How Occasional Boredom at Work Can Benefit Your Career

We all want to love our jobs, and while most of us accept that not every part of our job can be our favorite thing to do, what happens when you start getting bored at work? Does that mean you’re doing something wrong or that your chosen career might not be right for you after all? Not necessarily. While you should never stay at a job you absolutely hate, feeling occasional boredom at work can actually mean that you’re making valuable progress you’re not even aware of.

Here are five reasons why feeling a little bored at work can sometimes be a good thing:

1. Mastery Takes Repetition; Lots of It: You can’t always be working on something new and exciting. Sometimes it’s all about doing the same things over and over again until you’re an expert at them. It’s that practice and experience that will drive you to the next level of success. And for some jobs, like sales, it takes a certain level of exact repetition to ensure success, because it’s a numbers game. You have to do the same pitch to hundreds of customers in order to ensure the right number of sales. Sales people call that the law of averages, and mastering your pitch by delivering it exactly the same way to as many customers as possible, is the ideal way to hit your sales goals.

Make the Most of It Tip: Rather than focusing on the monotony, remind yourself that even if you can’t see the improvements right away, you are getting better at what you do with each repetition.

2. It means you’re focused: In today’s workplace, a lot of emphasis is put on multi-tasking, but bouncing from one thing to another, might mean that you’re not doing any one thing really well. Rather than shifting gears, what might be called for is digging deeper, even when a project or task gets tedious. If you start to feel bored, it might mean that you’re doing a good job of tuning into the project at hand, and for those of us used to constant distractions and stimulation, that level of focus can sometimes feel a little strange.

Make the Most of It Tip: Tell yourself you can check your emails, surf the web, get coffee, or spend ten minutes socializing with coworkers once you’ve finished the assignment in front of you. By giving yourself small rewards to work towards, the strange feeling of only paying attention one thing at a time might not feel so uncomfortable. At the end, you might be surprised to see how much you’ve accomplished, and it may help you enjoy those periods of focus a bit more the next time.

3. It means you’re not skipping steps: Sometimes, when you become familiar with your job, and you know it like the back of your hand, it becomes tempting to start cutting corners. But being a little bored can be a good indication that you’re tackling the project as it needs to be tackled rather than handling only the lighter, easier version. Being efficient is great, but not at the expense of quality. Doing a job the right way, doesn’t always mean doing it the easy way.

Make the Most of it Tip: Rather than looking for ways to speed things along, take pride in the fact that you’re accurate and thorough. Tell yourself that doing things right is part of your personal brand, and know that it’s that attention to detail that will help you stand out amongst the competition.

4. It can Signal that You’re Ready for a New Challenge: It can sometimes be hard to tell when you’re ready for a promotion or greater responsibility at work. It’s easy to let fear and self-doubt hold us back from asking for what we think we deserve. If you’re finding yourself bored because you can do your current job in your sleep, use that feeling as an excuse to ask for a big new project that demonstrates what else you’re capable of.

Make the Most of it Tip: Use those moments of boredom as opportunities to think through the case you’ll make to management for why you’re ready to move up to a new role. Use the ease with which you do your current tasks as part of your argument. Explain that the job has gotten so easy that you’re confident you could be doing more, and offer to help train your replacement to be as proficient at your current role as you are.

5. Boredom can Leave Room for Innovation: When we’re always rushing to meet tight deadlines, it doesn’t leave a lot of room for creative thinking. Studies have shown that daydreaming may be good for our brains, and a reasonable amount of daydreaming can allow you the space to come up with those new and untested solutions that might prove to be game changers.

Make the Most of it Tip: When your mind starts to wander, take advantage of those moments by choosing to brainstorm new ideas for your company or ways you can make projects more efficient. In other words, decide to use your daydreams to benefit your company, and you may be surprised how that decision can boost your own career growth as well.

Like most things in life, boredom, in moderation, won’t hurt you, and it could even help you take your career to the next level. Remember that being great at your job may not be fun and exciting every day, but feeling the occasional boredom shouldn’t send you running for the hills either. Realize that even the greatest jobs will have ups and downs, and what may seem like a rough day today could be helping you toward that big win tomorrow.

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We are Cydcor, the recognized leader in outsourced sales services located in Agoura Hills, CA. From our humble beginnings as an independent sales company to garnering a reputation as the global leader in outsourced sales, we’ve come a long way. Cydcor takes pride in having exceptional sales professionals and providing our clients with proven sales and marketing strategies that get results.