Frustrations

[Jcs]

So I have this situation at work where I have to dig trough a few thousand customer records. Two lists have to be merged together.

2 Obstacles

• Data integrity is non-existent
• Duplicate entries

Next week there is a (paper)mailing going out to those customers. Mind boggling is why the lists even need to be merged. List B shouldn't even receive these discount/sale offers.

So now I feel like I wasted a complete day filtering the data.. In 8 hours I can ask my boss what the B list is good for. But it keeps nagging at me. Anyone has tips for 'letting go' work issues when you're not working?

Its so simple. Customer wants mail? Yes, click button. No? Don't click button. Only 1 list needed. Guess that's to hard.

[Jennihul]

Option 1)Hire a savant temporarily. Pay him out of pocket, free up your time to get things done that you enjoy.

Option2) Write a computer program to do this work for you and get someone to enter the data for about $8 an hour.

Option 3) Educate your boss/manager about why this isn't worth doing based on the time needed and your cost per hour.

Option 4) Outsource it to India. Hire a personal assistant there and get them to do it for about $25 per hour.

Or just suck it up...


Jennifer

[Kaspian]

Originally Posted by Jcs

Anyone has tips for 'letting go' work issues when you're not working?

I've had times when personal stuff (read: drama with friends) threatened to dominate everything I did. The strategy that worked for me was to choose times and places when I would refuse to think about it and specify a time and place when I would. I handwrite three pages of brain drain every morning, and that was the place where I chose to explore and experience the feelings surrounding the drama. During the rest of the day (at least daylight hours), thinking about it was off-limits. If I caught myself mentally returning to the drama, I'd say to myself, "No here, not now," and send my thoughts to an unrelated topic.

You could do something similar. Clearly choose to leave the work-related issues at work when you go home. If you catch yourself brooding about the inane list merger when you're not at work, tell yourself, "Not here, not now," and choose to think about something you enjoy.

[ShiningLight]

Immediate fix: good advice from kaspian,
short term fix: good advice from Jennihul,
Long term fix?: the book, "the 4 hour work week".

[Jcs]

He, thanks all