Post: #1

Anyone else experience this? Completed a big assignment on Friday, but now I’ve been stuck in the office for the past few days trying to look like I’m doing something, but I’m really just surfing the web. What do you do about it? Makes me feel like I’m wasting my short remaining time on this earth.

Post: #2

Fod God's sake man, start a side hustle! The devil makes work for idle hands...

Post: #3

Yeah, I had a job where during summer there was nothing to do. I literally would go to my desk, get on my computer, and surf the net for 8 hours. I asked my boss about it and she said, "Just don't complain about it, we'll get in trouble if we do."

I'm like...

"Ok. Just making sure there's nothing I'm actually supposed to be doing."

She's like, "No, just don't complain, don't say anything."

So at first, I spent my time reading yahoo news articles, but then I ran out of articles. I know, I know...but yeah, I ran out of articles.
It's hard to say that, it's pretty embarrassing to admit I read that many articles, but I did. So then, out of a sense of "I gotta do something productive, this is getting out of hand," I started searching for real estate. During this search, I found a gem during the real estate crash, and that find was a part of a series of decisions that led to me being in the fairly comfortable position I find myself in today.

So use the time wisely, learn about real estate or copywriting or sales or whatever field you want to level up in and then take action.

Post: #4

Depends if you're supposed to be busy or if they know you've got nothing to do and are OK with it. If the latter, take advantage of the time to do something, anything useful. Read a good book, study, research your next travel destination, whatever. If you are supposed to be work but have nothing to do yeah, that sucks. Pretending to work is much harder than actual work.

Post: #5

This was a huge problem for me in the past, but I used the time to either study language or read classic texts. These are both two things that are great to do when you're not busy. You can read/ learn a lot when work is slow.

Post: #6

I spend my time on dataquest.io, learning data science. Or just podcasts and YouTube, and frequent stretch brakes. Would be down to figure out a way to make money though

Post: #7

Nighttime security guard. One of my favorite books was written by a guy who was working as a nighttime security guard during his on the clock time during which he would have otherwise been doing nothing.

Post: #8

Try to take more time to do tasks and do some breaks within them.

It depends what you do, but if you do programming its easy, just program something of your own, no one will notice if you use the same environment.

Post: #9

Plug in some earbuds and listen to some educational podcasts, or, find a job that actually gives you purpose and you won't be craving or have "downtime". Finding purpose is even better than having "free time".

Post: #10

Being unemployed and looking for a job?

Post: #11

You are in a fantastic position to start a side hustle.

If can't think of where to start, learn a skill. Do some online courses on marketing (learn how to sell) or learn a programming language like Python (learn how to build).

Again, you are in a fantastic position to start a side hustle. Use it.

Post: #12

I spent nine years in the US Navy. A lot of that time I spent killing terrorists and spreading freedom. Also, I spent countless hours sitting on ships in the middle of the ocean with nothing to do. At first, I tried to find ways to just look busy. Eventually, I mastered that art and grew bored.

Next, I just started taking initiatives at various things. It really got me noticed. Also, the terrorists don't attack anymore, so maybe it helped. Just going out and finding things to fix or insurgents to kill or things that needed to be changed made me look like a real go getter, so I got promoted.

Then again, for a civilian, making light of the fact that you got nothing to do might get you fired, so what the hell do I know.

Aloha!

Post: #13

(12-28-2018 10:45 AM)RexImperator Wrote:  Anyone else experience this? Completed a big assignment on Friday, but now I’ve been stuck in the office for the past few days trying to look like I’m doing something, but I’m really just surfing the web. What do you do about it? Makes me feel like I’m wasting my short remaining time on this earth.

That used to be one of the most soul-destroying things about working in an office, and I certainly used to feel like I was wasting my life.

I've been self-employed since October. I work about 50 hours a week, but if there's no work on I can do something productive like go to the gym, read or cook without having to justify my time to my manager. I work harder than before, yet there's no feeling of wasting my life like there was before.

I'm not earning anywhere near as much money at the moment, but I've just added a new workstream that'll add a few hundred quid to my income each month for only an extra hour per day. I'm also going to be concentrating on adding more and starting up affiliate marketing in earnest.

So for me, fuck working as an employee again unless I really have to.

Post: #14

No matter what you decide to do... be quiet & don't rock the boat. Simply Keep looking like you're doing something. Unfortunately, be ready for the possiblity of the hammer to coming down on you shortly! Believe me someone of importance knows you have nothing on your plate! Stay prepared!

Post: #15

(12-30-2018 01:13 AM)Kona Wrote:  Then again, for a civilian, making light of the fact that you got nothing to do might get you fired, so what the hell do I know.

Aloha!

That's what OP didn't really specify. Does his employer know he's got nothing to do and is OK with that? If so, all the suggestions given are great. If not, OP is in a difficult position and as you pointed out, pretending to be busy only works for so long. OP could ask for another assignment which might be a good move, or it might call attention to the fact that he's redundant and get him let go.

Post: #16

Quote:Unfortunately, be ready for the possiblity of the hammer to coming down on you shortly! Believe me someone of importance knows you have nothing on your plate! Stay prepared!

When you wrote that I suspected it was excellent advice...Well, today your prediction came true and I was let go.

Post: #17

New member here.

The one that I do now. Night auditor/front office agent at a four star hotel. Here in Croatia we only have full occupancy during the summer, rest of the year there are almost more employees that guests in the hotel. This part of the year it takes me about 30 minutes to finish my tasks, and then I have 7 and a half hour to do whatever I want. Mostly spend my time reading, studying languages ecc.
That's the only good thing about this job really. The pay is shit and you're working during the night which fucks you up.

Post: #18

One other option to consider:

There's a lot of highly competitive, difficult professional certifications out there. They're a great first step towards moving into those fields. For example a full CFA certification (which you should probably have at least a finance minor before attempting) can set you up to work for portfolio management or research roles, which is an extremely lucrative career for those competent at it.

Others are good generalist or technical certifications that help to add credibility either for hiring purposes or for if you're working independently. Some of these would include PMP, Microsoft certifications, CPA, etc.

The advantage to these is that you don't really get to jack off on them. The exam date is set in stone so you have to stay on schedule to make it happen.