Having to do repetitive, boring work

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How many people here have a really hard time doing work that you consider to be overly simple or repetitive?

I'm a computer programmer, which is generally something I love because I enjoy solving problems, figuring out new kinds of solutions, the logical thought process involved, etc.

But on the other hand, I have to do a lot of work that involves mind-numbingly routine, boring garbage.. For instance, I don't know how many $&*^$*% stupid web pages I've had to make that collect a customer's order data, validate it all, store it in a database, e-mail them, etc. It's trivially easy and I've done it dozens of times, and that's the problem!

I can't even describe how much I despise doing those kinds of things because they're so time-consuming yet require absolutely no brain activity whatsoever. I find myself procrastinating and finding any excuse whatsoever to jump over to a project that's more fun, even if it's not as important. I've heard this is a common AS trait, but then again I've heard that repetivite factory-type jobs are popular among aspies too, and that kind of work would drive me absolutely insane.

My repetitive nightmare is cutting
and pasting and saving onto a
to be burned folder.

I have spent hours once eliminating
pages of sent, saved and out PM's from
this site. And I wouldn't cut and paste
all my posts(900+, and less than a 1000).
They consist of 65 pages(index cut and paste)

Bah-Hum-Bug!! !! !! !
Ghosthunter

I have a very repetitive/mundane/could-do-with-my-eyes-closed type of job but it seems to work out for me. It keeps my mind free to puzzle out other things that I really wish to do.

I have never wanted a "career" as I do not wish to take work home with me in the evening. Instead, I have always had jobs that were strictly a "paycheck-only" type of job. My life after work has always been more important to me than where I am employed.

The only job in which I did not feel this way was when I worked with children in a public school system. I really felt I was actually doing something, then. Now I just click a mouse, punch buttons and shuffle papers....all very pointless, really in the scheme of life. Presently, I work to get money to do the things I really want to do and at this moment in my life...that's enough.

I agree with a lot of what monastic said.

I enjoy data entry, something that many would find boring and repetitive, on the basis that once I have learned the routine I can drift off and think about other things. A repetitive pattern of keystrokes I find quite calming, a bit like an acceptable stimming substitute for the workplace environment. Boring things that require my concentration can drive me to tears.

Me too. Data entry and performing routine calculations etc is absorbing without being taxing. Even when I know quick ways to do such things I tend to prefer to do them 'longhand' as it makes the day go quicker. Mix in a bit of analysis and problem solving and you have my ideal job. With this in mind I am currently preparing to learn programming, as when I have done this in the past I enjoyed it greatly. Now all I have to do is find a workplace I can tolerate....

Dunc

How true. If I can get a large dust mop I can "set" myself into a pattern and drift off into la-la land and almost dance while cleaning the floor. If I have to use my hands and look specifically for specks of dust, I can't drift off into la-la land and that is probably the most difficult work by far for me. . .arrhh! I want to do light assembly for my summer work or do Drafting, which exersizes my brain in a way that I enjoy (not the assembly, just the drafting!)

Repetitive work is the only thing I can do well, but it can get boring. I once had a job doing light assembly, for a business that provided medical offices with filing systems. It was very repetitive work, but that enabled me to go on autopilot for much of the day. I wish I could have kept that job, but the family who owned the business mistreated the employees.

I also was employed in a photo lab for eighteen months. I liked the repetitive work, the photo printing itself, but I didn’t like that my customer service duties interrupted my printing work. During busy times, I had to multitask and my stress levels shot through the roof.

With me, it doesn’t matter what the work is. If I am working full-time, five days a week, I will eventually become frustrated, get bored and want to do something else. My time limit before I reach total boredom seems to be about one year, after which I become progressively more stressed, the quality of my work declines, and I am either fired or I quit. The main thing that causes this problem is full time hours and not the repetitive nature of the work. I know that I can stay in a position very long term, if I am not required to work full time.

To be honest, I don’t desire to do any work that engages my mind whatsoever. I’ll shovel horse crap for peanuts as long as I get a schedule that allows me free time to enjoy my life. It’s not that I’m not ambitious, it’s just that my ambitions have little to do with wage earning.

I have heard some people say that automation is the key to programming, because so many things are duplicated.

Is that applicable in this case - can you spend a while writing a program to generate such web pages, and then employ it in the future to get most of your task done automatically?

Very good observation. There's no real way to effectively automate stuff like the example I gave, but I do write programs to automate boring stuff whenever I can, to ensure that I don't have to deal with it again!

That's so interesting! I've always enjoyed data entry too. People are apologetic sometimes when they give you data entry in a company.

"Sorry about this - we'll find you something more interesting to do soon."

But I'm thinking, "No, for the love of God, this is my dream. I come in in the morning, sit down quietly, put in a hard day's typing and leave without a word. Smashin."

Sometimes I wish I still did data entry. Ah, happy days.

I enjoy work that is often considered repetitive and boring. I get overloaded by work that is often considered exciting and stimulating.

I do loads of data entry at the moment, also writing insurance cover notes.

I used to be a C programmer but I got so bored with 'routine stuff' (i.e. fixing bugs that some other fool put in, only that, the same application over and over, no change, no challenge) and having no real development to do (seriously, none at all) that I lost interest completely in I.T. due to having too little of a challenge and too much time to think (and get bored) and lost all motivation (and lost my job).

I like the data entry stuff and insurance as it keeps me so busy (to and fro, phone calls and writing certs) that time flys by, I don't get time to think and I can get home and study again.

I keep the brain cells active by studying and doing sudoku.

It depends on how evil your boss is, ask for a new task.

I guess this is semi-atypical for an aspie, but I cannot stand repetitive work. Once I've done things once, it's as good as if I've done it 20 times. I also get really bored really easily so if I'm not doing something that keeps my attention, I will either start to daydream or even almost fall asleep.