There are times when I feel totally energised and motivated, ready to get up and get everything done and work really hard. There are also times, which occur more often, where I just want to do NOTHING except lounge around all day and not face any of those niggly things that I know I need to do. It can be really difficult to pull yourself out of this mind-set, to stop making excuses for yourself as to why it's OK that you haven't touched your work today, that you can just do it tomorrow or the next day, it will be fine. But it won't be!! I have found that not only does my work suffer in this scenario, but so does my mental health, and I feel SO much happier within myself when I have been strong enough to actually do the things I needed to.
So, I have collected together the 6 things that I try to focus on when I am lacking in motivation. I find that these ideas really do help (I still procrastinate sometimes but that's OK....), and I hope they could help you find your motivation too!
1. To Do List
First thing's first, I really can't even begin to get things done without a list. I make a list of absolutely EVERYTHING I can possibly think of that I need to do in my life, so I can see it all there. Then I can see realistically what I can get done today, what can wait until tomorrow or next week, and what is less important in the long-run. I sometimes use an app called 'Any.do', which is good because you can write in all the stuff that you need to do and then draw a line through them as you get them done. You can also write grocery lists and make other categories of lists which is very helpful. I also invested in this notepad called 'Today's Plan of Attack' - sometimes I just prefer the old fashioned way of actually writing lists out by hand. This pad is really cute, and divides your to-do list into 'most critical', 'would be nice' and 'not a chance'. There are plenty of other apps which you can browse and find one that suits you, otherwise just a bit of paper is also fine!
2. Divide and Conquer
When you have really big tasks to complete, sometimes what is stopping you from doing them is that they just feel so overwhelming and huge and impossible to get done. In this case I find it to be really helpful to divide them up into lots of smaller tasks. For example, this is one that applies to me specifically, I need to practice a whole concerto today, but the whole thing is 40 pages long - hours and hours of work.... oh I just can't do that, I will watch Netflix instead! NO! I can divide the concerto up into sections - I will practice these few pages this morning for 2 hours, and then these few pages after lunch, and these few pages later on, and so on. Another example coule be cleaning the house - of course cleaning the whole house is a huge task (well, depending on how big your house is!), but if you just divide it up into rooms or sections and focus on getting each one done, then before you know it the whole thing is done.
3. Rewards
Rewards are an extremely powerful key to motivation! They could be small things like, if I get everything done on my list today then I get to go and have a beer at the beergarden down the road later or I get to watch a movie tonight. They could even be, if I spend an hour doing this horrible task, I get to have a chocolate bar after afterwards - you get the idea. It is almost like bribing yourself into doing your work, and making yourself feel guilty if you haven't done it!
4. Face That Horrible Thing Straight On
There is always one thing in particular on the list that you just do NOT want to do, that you have been putting off already for ages. Honestly, my only answer for these is to just bite the bullet and get it done. But there could be ways to make this horrible thing as friendly as possible. For me, always the worst thing on my to-do list is concerning finances, organising my money etc. So I got this cute little receipts book! I know it doesn't mean much, but it makes this task just a little bit nicer! And it definitely goes that the more horrible the task, the bigger your reward for doing it - that's obvious!
5. Don't Give Yourself Another Option
This is actually a very important one for me. I am very good at making the lists and making tasks easier and more pretty looking, but then when it comes to actually doing them a little voice in my head says 'Oh you can just relax for another hour and then do it, or just do it tomorrow instead'. That is the devil speaking. I know, if I need to get some things done, I absolutely cannot give myself the option of not doing them, not even hint that there is another option available. I have to just push that voice away, not listen to it. Some people find it helpful to listen to music while they work, or to work in coffee shops or in specific places - things like this can help to block out those voices, also because you might be in a place solely to work, and where there are no other possible distractions for you. I think especially if you are someone who works at home, where there are many other nicer things to me doing, it can be really good to change up your work space.
6. Be Proud
My final tip is, after the work is done, to be really proud of it and that you did it! You might want to show someone what you did, or it might just be for yourself, in which case you can revel in that wonderful feeling that a good day's work is done. We all know that feeling, it is the best reward and really they best motivator for starting again tomorrow!
Labels: Life
