Why is pointless work more mentally taxing than working with a purpose?

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The other day I was crunching some numbers and couldn’t get them to add up, no matter how hard I tried. I did this for a few hours and afterwards I was exhausted, like when you’re ready to go to sleep aftee physical exertion.

Usually these kind of things add up nicely and slowly but surely things just fall in their places nicely like a puzzle. When that happens, working is a breeze and even rewarding.

What is the phenomenon behind this? Why is pointless work so much more mentally taxing than working with a purpose?

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4 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

Knowing you’re working is one thing. Knowing you aren’t wasting your time is valuable.

Knowing you’re working on a thing that is _definitely_ a waste of time makes it difficult for many people to be motivated — because it’s not useful _or_ necessary.

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