Terrible, boring and hard

I’ve written before (and thought a lot) about the uncomfortable aspects of design. More recently, I’ve begun to recognise the necessity and importance of what I think of as the “terrible, boring and hard” parts of my work.

There's at least one phase in pretty much everything I work on where things seem insurmountable. Where it feels like I’m dealing with an unsolvable problem, an endless slog, or just something I am incapable of comprehending or doing justice to. It feels awful – whether that's because it is uncomfortable, mind-numbingly mundane, or outright terror inducing. It’s the perfect place for imposter syndrome to rear its hideous head.

The terrible, boring and hard part feels like the doldrums, where nothing seems to be changing; and worse, it feels like it never will. It’s like you're wasting effort and time plugging away at whatever it is, because you're never going to get anywhere. Pack up and go home.

This is the phase in which the tickling temptation of social media makes itself heard. The urge to just check what’s happening on Twitter. To do something other than what I’m doing now – ideally something with a more immediate dopamine rush.

But, the big revelation has been that the mere presence of this phase is a sign that I’m actually on the right track. I'm on the right track with whichever project I'm on, and, more broadly, with the work I choose in general. It’s a sign that I just need to keep going on the track too. (See also: running endurance) In fact, I don’t have a single example of where I worked away at the terrible, boring and hard phase and regretted it (though I have plenty where I gave in and regretted it).

While I'm not yet at a point where I enjoy the terrible, boring and hard part – and, to be honest, I’m not sure I ever will enjoy it. I am starting to spot signs of it earlier, perhaps that urge to scroll my way through twitter and, instead, to face up to it and (grudgingly) work through it.