Top Tips to Stop Tearing Your Hair Out: How To Make the Everyday Exciting

Boring. Banal. Usual. Nothing to write home about. These, even in the most high-powered jobs (probably more so in the  case of high-powered people, since they made the climb) describe work that we have to do, but don't particularly want to. The little tasks. The hard yards. That mathematician-friendly-looking spreadsheet, or project you just never seem to get right. Again: the boring bits.

Gaaaaah....A dictionary-entry of a mis-spelt word.

Thankfully, as we are all such diverse creatures, not all the things that bore us are the same. I happen to be a fan of editing spelling mistakes and spread-sheeting my life. There are people out there who love cleaning, maths equations, programming, or tracking the progress of dust over a year in a contained environment. These are the people that save us the hassle of doing something we hate. And, as shown by my loves, most of us have a secret passion for something nerdy that is akin to a guilty pleasure - never coming out of the closet, but there to aid the rest of society. It's just  as well we do - after all, just like rubbish truck drivers and public bathroom cleaners, someone's gotta do it.

The love of lustreless, laggardly tasks is what I would like to use as an inspiration. Surely, if we can be interested in watching the Jersey Shore cast members spray-tan, amateurs cook and experts re-do badly renovated homes, we can find motivation to get the tasks done that we have to do anyway. The fact that these things are perceived as boring is besides the point: it is the fact that they are presented in an interesting way that makes them seem worthwhile. If the insight here is that the quality of x being interesting is that it is perceived as being so, then we can warp our own brains to make dull things dapper, The Matrix-styles. Take these tips as your dose of activity acid for the day.

How to make common things cool: a style guide.

1. Make up a war-style fight between the topic/object and its main competitor/enemy. Believe it or not, margarine's nemesis is butter.

2. Go on fan sites for the topic/object. There are nuts for everything in the webisphere, and their enthusiasm is contagious.

3. Find awards for the 'thing' in question. For example, if you are doing a project on watching paint dry, find the Guinness World Record for the person who did it for the longest.

The Proverbial Ball in Action

4. Find a spoof of the item/topic on YouTube. People posting videos know it the best.

5. Ask someone what they like/hate the most about it the item/topic. It will give you a new perspective on why you think as you do.

6. Get inside the mind of the object/subject's creator. Stalk their habits and have a look at their spouse. Once you know why the subject/item was invented, you can perform your tasks much better, too.

Six steps for someone who has a spare minute, or maybe a few more (myself). Just another way to keep the old proverbial ball-rolling.