What menial tasks do you enjoy?

[Dark Knifer]

Whether its cleaning, lifting or any task that could be considered a chore that you enjoy.

For me it is driving, long distance or in a city I like having thinking time alone in the car with the changing scenery prpviding stimulation

 

[Vault101]

washing and straightening my hair...

I mean yeah its kind of a pain feeling the need to do it a lot but its become such a routine its kind of relaxing

 

[Colour Scientist]

washing and straightening my hair...

Yes, totally agree.

OP: I quite enjoy cleaning. I'm a fairly neat person and, for some reason, when I'm cranky or upset I tend to start cleaning and tidying, no idea why. Maybe it has something to do with getting things in order or just distracting myself but it usually makes me feel better.

I don't know if this counts but I love walking. I will pick walking to my destination over public transport or driving any day, if the journey is feasible. My walk to and from work takes me an hour each-way but I enjoy just putting on my headphones and getting there on foot, even if it means getting up earlier and getting home a bit later in the evenings.

 

[Vault101]

OP: I quite enjoy cleaning. I'm a fairly neat person and, for some reason, when I'm cranky or upset I tend to start cleaning and tidying, no idea why. Maybe it has something to do with getting things in order or just distracting myself but it usually makes me feel better.
.

its also an effective form of procrastination

[i/]how can I do anything productive when I live in such a pigstie!?[/i]

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

I kinda like doing the dishes and wandering off, mentally.

 

[lechat]

I kinda like doing the dishes and wandering off, mentally.

yeah lot of things set me off since i usually like to tune out and have a think, but something about the systematic nature of washing dishes is particularly (not) exciting

 

[Zhukov]

Splitting firewood.

(Oh dear, my rural roots are showing.) Odd, I know, but it is rather satisfying. Especially when you get a clean swing and both pieces go flying in opposite directions to bounce off the woodshed walls. Or when you get a horrible knotty piece and finally manage to smash it in half after feverishly whaling on the damn thing for several minutes.

When I visit the family one of my little brothers takes immense delight in presenting me with the toughest, knottiest, most twisted lump of wood he can find, then laughing himself sick while I whack the shit out of it and swear a lot.

...

I don't know if this counts but I love walking. I will pick walking to my destination over public transport or driving any day, if the journey is feasible. My walk to and from work takes me an hour each-way but I enjoy just putting on my headphones and getting there on foot, even if it means getting up earlier and getting home a bit later in the evenings.

Also this.

Used to do it out of necessity. Didn't have a car and the local busses are unreliable as hell. But after getting a car I found myself still preferring to walk when possible. Probably for the best, I'd get fat as hell otherwise.

I find that an hour's walk into work gets me warmed me up for the day. I'm not a morning person, so if I drive in I'm liable to be dragging myself from the car still in my grumpy morning zombie state. But if I walk then I'll be, well, not pumped exactly but at least awake.

 

[Marter]

Can I count my film reviews as a "menial task"? 'Cause I sometimes enjoy doing them.

Otherwise, editing papers is something I like doing. And I've come to quite enjoy driving.

 

[Colour Scientist]

I'd get fat as hell otherwise.

Same here.

I'm awful at actually getting up and exercising for the sake of exercising but if I'm exercising in order to get from point A to point B, I don't even notice, it's just part of my routine.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

I kinda like doing the dishes and wandering off, mentally.

yeah lot of things set me off since i usually like to tune out and have a think, but something about the systematic nature of washing dishes is particularly (not) exciting

Maybe I just fancy the ritual act of cleansing and the purification of soul and cutlery.

 

[Zhukov]

I'd get fat as hell otherwise.

Same here.

I'm awful at actually getting up and exercising for the sake of exercising but if I'm exercising in order to get from point A to point B, I don't even notice, it's just part of my routine.

Exactly!

If there's a point to the physical activity beyond just engaging in physical activity then I don't notice the... umm... okay, I just realised I was basically typing the exact same sentence you did.

But yeah, for example, I hate jogging. Can't stand it. But I'll happily run around for an hour kicking a soccer ball with my little siblings.

 

[Dragonlayer]

There's something oddly appealing about doing all the house chores by myself, in a house of six. Laundry, dish-washer, sorting clothes, cleaning up the dog muck....

 

[Vault101]

Splitting firewood.
(Oh dear, my rural roots are showing.) Odd, I know, but it is rather satisfying. Especially when you get a clean swing and both pieces go flying in opposite directions to bounce off the woodshed walls. Or when you get a horrible knotty piece and finally manage to smash it in half after feverishly whaling on the damn thing for several minutes.
.

hey we too used to have a fire...except we didn't have to chop firewood because it came ready in the form of thease roots called "mallee roots" and when in the fire they looked like a minature model of hell

....I almost got burned because for some reason the jerrycan had petrol instead of disel in it...

 

[Zhukov]

Splitting firewood.
(Oh dear, my rural roots are showing.) Odd, I know, but it is rather satisfying. Especially when you get a clean swing and both pieces go flying in opposite directions to bounce off the woodshed walls. Or when you get a horrible knotty piece and finally manage to smash it in half after feverishly whaling on the damn thing for several minutes.
.

hey we too used to have a fire...except we didn't have to chop firewood because it came ready in the form of thease roots called "mallee roots" and when in the fire they looked like a minature model of hell

....I almost got burned because for some reason the jerrycan had petrol instead of disel in it...

My family does it old school.

Their house is on a 110 acre block of bush. So getting firewood means taking a ute up into the bush and chopping it down, cutting it up and stacking it away ourselves. And getting pathetically excited when we find standing dead trees ('cause they're the driest).

Of course it always ends up getting left to the very end of summer, so there's a frantic rush to get enough stacked away before the winter rains.

Heh. I think of it fondly now that I no longer live with them, but at the time it was a constant source of grumbling and bickering.

EDIT: Looked up "mallee root". I didn't know people used those for firewood. (Although I guess it makes sense, combustible is combustible.) I've only ever seen them used for carving.

 

[Vicarious Reality]

Pinching off small fingernail clipping sized metal pins from the foot plates at work
Is this thread not for work chores?

Chopping overgrowth with a good machete

Biking to work over the airfield?

 

[Frezzato]

I love cleaning up other people's places. Not that I'm a maid or whatever, I just enjoy seeing the delineation between what other people call "messy" versus my definition. There's some sort of mental "weight" that people associate with "their" messes and "their" organization which I find enjoyable since I can approach an objective, objectively. It's like hearing someone say they have no money, and yet they're still able to afford an iPhone or a plasma screen television. Weird, I know.

I guess cleaning isn't really all that menial, so perhaps driving would be a better answer. I mean driving, as in 6 hours or more at a time. I get to do it every once in a while, and I love it because I blast music in my car the entire way. And almost all of my music has women as lead singers, so I'm the modern day equivalent of a sailor from Greek mythology, all full of ideas like "Yeah man, we should TOTALLY head for those rocks!"

 

[Baron von Blitztank]

I LOVE hoovering the floor. Makes me feel like a Ghostbuster! But with dust/hair/crumbs/miscellaneous fluff instead of ghosts...

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

Really not a single one. I'm the kind of guy that gets bored if I'm not doing things that I want to be doing. Menial tasks are tasks of repetition. I like novelty. That's also why I don't play MMOs. Grinding in MMOs is the same. And when I get bored I don't function properly. Even when I'm conducting a scientific experiment or if I'm building something I will do my utmost to avoid repetition. I don't even like to take notes and keep records. I have somebody else do it for me. I'm basically useless without an assistant. That's why people describe me as hazardous. I'll take the more dangerous path 7 days a week if it means less repetition and less conventional by the book method.

I'll probably die young.

 

[Elfgore]

Back when I worked in general merchandise at work, I had to straighten for my entire eight hour shift. Eight hours of picking shit off the bottom of the shelves, putting them in their proper spot, and also pulling all merchandise forward. The day may go by slower than shit, but I can just lose myself in dreamland. I really hope they let me go back, I miss the simplicity.

Driving at night or on completely empty roads is also something I do. Lose myself in my music or ranting about something that happened at work or school and just getting it all out.