Just curious, how do you deal with the boredom?

[MCDIT]

Hello everyone,

I am sorry in advance for the long post. I am on the verge of quite an important job decision. I spy a feasible local opportunity that could see me well into my career for years, at the same time, it is possible for me to also switch to a different job entirely. There is one thing that bothers me quite a bit and I would appreciate some insight.

I have to say, although I enjoy being self employed in tech support and I enjoy also being around people, by far the most difficult thing for me is with those awkward jobs that seem to not only waste your time but stress you out tire you by the end of the day despite leaving you largely idle.

By that I mean, for instance, the slow laptops that should be so routine to fix and should really be done (if not mostly done) by the time my automated things have run their course, but which seem to so often refuse to play ball. The ones that leave you staring at the screen with folded arms, unable to leave until it begins to do something you want it to, then when left running so that you can get on to other tasks seems to mock you with an error (or something) after 1 minute that you will only notice 45 mins later when you expect it to be finished. Then, at the end of the day this theoretically impeccable machine is still slow which only a reformat will fix, which you couldn't have known until know.

I seem to get these kinds of jobs very often, I think my current niche has left me very open to these, but the opportunity I have (which seems to have quite a bit of potential) would have me in this same area for years to come and this reason alone is causing me to wonder if I can cope with it. I think I would rather move to lower paid manual labour than to slouch and stare at another 3-4 of these sitting on my bench.

I really don't want to make the wrong decision. I am very interested to hear what others do with these kind of things. Is there a better way for me to work or prioritise these jobs? Perhaps I am doing something wrong in such a silly way that someone here will be able to give me a good hard slap in the right direction!

Any advice at all is greatly appreciated,

Darran

 

[mraikes]

"...how do you deal with the boredom"

Technibble.

The reality is that in our field there is a great amount of sitting around waiting. Waiting for a repair to complete. Waiting for something to go wrong so it can be diagnosed. Waiting for . . . everything. And I absolutely relate with your frustration over long waits, only to discover that what you were waiting for didn't have the desired results and you're back to square one.

The stock answers for how to spend your "waiting time" are to work on your marketing plan, tweak your website, study up on something, expand your social media, etc. etc. But depending on your situation and desires, there's only so much of those kinds of things you can do. And then you're just . . . waiting again.

For me, I hang out on Technibble (both entertaining and educational), play my ukulele or sometimes guitar, watch netflix/prime/etc, fiddle with personal projects such as a media server I recently created (with Technibble's help), even work on our RC cars that invariably need repair of some kind.

On a perfect day, I have a quantity and variety of machines on my workbench that I can work on one while waiting for another to finish and time just flies by. But that's not always the case.

So if you aren't the kind of person that possesses patience and a happy "self-entertainability" to survive the boring hours, you may want to think twice about committing to this as a career path.

 

[MCDIT]

That's it exactly. I have just finished my third year in business but despite everything going as well as it has, I just don't think I can take that idleness. Perhaps it isn't just me in that case, I just can't be happy in knowing I have done a days work and been paid for it in the days where I am stressing while sitting doing nothing.

This opportunity to expand would really be significant, but will also tie me down. Although I don't think anybody else would pass it up, I'm having to think twice indeed.

 

[Markverhyden]

You are in charge of yourself. Simple concept. We all know that our days will vary in terms of activities, often last minute. I've got a list of training things that I'm slowly working through. All I need is an Internet connection and I can watch the vid's, etc whenever and wherever I want. On occasion I bite off a little more than I can chew in a day. That is stressful. But I do work hard on time management an includes not letting others manage my time.

 

[MCDIT]

On occasion I bite off a little more than I can chew in a day. That is stressful. But I do work hard on time management an includes not letting others manage my time.

I have to say, although I tend to get the vast majority of computers away no later than three days, I do often do silly things like work until 9.00 at night. Particularly in the summer where the cheapskate in me wants to get the better of not having to pay for the heating.

I wonder, would have any handy hints you could offer me with regards time management, in your experience? Perhaps it is all I need.

 

[brandonkick]

I kinda don't understand the post, but here's what I get out of it:

You've been through the ringer lately, and for some reason you feel that your attracting these kinds of jobs that
just do not seem to go right for one reason or another. Your thinking about changing gears and going after a lower
paying manual labor type job.

I can see the reasoning, with manual labor you work hard for 8 hours but then you leave and when you leave you
leave work at work. That's one thing your missing.

I guess the best thing I can offer is that you just are always going to run into those machines that just don't quite
make sense. You've run every tool, diagnosed it several times, tried everything and it just seems slow. When you
get those, which shouldn't be all that often, just take it with a grain of salt. If it'll save your sanity, and it's a simple
setup which you can easily replicate... just nuke and pave the thing. If 1 out of 10 go that way, well that's not so bad.

I don't know if you bill flat rate, or hourly but you need to protect yourself. Being in business for yourself often means
you don't always get to call it at day at a 40 hour work week, but you can't run yourself ragged either.

Maybe think about raising your prices? I would tend to think these "super crazy" suituations are with cheaper computers
that are often built out of cheaper hardware. I haven't seem many crazy things with the more expensive, business grade
stuff.

At the end of the day though, you can't be completely miserable at your job. You have to be able to at the very least tolerate it
but you really should at least like the work you do if not love it. Money is important, it pays the bills, keeps a roof over our heads
and keeps us from starving... but a pay cut just might be worth a major reduction in stress. That's something you have to figure
out for yourself.

 

[frase]

I get out and do something different - tend my vege garden or go for a walk. walk the dog kick the cat ME0w or visa versa depends whom is in my way first.

Then look at my website and social media how can I enhance these + advertising.

 

[brandonkick]

In my spare time I like to play pool, I play in a weekly league that teams from all over the state
participate in. You have your own little divisions within say 20 miles of where you live and then
you have bigger tournaments depending on how well you do during a regular session.

I also love to throw horse shoes at the local sportsmans club during the summer, it's always a
blast.

I love playing my bass guitar, although I don't pick it up as often any more as I need too.

In the summer I love to grill, and cook in general.

Lots of other things like fishing, going to the drive in, going out for drinks every once in a while,
reading.Gotta find stuff you enjoy, and spend some time each day for you even if it's only half
an hour.

 

[MDD1963]

The answer is obvious...!

 

[Markverhyden]

I have to say, although I tend to get the vast majority of computers away no later than three days, I do often do silly things like work until 9.00 at night. Particularly in the summer where the cheapskate in me wants to get the better of not having to pay for the heating.

I wonder, would have any handy hints you could offer me with regards time management, in your experience? Perhaps it is all I need.

Put together a daily schedule. I have my iCal synced to everything and update it on a regular basis. Not only new appointments but completed ones with actual time onsite, and a few key words to jog my memory about what was done. I also try very hard to not let others change it. Meaning as the day/week progresses I only answer the phone from a select few. And when slack time suddenly appears, say someone cancels or the "problem" went away, I'll use that time for training, business development, etc activities.