For some jobs or tasks, depending on one’s character, we do it willingly and happily like it’s second nature but as with all things in life, that’s rarely the case where all of us sometimes have to do things we dislike or would simply not tackle.

That being the case, the best way to carry out any work, whether at home or at the office, from the most mundane to ‘heavy-weight’ complex stuff, is with complete mindfulness, that is, with all the attention and concentration that you can muster and a sense of living 100% in the present. This involves working with ‘intention’. Only then you will find the task relaxing, rewarding and even joyful (sometimes, maybe?).

So, here are our step-by-step guide on how to go about handling that ‘bothersome’ task at hand :

1. At the beginning of such a particularly onerous task, tell yourself that you will give it your complete attention. If it’s something truly awful ( to you, that is 😉 ), give yourself an achievable time-limit, say, 30 minutes.

2. Close your eyes for a moment, take a deep breath and tell yourself this : “I’m going to give my complete attention to doing this stuff for 30 minutes, then I can give myself have a break.”

3. You may have to do a lot of 30 minute work ‘chunks/units’ in order to complete the task but you will find that, in time, you can go for longer and longer periods, until eventually you don’t need anymore ‘special’ time-break incentive.

4. While on the job, do it with complete mindfulness and every time your mind strays away from the task at hand, guide it gently back to your consciousness.

5. Think of your work as being rather like climbing a steep hill for which you will need to set an easy pace that won’t overstretch you. If you concentrate on each step as you take it, make sure that it is indeed the most perfect step, that your weight is beautifully distributed, metaphorically speaking. Soon enough, you realised you have already arrived at the top of the hill.

Before you know it, everything is completed, key achievement unlocked – you can now pat yourself on the back!