What separates an exceptional UX designer or CX professional from an average one? You might think it’s creativity, empathy, qualifications, passion, etc. but actually something else is more decisive: their ability to cope with boredom.

When we start on a project things are exciting. We might be working with new people, in a new field, on a new challenge or opportunity. The daily novelty is captivating.

But as projects progress, the novelty wears off. We’re not dreaming up big creative concepts, we’re mired in detail. We’re not sharing our vision for the first time, we’re making hundreds of minor amends.

Unfortunately the last 5% of the work — the part that separates good from great — feels as hard as the first 95% because it can be excruciatingly boring. That's why it almost always gets ignored, palmed off onto others, or rushed through.

The secret to producing better work then, is to identify strategies that allow us to handle the inherent boredom that comes along with producing high quality work.

Mine include: boring myself first thing in the morning so it’s out of the way, boring myself in strict half hour intervals, and giving myself trivial rewards for completing a certain number of boring tasks.

Give em a go. Have a boring day everyone!

See this post on LinkedIn