What do you think about when performing boring tasks?

[Nikia]

When I perform boring tasks, I tend to think rather negatively, which has turned out to be really bad for me. I don't know what to think about though. I feel the need to think about something.
Give me some ideas. What do you think about when you are doing the dishes, vacuuming, mowing the lawn, or doing other routine things that don't occupy much of your brain while you do them?

[DS1]

1. animation and sex

[Huckebein the Raven]

4. What he said

and cars

:evilgrin:

[Droopy]

2. I'm pretty simple minded

so it is easy for me to get into even boring tasks and not think about it too much. But my job is so incredibly boring that not even I can get into it. One of the things that I sometimes do is buy a lottery ticket and pass the time at my job thinking about what I'd do with the money if I won.

[Jamastiene]

14. I do that too.

It always involves moving somewhere out west and building my dream home. So far, the ol' Winchester woman (I think it was her - the one who believe that if she just kept building the people killed by the guns her ol' man built would quit haunting her) would be jealous of my monstrous architectural masterpiece complete with a secret garden to invite only certain key people to visit with me (translated - mostly people from DU). And I'd just HAVE to have the room with the bookcase where if a certain book was pulled the section it was in would move to reveal a hidden entrance and a maze leading either nowhere or to my panic room(s) (translated - the place I'd go to post on DU in case the true Hitleresque nature of Bush got out of hand, and I believe we are about .1 percent away from that right now so I better win the lotto soon).

[Droopy]

19. Interesting

I used to want to live out west and have a big place out in the country awasy from the crowds of the city. But now if I won the lottery the first thing I would think about doing is getting out of debt, paying off my house, etc. I would not move. I'm happy with my little house, but you can bet that I would be giving it a make over including adding a back deck and covered front porch that spanned the width of the house. Then I'd think about setting up my relatives and what the best way to go about that would be and how much to give to whom. It's nice to dream.

[Jamastiene]

25. For me, it has become a full time hobby.

The song by Blondie called "Dreaming" says it all.

When I met you in the restaurant
You could tell I was no debutante
You asked me what's my pleasure
A movie or a measure?
I'll have a cup of tea and tell you of my dreaming
Dreaming is free
I don't want to live on charity
Pleasure's real or is it fantasy?
Reel to reel is living rarity
People stop and stare at me We just walk on by - we just keep on
dreaming
Feet feet, walking a two mile
Meet meet, meet me at the turnstile
I never met him, I'll never forget him

Dream dream, even for a little while
Dream dream, filling up an idle hour
Fade away, radiate

I sit by and watch the river flow
I sit by and watch the traffic go
Imagine something of your very own
Something you can have and hold

I'd build a road in gold just to have some dreaming
Dreaming is free
Dreaming
Dreaming is free
Dreaming
Dreaming is free

[ThoughtCriminal]

3. Action Adventures

Walter Mitty - but with better special effects.

[Bok_Tukalo]

5. Being a captain of a vessel in space, exploring.

<ope>

[mopinko]

6. schemes to conquer the world

and/or get rich quick.

[agates]

7. Places I've been

Or places I'd like to go. Grocery shopping lists. Poetry. Books I've read. Geology.

[Robb]

8. When you wash the dish, wash the dish,

Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhm. ;)

Seriously, try that whole doing an exceptional job at the mundane task thing. Vacuum next time better than you ever have. It's remarkably satisfying.

[tinfoilinfor2005]

20. I was in Paris last month and happened to notice a sign that said

"Bloom Where you Grow."
At the same time I noticed that shop windows were filled with fantastically decorated pastries and chocolates and even the shoes were set out in a really pleasing pattern. The people seemed to take such pride in everything they did. And it made such a difference in the whole look of things.
Sometimes I wonder if we haven't lost that personal touch because big business(wal-mart, etc.) don't let us express our talents and tastes.

[Jamastiene]

9. Inspire yourself perhaps...

I tend to think about the human species' narcissism. Honestly, any species that pats itself on the back that much for "technological advances" and "intelligence" should have robots doing all mundane tasks by now, including wiping our asses. It usually pisses me off and inspires me to remind smart asses just how far they still have to go before they can claim we have evolved enough yet. If anything, we seem to be devolving. Need evidence? Looky what's controlling the country now... For shame, for shame. We really need a new leader, who is capable of thinking outside his own little world. I spend much of my time thinking about things like this. Just the other day, I was driving (manually, I still don't know why they call them "automatic" cars considering we have to press the gas or brake and steer and crank it up and open the damn door and close the damn door MANUALLY) and thinking about how easy it would be to work together to create personal traveling machines that take up less space on the road, less space in the yard or garage, operate on electricity/electronics, where traveling directions are PROGRAMMABLE and get the job done. If I helped create the prototype, I'd even design it to be small enough to attach to the back of transfer trucks if the truck is going in the same direction. I'd also demand that a 360 degree camera be installed to take pictures of scenic areas automatically and web cast them. The highways would be a virtual ballet or an amusement park where we could sleep if we wanted to, watch tv, chat online, or whatever else we wanted to do while we travel.If you ever stop and think about how much time and energy we waste driving back and forth to the same places day after day and week after week, you'll realize just how they dumb us down, tire us out, and keep us too busy with bullshit to demand a better world. I don't know about you, but that irks me to say the least. I'm still thinking.

Either I think of futuristic dream worlds that will never happen, because heaven forbid we actually advance as much as we honk our own horns that we advance, or I think up good jokes and riddles. Like can we say that ol' limp loins chimpy in DC is evidence that the species is devolving if his family before him didn't make it very far to begin with into the evolutionary process? I end up laughing hysterically at this type of question and the right wingnuts around me just think I am crazy. I let them. It works like fly repellant or in their case neanderthal repellant.

[DeposeTheBoyKing]

10. I lie back and think of England.

:evilgrin:

[AlienGirl]

11. Either I sing loudly and badly, or think about sex

Or sometimes both. :freak:

Tucker

[regnaD kciN]

26. Just as long...

...as you don't sing loudly and badly about sex...

:evilgrin:

[Rabrrrrrr]

12. I think about what I am doing. When washing dishes, I wash dishes.

When doing laundry, I think "I am doing laundry".

Live in the moment, be the moment.

[Minimus]

13. This may sound strange but

for some reason whenever I do mundane things, household chores, etc. I always think about whether or not some "famous" person has ever done the thing I'm doing.

I have at times wondered if Princes Diana ever scrubbed a toilet, or if Jennifer Aniston unloads her dishwasher, or does Nicole Kidman do laundry. Sometimes I picture the famous people doing the chore I'm doing and it makes me chuckle.

I do this all the time. Am I weird or what?

[Jamastiene]

16. By no means are you weird for that one.

I have always thought and wondered about that too. I got my question answered when I saw the "Simple Life" program with Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie. I do love how their dogs take a crap whenever and wherever the want to and someone else always has to clean it up. I'd give anything to be able to goof off like they do and get by with it. I wouldn't trade my ability to think a half way intelligent thought every now and again though. I can't believe how unaware those two are of the real world. One of them actually asked if Jersey was a city or a state. I hope all celebrities aren't that way.

[Elidor]

15. I think about creative things

Perhaps a song I'm working on, or a photoshop I'd like to do, or how I'll approach the next ad I build at work, etc.

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

17. My entire life has been one boring task after another,

the curse of practicing law, where 90% of your time is filled with utter trivia. The only solution I ever found was to get alcoholically smashed over the lunch hour. But that was a dead end and I finally wised up years ago and resigned myself to the fact that much of life is a series of boring and trivial tasks. One of the partners in my law office never drank a drop outside of work, but spent every moment in the office drunk, drinking one glass of wine after another from a little refrigerator he kept by his desk. Doctors have told me the same thing about being bored. When in law school, I worked as an overnight switchboard operator in a medical building, with doctors calling in at all hours for messages. Quite a few of them sounded drunk and even at 2:00 a.m. you could hear club music in the background. And some of these doctors were surgeons. I wouldn't suggest intoxication, especially if you are using power tools or lawnmowers. But I haven't found any other answer to your question myself.

[politicat]

18. I listen to books.

That way I'm learning.

I've found that if I take Black Holes and Baby Universes or the Feynman lectures in cleaning sized chunks, my comprehension is better.

Pick them up at the library, and listen while you work. And pick whatever interests you; there's no reason to insist on a physics inclination whilst cleaning the tub.

[tedoll78]

21. When I'm typing at work,

I listen to NPR until 'The World' ends at 8pm. Then, for the next two hours, I take my break, do some paperwork, and think about what I need to do when I get home. Sometimes, I'll have an anatomy diagram up on my desk next to the monitor so that I can glance up at it and think about my class material.

When I vacuum, mow the lawn, do laundry, etc.. I try to plan-out the most efficient schedule of getting things done so that I can have some "do nothing" time before classes and work and hospital rotations come back around again on Monday.

On my hospital rotation, my mind is 99.9% focused on the job. No thinking about outside things because it's all Go-Go-Go there.

Pretty dull. But you know.. all work and no play..

[GoddessOfGuinness]

22. Music

Whistle while you work, doncha know. :nopity:

[benny05]

23. When I used to do them

I often thought of good experiences..playful or otherwise.

I finally have reached a good place in my career where I don't have many boring tasks. I delegate them to those who don't mind them as much, or ask them to delegate appropriately.

[bobthedrummer]

24. Music

Making music out of necessity, capturing rhythms of life for playback as needed...

[Nikia]

27. Thanks for your replies

Many of the responses were insightful and interesting. They also have given me ideas for some better things to think about when doing boring chores at home or the more routine aspects of my job.
Go ahead and continue the thread though if you wish. I just wanted you to know that I appreciate it and haven't abandoned the thread.