What To Do When You Have Nothing To Do At Work?

Ironically, I am writing this blog post right after a massive Category 5 hurricane that hit my area of Naples, Florida, so I literally have nothing to do at all except write new blog posts. What I have found, however, over the past 7 months of working at my current day job, is that there is actually very little to do in an average day at work. In fact, it is so slow at my current Wealth Management job as a CSA sometimes that I just sit there, counting down the minutes in a spreadsheet. There are around 480 minutes in a workday, and I try to update the spreadsheet every few minutes. Not only does it waste more time, but it helps me keep track of how much time is remaining so that it doesn’t feel endless.

With seven months of working at a job like this, I am going to give you some strategies that I have used over the past 7 months to get through work weeks, to keep your job, and to get through blocks of time as needed. Hope you enjoy reading, and be sure to subscribe for additional content updates, or to comment down below for additional details and information on all things business and finance.

What To Do When You Have Nothing To Do At Work?

When you have nothing to do at work, it can be one of the most terrible feelings in a corporate environment. You can feel not included, you can feel like no one cares about you, and worst of all, it can feel like the clock is moving extremely slowly. Seriously, sometimes I have days at the office that drag on for so long, but one thing that this job has showed me is how to loaf up time, how to waste time, how to get through time, and how to sit around and do nothing for very long periods of time — and to practically enjoy it — though I would most definitely rather be working flat out all the time. Here are some tips to “suck up time” and to look like you’re working in the office:

If you truly have nothing to do, try to look busy and use your time as usefully as possible. Depending on your company’s security systems and what websites are accessible, this could be the best job of your entire life.

For instance, you could easily start a blog and spend all day churning out blog posts if their systems are fairly laid back. Someone doing nothing but writing blog posts all day could get up to 5–10 posts a day with practice. That’s 50 posts a month, and over 5 years, you could literally have a 3,000-article website that cash flows $1,000–$3,000 per month in passive income, or could sell for $100,000 upon leaving the job.

You can also use the time to improve your skillset. For me, I can’t exactly write blog posts at the office due to security systems; however, I can read as much as I possibly can about tax and learn new skills like VLOOKUP in Excel or SQL through free sites like Codecademy. I personally am looking to become a Tax Accountant in the near future, so I aggressively read websites like thetaxadvisor.com and spidel.com with every free second at the office.

How to Loaf Up Time At Work If You Don’t Want to Actually Work

If you don’t feel like doing actual work but still need to get through the day, you can waste time responsibly with the following:

• Count the minutes down on your spreadsheet (kill 5–10 minute blocks)
• Chit-chat with co-workers and make friends
• Go get coffee
• Use the restroom
• Punch in your time card ahead of time
• Read your paystub
• Switch around your 401(k) investments
• Read news articles
• Check the stock market
• Find ebooks online and read them for fun
• Play on your phone
• Download games like chess
• Check your bank statement
• Pay rent or bills
• Pay down your credit card
• Text a friend

The list is endless. I have found that you can really get going and really procrastinate doing nothing for very long periods of time. One thing I like to do to slow things down is to let work build up. If I know the baseline is always slow, I hoard work once I have it. When someone tells you to do something, kick it down the road and let it pile up so that you can be busy when you need it.

My Final Thoughts On What To Do When You Have Nothing To Do At Work

If you are someone Google-searching this term, then you obviously care about having nothing to do at your job. You are conscientious and want to be kept busy — it makes the day go by faster and, over the long term, builds money, skills, work ethic, and knowledge. Obviously, you don’t want to remain in a job like this for half a decade, so my advice is to find another position that is better and hand in your notice. You probably don’t want to work a job like the one you’re in now for the next 5–10 years, so move on and find something better.

I hope you find some of my strategies to loaf up time and to idly waste time irresponsibly useful! The world is a very funny place indeed, and it is a very common problem for someone to have a full-time job with virtually nothing to do for half the day at work. Comment down below if this has ever happened to you. Subscribe if you enjoyed reading!

Sources:

• Bankrate – CD Rates
• CNN Money – Markets

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