Keeping Boredom at Bay

Some jobs are so stressful so much of the time that having an after-hours life is hard because you're always recovering from adrenaline peaks and crashes. I've had a few gigs like that. Others are so repetitive and monotonous that your mind goes into hibernate mode. Done that too. It's hard to say which extreme is worse, in terms of being fully awake and able to make the most of your day.

Here are a few tricks for keeping boredom at bay, or at least the ones I've found most useful:

• Each workday, determine to find something you can use for your after-hours project or passion. It could be a piece of information, a resource, someone who's done something similar and can help you, a new website or FB page where you can connect to like-minded others, supplies/equipment...anything that helps you along. Make a habit of this and you'll start to feel like you're on a perpetual hunt for buried treasure.
• Pretend that your next job is destined to be the perfect one for you, but in order to find it, you have one condition to fulfill: master the job you have now and learn to love it.
• Pretend that your current job is your dream job, according to God/Fate/the Universe. Try living one day as though you're in the perfect situation.
  
• Every hour on the hour, stop and take three slow mindful breaths. Say to yourself, "Here I am." This simple Zen exercise will remind you that you're here, not in your home studio, on a tropical island or wherever your daydreams have taken you.
• See if you can learn one new skill, even a small one. Just because.
• Each workday, decide to make one person's life better somehow because of what you do at work that day.
  

I'll have more ideas later. These are a start.

Books! Books! Books!

Here are a few books that have been helpful to me in the quest to enhance the experience and meaning of work:

• The Off ice Sutras - exercises for your soul at work by Marcia Menter, 2003.
  
• Awake at Work: 35 practical Buddhist principles for discovering clarity and balance in the midst of work's chaos by Michael Carroll, 2006.
• Work as a Spiritual Practice: A Practical Buddhist Approach to Inner Growth and Satisfaction On the Job by L. Richmond, 2000.
• Take This Job and Love It: how to find fulfillment in any job you do by Matthew Gilbert, 1998
• Work With What You Have: ways to creative and meaningful livelihood by Deborahann Smith, 1999.
  

Each of these books contains numerous suggestions for using the practice of mindfulness on the job. Gilbert's book is especially useful for those in customer service occupations.