I did a silly thing the other day. I accepted a job from a regular client without asking what the subject was. It’s the kind of bread and butter job that translators rely on. 3500 words is not too short and not too long, the kind of stuff that keeps us going. All the PMs in the agency know what I like doing and what I don’t, but for once it was the big boss who called me. Perhaps I was so surprised it was him, I didn’t think to ask. More fool me. When I opened the file, I realised what the subject was. Refrigeration. Oh deep joy. I think I’d rather have my teeth pulled.
Let’s face it, life as a freelancer isn’t always perfect and we all get boring jobs to do from time to time. So how do you manage a day’s work without yawning?
Allow plenty of time
Boring jobs always take longer than they should, however well disciplined you are.
Make a plan
If it’s a translation, read the entire document first and identify the difficult bits, look for as much vocabulary as possible before you start, it’ll make the job flow better when you start. If it’s writing, do all the research first and plan it out. It’ll spread the pain out a bit and get the job done just that bit quicker.
Break it down into stages
When I was a kid, to stave off the “are we there yet?” question, my parents broke journeys down into bit-size chunks. I still do that with large jobs by counting the number of words left. It’s a great motivator because I find myself measuring performance from
one hour to the next. It also works for the short boring stuff. Writing jobs benefit from establishing milestones and achieving them. You’ll get there quicker (honest…)
Take breaks
Reward yourself with something nice. Coffee and a biscuit? A walk around the block? Twenty minutes daytime TV? Whatever works for you.
Sleep on it
I know I can hear legions of translators laughing at this. We just don’t get time to sleep on this generally because most clients don’t know the meaning of the word “reasonable deadlines”. Having extra time to review an intersting document is always a good thing, with a boring one it’s a lifeline because you’re more prone to make mistakes.
