill them. Companies are having trouble filling positions with any qualified developers, let alone (some Multiplier) X developers.Most companies will knock down the door for a 10x developer but they’re happy hiring 5x, 2x, and even 1x developers.

Yes, You Can Be a 10x Developer (But 5x, 2x and 1x Are Great Too)

The first thing to realize is that learning to focus isn’t easy. You’re not going to be able to start producing novels of quality code from the start. Especially if you’ve never dealt with the reality of how easily distracted you are. Learning to focus requires practice. Anything that requires practice means its difficult. If it wasn’t, you’d be good at it by default.

Learning to Focus is HARD

Just because you’re doing something doesn’t mean it’s worth doing. You need to figure out what’s important and what’s not. If you’re going to spend the time learning how to focus, then do it on something that has a high return for the effort involved.

Don’t Confuse Busyness with Productivity

<ul><li>Removing distraction is the foundation of focused, deep work.</li><li>Work for a 25-minute block (a Pomodoro) and then take a 5 minutes break.  </li></ul>

The 2 Steps You Need to Multiply Your Programming Skills with Fo

It doesn’t matter if you’re working on a side hustle or if you’re a junior developer wanting to get noticed and promoted. It doesn’t matter if you’re a lead developer looking for a change of pace…

Focus and Deep Work — Your Secret Weapons to Becoming a 10X Developer

"Whether you think you can or you think you can't, you're right"

A limiting belief is an idea that we have about ourselves or life that blocks us from achieving what it is we truly want to achieve. It begins with a limiting thought that what we tell ourselves over and over and over again until we fully accept it and come to believe it to be true. Examples: "I’m terrible with money" or “I can never be a business owner.”

Limiting Beliefs

“You can train yourself to change the way you think. By considering possibilities instead of limitations on a regular basis, you’ll rewire your brain.”

Our limiting beliefs sit in our subconscious mind and thus stunt us from seeing—or believing in—possibility. And because of our mind’s confirmation bias (the tendency to interpret new evidence as confirmation of one's existing beliefs or theories), we are prone to believe what we want to believe. In essence, that’s exactly why you think you’re terrible with money or why you think you’re unworthy of true love—because you unconsciously look for reasons to affirm such beliefs.

Limiting Beliefs And Confirmation Bias

The problem with our approach to breaking free from limiting beliefs is that we try to do it too fast, too quickly. But change takes time.Here are the four steps involved in this process:<ul><li>Recognize the limiting belief.</li><li>Reject it.</li><li>Reframe it into an empowering belief.</li><li>Be willing to see the change by taking it one step at a time.</li></ul>

How to Break Free From Limiting Beliefs

What are Limiting Beliefs and How to Break Free From Them? Our limiting 
beliefs sit deep within our subconscious mind and thus stunt us from seeing 
or believing in possibility. If we really want to create positive change in 
our life, we must first reset our preexisting limiting believes—we need to 
break free from limiting beliefs. Here’s how.

Research: How to Power Through Boring Tasks

Tips to Structure Your Day | Brian Tracy

Tips for Designing Carousels

Flywheel Effect: Why Positive Feedback Loops are a Meta-Competitive Advantage

15 Typical Life Problems And How To Solve Them.

Jennifer Robertson