Handling routine deterrents

(Somewhat related to this post by sri)

Some of us are easily put off by many things in the routine that many others barely notice. In some sense, we are in 'our own world', generally preoccupied by our thoughts, with a feeling of being in control; and suddenly something comes up that we struggle to cope with. We can associate with many of the things described in that post, such as not being good at handling routine things, being uncomfortable in social interactions etc..

For me, it can be the simplest of things, such as reaching the lab in the morning. I am ready to take the bus when I suddenly realise that I don't have change for the bus. (You need exact change, otherwise you can't ride.) Or may be I don't even have cash. Then the process starts. I have to walk up to the ATM, withdraw cash; then walk to some place where I can buy something unnecessary, because I wont get change otherwise in most places. Finally when I come back to take a bus, (by then I would usually have missed one or two busses), all these errands in the cold here leave me numb in more than one way. It takes quite some time after that to get back to work.

Or it could be about dealing with work related issues such as running behind sysadmins trying to convince them to grant admin privileges on a lab machine so that you can install certain software or host a webserver for a project. It's stressful, time consuming and even almost impossible at times.

Of course, it is stupid to get upset by things such as these and make our work suffer. But that's the thing. Some of us are not good at handling such things. Of course, we should be careful in that case, by being well-prepared. But possibly we don't value these things enough, and therefore they soon hit us back.

We are also easily affected by reading or hearing very strong opinions in the media and blogs. Especially blogs, since such posts attract strong comments, and posts in response, further posts, and so on. Even though we may not get directly involved in these, they disturb us suffieiently enough to take our focus off work.

There are many such deterrents, but there are also a few things I have figured for myself which help me in dealing with these better than before. One of the things I do is to quickly try and do a cost-benefit analysis of 'routine tasks' that I face. For example, in the getting the change for the bus case, I check if there is any cost involved in not going to the lab (like missing a meeting), and if I can get the work done from home. And instead of running behind the admins, it might be better to consider getting most things done on your laptop. Or it might be better to find out if there is any machine in the lab that is not managed by the sysadmins.

In order not to get affected by opinions, I tend to simply avoid listening to or reading an opinion if I sense that it is too strong for me. The opinion might well have very good points, but unless they are presented in a calm and dispassionate manner, it is not for me. Even in cases when I do read a strong post or comment, I resist reacting through comments. Because, as I said, some of us don't like it too hot. Similarly, I try not to post opinionated posts on my blog or get into arguments about fine points.

None of these are foolproof, nor have I given systematic thought to them. Also, I don't always follow them. But when I do, generally they help in reducing some of the unwanted stress.