In Defense of Drudgery

Drudgery gets a bad rap. 

What is drudgery?  Merriam Webster defines it as “dull, irksome, and fatiguing work, uninspiring or menial labor”.

Merriam’s first example of drudgery used in a sentence is “He hated the drudgery of his job.”  I suppose the mysterious “he” of dictionary examples might take to the FIRE movement if introduced.

Drudgery has extremely negative connotations in modern life.  It’s something to be avoided at all cost.  Part of drudgery is boredom, and we’re a society that can’t even wait in a grocery line for 2 seconds without running to our smartphones like a newborn calf to a teet. 

But if you go through life pursuing the avoidance of drudgery, I have bad news for you.  You’ll fail, miserably. 

 

Drudgery Is Everywhere

Drudgery created our physical environments.  From the amazing architecture of our urban centers to the life-giving production of our fertile farmlands.  They were created from drudgery.  Virtually all great things in history were created by people who showed up, put their heads down, and just did the damn work. 

Ever been to New York and seen the famous Flatiron Building?  I think it’s pretty cool, but damn if I would have wanted to be a mason on that job.  Somebody had to do it though, in fact thousands of somebodies.  That’s damn good drudgery. 

Drudgery is not only in the roots of our physical environment, it’s fruits are everywhere.  Remember the “time to make the donuts” guy, Fred The Baker?  If you’re a young’un you might not, so here’s one of the commercials.

Dunkin Donuts ran ads with him from 1981 – 1997, he was a mini celebrity.  The phrase “time to make the donuts” became a colloquialism that’s still used today.  I’m sure making donuts is a boring job full of mundane and irksome repetition.  The commercials basically glorified that fact. 

But here’s the thing – donuts are really popular, and they don’t grow on donut trees.  So somebody’s got to make the donuts, and Fred The Baker was that guy.  And damn if he didn’t drag his ass out of bed every morning and make those friggin’ donuts for your sorry donut-eating ass. 

Were you celebrating Fred’s drudgery when you shoved that Boston cream down your gullet?  Because the insulin rush and hyperglycemic stupor you enjoyed afterward doesn’t manifest without some upstream drudgery.  Just thank Fred, and wipe that powder off your cheek you slob.

 

Avioders

Today people look for jobs without drudgery.  They strive to find that position that is perhaps supervising or conducting the drudgery, but that isn’t part of it.  People want stimulating jobs, the jobs of the modern “creative class”. 

I get it, absolutely.  Sign me up. 

I would love to have a job where I’m inspired all day, where I get to work on original and inventive projects in perpetuity.  Where every second is fulfilling, and fertile ground to learn something new.

If everyone had a job like like that and avoided the short end of the stick, not much would get created.  Someone’s gotta work in that factory that made your coveted iPhone my friend. 

Drudgery is part of every job.  It’s the grind, the slog.  It might manifest itself in boring repetition or regimented instructions, but it will manifest.

 

Creatives Deal With It

I read about an interview with Glenn Frey from the Eagles who used to live in a small apartment in California directly above Jackson Browne in the early 70’s before either became mega-stars.  He said:

I heard these songs start from just a verse and a chorus …. And I couldn’t believe how religiously he worked on these songs and got up every morning and played through the three or four songs he was working on for three or four hours. Then he’d break and go to lunch, have a meeting, and then come back and be working on them again and again. I began to see there was a lot of perspiration involved, and it didn’t just come out of him instantly.

Even artists and celebrities have drudgery.

I should know, I’m now an artist with a growing business.  Plowing through and even embracing menial tasks has given me a self-built business that should provide well over $20,000 of extra income this year. 

I created it from nothing but the ideas in my head and a computer.  The end result sounds really nice and something really desirable, but it requires daily drudgery. 

I love creating designs, but I do not particularly care for the mundane task of uploading them to 10 different websites and positioning them on mock-up products.  Then I have to keyword tag them.  It’s classic drudgery.  I do it though, it’s all grist for the mill.  Coffee helps.

Drudgery has other benefits.  Doing what it takes to stay healthy and fit in a fast-food and desk job culture requires it.  Before a run I sometimes think “Here I am again, lacing up my shoes to run that same damn 4 mile loop.  I’m gonna pass that same damn house with that same damn annoying dog who barks at me and tries to get to me.” 

Yeah, you know what that is.

 

Learn To Live With It

Many out there are seeking to leave their jobs or early retire from them because they’re full of drudgery.  That’s totally understandable.  It’s natural to seek out less drudgery, I do it too.

But don’t be fooled into thinking that you’re going to find a job without it.  All jobs probably fall somewhere in between “I love everything and every second of my job!” and “The drudgery of this job has destroyed my soul, please kill me”.  It’s a scale, and you’ve got to find a comfortable place on it where you can thrive. 

If you’ve ever looked at a rock star like Jackson Browne on stage with the crowd in the palm of his hands and said “I want that guys job!”, you better be willing to sit at that piano for hours everyday and grind it out my friend.  It ain’t gonna play itself.

Once you make peace with the fact that drudgery is ubiquitous and part of virtually every job, you can manage it.  You settle in to whatever irksome way it manifests itself and train yourself to deal with it.

That means creating good habits around it.  I do the drudgery-filled task of uploading my designs early in the morning.  It’s rote and doesn’t require much brainpower, and 5:00am is a brainpowerless time for me.

As Steven Pressfield says, an amateur has amateur habits and a pro has pro habits.  So the next time you’re enjoying a donut and playing on your iPhone, think about the drudgery filled pro habits that made them.