Mundane Tasks Productivity

Discussions center on the value of personally handling unglamorous or 'dirty' work like chores and tedious tasks for satisfaction, momentum, and insights, versus automating, delegating, or skipping them to focus on more enjoyable or important activities.

➡️ Stable 0.6x Career & Jobs
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Comments
20
Years Active
5
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#4904
Topic ID

Activity Over Time

2007
9
2008
38
2009
66
2010
106
2011
124
2012
158
2013
125
2014
105
2015
119
2016
152
2017
175
2018
222
2019
266
2020
307
2021
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2022
466
2023
407
2024
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2025
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2026
40

Keywords

OK HN tasks effort task wash delegate dishes hair dirty getting things learned

Sample Comments

8note Dec 20, 2021 View on HN

Do things you enjoy, automate or delegate things you don't enjoy.

atarian Nov 13, 2011 View on HN

To do the work that no one else wants to do.

tw1010 Apr 8, 2018 View on HN

One of the smartest things you can do is to work on dumb things no-one else wants to do.

alexalx666 Jul 27, 2022 View on HN

Chores are the best bc you can meditate on ideas whilst closing a tangible todo item

mgkimsal Apr 21, 2015 View on HN

many things "get the job done", but it's the nature of that "job" and how much effort it takes which is in question.

boxed May 28, 2024 View on HN

How about just getting the work done?

lofatdairy Dec 19, 2022 View on HN

There's probably an argument to be made that at least those tasks might help push you out of a rut if you've spent hours banging your head against a wall. God knows cleaning my desk is probably a better use of my time right now than commenting yet again on HN.

codeview Jan 2, 2009 View on HN

The joy of getting things done..

sethkim Nov 2, 2021 View on HN

Yup. It's natural human tendency to reduce mundane work. But it can be illuminating how much you can improve results by stepping in and getting your hands dirty first.

pryce May 5, 2018 View on HN

I think often the amount of 'dirty work' we end up engaging in expands to fill the space allocated to it.