Ask HN: What to do about a boring job ?

I am stuck in a job which I don't find very interesting (but I cannot switch). I am working on a side project (about an hour a day) but still need to spend the whole day at the job. Any advice on how to deal with it during the day ? Anybody been in that situation before ? EDIT 1: The workload isn't much and even though I try to read up on the news and stay current, I still have to be at the workplace for 8 hours to keep up appearances. EDIT 2: I am a software engineer. I cannot switch because of personal reasons (which will probably change next year allowing me to explore a little more). The other reason is I am not learning anything new. It's all stuff I have worked on before (at a much larger scale in a startup): the management team here thinks they are doing something that'll change the world but it's more because of their inexperience than anything else. I do have my side-project which provides an outlet but it doesn't discount the fact that I spend 9 hours a day at something that