What To Eat & Drink When Needing To Force Yourself to do Boring Work

My favourite strategy:

1. Take a powerful pre-workout
2. Hit the gym and kill a workout
3. Eat some 'light' food afterwards, such as a salad with grilled chicken etc.
4. Grab a coffee
5. Start work

You're now physically tired (so you don't mind doing something boring and sitting for a longer while).

You now have a 'clear mind' thanks to the workout at the gym and the coffee you just drank. This allows you to work very effectively.

That's what I do. Wondering what others do

Cheers!

PS. When you're doing something that doesn't require a ton of concentration, blare some music! My favourites while working include trance and dubstep.

Maybe because coke contains sugar that somehow perks up your mood? I must admit, coke also makes me write well and also with coffee.

caffeine is NOT the best way to get you going because the sugar and other ingredients can cause ill health....diabetes for example. Find better methods to help you work. Take a break if you need a rest and then go back and you'll find that you can work more efficiently.

You can switch to an organic diet with 60%+ greens and also take a greens supplement like Greens+.

By doing this you will be in optimal mental health and have much better focus than you will with stimulants.

Avoid caffeine. You don't need it for anything. Physical or mental.

You can switch to an organic diet with 60%+ greens and also take a greens supplement like Greens+.

By doing this you will be in optimal mental health and have much better focus than you will with stimulants.

Avoid caffeine. You don't need it for anything. Physical or mental.

I just listened to an audiobook in which the author kept recommending rewarding yourself after doing some task. Also using pomodoro should help as well.

As a programmer I'd recommending talking to your tech savvy friends and challenge them to come up with a program that will crawl of those 150 sites and extract your data. Then you can go through a text file or an excel file.
This would be helpful if you'll be doing that task many times.

Slavi

Know yourself.

I know that I am not a morning person, so expecting myself to work at 530am is setting myself up for failure. I also don't work well in the evening (dinner time).

So after a good night's rest and a slow morning I am ready to rock. I've worked with many who had the best intentions, but had unrealistic expectations about how they work best.

Some people can work 5-8 hours straight no problem. Not me. I focus like a laser for an hour or so, break, then focus like a laser again.

But just forcing yourself through it and being tired is a sure-fire way to do nothing well.

1. Work WHEN you work best!
2. Only work when you feel good (enough rest), or else the time is wasted.
3. Work offline if you can, or try to minimize distractions (i.e., Yahoo!) so you can get in "the zone."
4. Work in spurts, breaking up monotony with a quick walk or power nap (although power naps are not the best for me because it takes longer to get back into "the zone")
5. Have a concrete plan (know what you are about to do). If you have time, but no plan, you'll waste gobs of it surfing the net ;-)

Great thread with awesome tips

When i need to do some boring stuff (which is rare).. I usually listen to some epic music to pump me up and keep me going.

Cheers,

C.G.

You want to take more breaks in between your work day. You should work for 30 minutes then take a break.

If you get tired and want to sleep, I would drink more coffee.

yeh, i love lamb lol, and eat it almost every day.

I recommend reading a motivational book and/or watching a motivational video to get you started.

Then after that it comes down to self-discipline which you can build over time.

Use a timer and find out how long you can work before getting tired or losing focus.

Then make an effort to work for that amount of time each day while adding an extra 5 minutes to your work time every day.

Eventually, you will build up the discipline to work for a long time. You will still have some days where you don't feel like putting in the time, but the confidence and self-disicpline you will gain from working for a specific amount of time each day, will help you build your work ethic.

What I do is drink herbal tea and eat something crunchy and cold like apples. Keeps me awake and alert =)

I would recommend mixing the boring work with some exciting work, and switching between the two.

beer and fish n chips sure works for me

Drink loads of water, eat fresh fruits and vegetables, lean proteins and exercise daily to see optimal results. Works for me at least.

My best strategy is to drink a cup of hot Kopi Luwak coffee. It gives me caffeine and allow me to stay awake longer and do my work with full of energy.

I start out by eating a nice balanced meal, working out, lots of water. Then when the boredom sets in after a few hours, I drink 1 very strong cup of coffee. It doesn't really give me a lot of energy, but redirects my focus into my work when my focus is waning.

For the coffee, I grind my own beans and use a french press. I make a big production out of it. I figure if I'm going to be enjoying a vice, I might as well do it right.

I think more than your work your diet sounds boring ... lol

great. It works for you !

For me a little talk with a friend who does more boring work helps.

Great! but one man's meat is another man's poison so said a school of thought. I would rather never overwork myself but plan what I can do daily and work by it. An example is: in the morning I work from 9 am - 12 noon and I have a break of 1 or 2 hours then come back to continue my job for a time already set and make sure I do not go beyond the time. In a nutshell, what am trying to say is to have a plan and work the plan on daily basis. We need to work and we equally need to rest. Thank you

It's not the food

It's YOU DECIDING to do the work.

People sure like to overcomplicate things. And now you've created a magical incantation to get in the way of you doing the work. What happens when you don't have a steak around?

I experienced similar success with red meat till I tried out some fish and a little white wine. Sometimes I might doze off but when I get to work, I really get focused like a machine.

This is actually quite an easy diet plan to follow. In your consume time, you'll be able to eat what you need and as almost as much as you would like. Regardless of how bad meals are with regard to eating. It can be greasy hamburgers as well as cheesecake. Intermittent fasting to lose weight is good technique for instant weight reduction. The only real guideline is that you need to eat this throughout the day with regard to consuming. The particular going on a fast time period seems lengthy, but it isn't which bad. You will get familiar with this quickly and it'll assist you to appreciate your eating days.

Holly cow, I'm surprised this was not mentioned earlier on this thread.

FOLKS, I've been experimenting for a long time now with various nootropics. (brain/cognative enchancers) Now I've even played around with smart drugs like modafilin / provigil they were all really impressive but I noticed there was something just not right..I worked on a high level and was focused but with provigil/modfilin there was this nagging feeling that something just wasn't right...somewhat unsettling. Anyway from then on I start testing ONLY natural nootropics. Some of my best stacks are, 5HTP + L-thyrosine + Kril Oil. Awesome focus and well sustained also excellent sleep....NOW, if u don't want to go down that route another one of my favourites is Bullet proof coffee!! HOOOOLY COW folks, it is downright amazing... If u can afford it then get it of Dave Aspreys (bulletproof exec) website but if you don't wanna fork out that kinda money then all u need to do is the follow: Get GOOD quality coffee - single origin, washed process and high altitude. Then get GRASS FED, free range butter (important do not use ordinary butter) and the 3rd ingredient you can either use organic, cold pressed coconut oil OR organic MCT Oil (this is the ideal) ..Brew ur coffee normally then add 2 tablespoons of butter and 2 tablespoons of Coconutoit/MCToil and blend it together u can use a handblender even....the result is a nice thich creamy cuppa of rocket fuel, might not sound like it tastes good but it does...DO NOT add any milk or sugar or any sweetners this will diminish the cognitive effect.... I generally have that as my breakfast...NOTHING else, it's really healthy becos it's loaded with good fats...keeps you nice and satisfied well into the afternoon/lunchtime. The energy boost and mental focus u get is down right awesome!!! If anyone else has tried it please share ur experience here...

[It is not a good idea to suggest that meat and Coca Cola should be consumed at such a leisure rate.

I drink water. A lot of it. And I take walking & running breaks between batches. I keep myself hydrated, in shape and motivated.

I normally eat a powerbar and drink water, I stay away from caffeine