How you know
You can describe the exciting version of this job in detail, and you couldn't say what you owe anybody this week.
Something to say
“I've been avoiding the boring half. Can we agree what the minimum actually is?”
It's easier to spot this afterwards than at the time. Give it a week before you decide it isn't yours.
Two ways in
One is a habit. The other is one person.
Neither is the better one. Pick whichever matches the thing that is actually bothering you.
On your own
The habit, not the incident.
The dull part doesn't get more interesting by waiting. It gets bigger. Then it's dull and urgent.
- Write the dull commitments down as a short list, somewhere you'll see it. Short enough to finish.
- Do the dull thing before the interesting thing, not after. After never comes.
- If a stretch of this job is going to be dull for a month, say so to somebody rather than quietly hoping it changes.
With somebody in mind
The same friction, one person.
To whoever's waiting on the dull half, bored and not caring look identical. They can't tell from there, and they'll assume the worse one.
- Say which part you've been avoiding before they raise it. If you name it, it's a problem with the work. If they find it, it's a problem with you.
- Ask that one person what the minimum is, and write down the answer. Then you're meeting something real instead of guessing at a standard.
One of these, not all of them. And in your own words, because ours won't sound like you.
Where this sharpens
It lands hardest with two of the five.
Not because anybody is difficult. These are just the two who reach for something different first, at the same moment.
Which one is yours
You are reading The Dreamer. Is that actually you?
Ten situations, about three minutes, no sign-up. It tells you which of the five you reach for first — and which version of this page is yours.
Five readings
This plays differently depending on what you reach for first.
Pick the one that sounds most like you. Reading a dimension is not a claim that you are one.