Coaching practices for How to Cope with Working a Job You Hate

Describe almost anything you are working through and IX Coach finds the practices whose real-world fit is closest. For How to Cope with Working a Job You Hate, these are the strongest matches in the current practice library.

Does this sound like the set of challenges you might be facing?

• I burn enormous energy trying to fix things that aren’t mine to fix, and then go quiet and just stew over the things I actually could do something about
• I do the same grind every day
• I’ve got my go-to ways of coping that feel justified and even comforting in the moment, but when I’m honest nothing is actually getting better
• There’s one hard thing I’m dreading, so I "warm up" on easy busywork to feel productive
• I keep telling myself family comes first, but when I actually look at where my hours went this week it’s almost all work

Practices that may help

1. Match coping mode to what is actually controllable
   Use problem-focused coping when you can change the situation; emotion-focused coping when you cannot.
   Stress Inoculation Training
2. Find the Sisyphus move in your own work
   Identify a repetitive, seemingly pointless task — and choose to inhabit it fully rather than escaping it.
   Absurdism and the Practice of Meaning Despite
3. Ask the workability question
   Ask "is what I am doing working?" — not "is it right?" but whether it is moving you toward the life you want.
   Emotional Agility, Made Practical
4. Do the hardest task first
   Tackle your single most important, most-dreaded task before anything else in the day.
   Eat That Frog, Made Practical
5. Audit work hours against your stated priorities
   Compare how you actually spend your time this week against what you say matters most.
   The Regret of the Dying
6. Apply problem-focused coping to changeable stressors
   When the stressor is changeable, direct your energy at the situation rather than managing feelings about it.
   Lazarus Appraisal Theory, Made Practical
7. Apply emotion-focused coping to uncontrollable stressors
   When the stressor cannot be changed, invest your energy in how you relate to the experience rather than fighting the situation.
   Lazarus Appraisal Theory, Made Practical
8. Buy back your time
   Spend money to outsource tasks you dislike, freeing hours for what matters.
   Time Affluence, Made Practical
9. Outsource tasks you dislike to buy time affluence
   Paying to offload dreaded tasks raises happiness more than spending the same money on material goods.
   Time Smart: Buying Back Your Time Affluence
10. Apply three good things to work contexts specifically
    Use the exercise to rewire what you notice about your work day — contribution, competence, and collaboration.
    Three Good Things: The Evidence-Based Gratitude Practice

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