Do you have situations where you have a mountain of things scheduled for the day, yet you don't feel like working? This is a pretty common occurrence and leads us to ask, how can I get motivated when I just don't feel like it? Here are 7 tips to help you boost your motivation.
1. Start your day well
How you start your morning will have a significant influence on the rest of your day. Do you want to wake up groggy and carry that energy throughout the day, or would you prefer to be refreshed and well-rested?
Don’t hit the snooze button in the morning. That’s a fast track to feeling tired and disoriented wh you eventually get up. According to the Cleveland Clinic, the sleep we get when we hit snooze is not restorative and interrupts our REM cycle. By hitting snooze to try and get those few extra minutes of sleep, you may end up feeling worse instead of more rested.
Most of us end up hitting snooze out of habit or because we did not sleep enough the night before. Sleep experts at the National Sleep Foundation recommend that healthy adults aim for 7-9 hours of sleep per night. In a previous article on revenge bedtime procrastination, we spoke about the importance of enough sleep for our energy, productivity and overall health.
My recommendation from that piece still stands: improve your sleep hygiene by tracking your sleep habits. You can use my handy printable sleep tracker to do that.
Your overall goal is to wake up early (preferably at the same time every day), have a shower and eat a healthy meal for breakfast.
2. Plan out your day properly
The key to becoming more productive is being deliberate with your time. You need to know what you’re sending your time on, why it's important, and when you are going to do it.
One of the main reasons you may find yourself procrastinating or feeling demotivated is because you don’t have a clear plan for the day. Perhaps you have only a vague idea of what you’re meant to be doing, and that leaves you feeling overwhelmed.
Start your day by clarifying how you want to spend the rest of it. Write a to-do list and a detailed schedule. Determine your primary goal for the day and what your main priorities are. You can use a productivity app for this. If you prefer to write things down on paper, you can get my productivity planner pack here. It has pages dedicated to helping you plan out your week and individual days better.
3. Mind your caffeine intake
Coffee is an international shortcut to getting an energy boost. According to Entrepreneur, coffee is beneficial for memory and cognition, boosting productivity, mood and attention.
However, there are some downsides as well. Psychology Today points out that our adenosine receptors are interfered with by caffeine. These receptors are important for signalling your body when you need to take a break. Essentially, when you drink coffee, you believe you have more energy than you do. That burst of energy you get after your morning cup of coffee may turn into a mid-afternoon crash.
Depending on your circumstances and needs, you may not need to quit coffee completely. However, you may want to switch to moderate intake if you're a heavy consumer. Once in a while, swap the coffee for decaf, herbal tea, or plain water.
Water will leave you feeling more hydrated without an energy crash aftward.
4. Don’t wait to feel like working
One of the secrets to start working, even when you don't feel like it, is to get started regardless of your motivation levels. One of the biggest fallacies I see floating around is that we constantly need to feel good and motivated. It's based on the conception that how we feel should guide our actions.
However, there are situations where our feelings aren't always the best gauge for what we should be doing. Yes, you don't feel like working right now, but that doesn't mean your deadlines will magically disappear until you start feeling motivated.
I read an incredibly useful article from the Cut recently, the writer quotes the author Oliver Burkeman who posits that we can learn to coexist with our reluctance to start working. He recommends that we take note of our desire to avoid the job but get started anyway.
We don't need to feel motivated, we need to just start.
I’ve found that my desire to procrastinate often evaporates as soon as I get started and start building momentum in whatever task I need to be doing. The anxiety that accompanies procrastination is often much worse than just doing the job. It’s one of the reasons people hate procrastinating.
While you’re procrastinating, doesn’t it feel like the task is looming above you; heavy and intimidating? And when you put aside those feelings and start working, don't you realise that it wasn’t nearly as bad as you thought?
We can coexist with our unproductive feelings as long as we don’t allow them to dictate our day
5. Work for half an hour
As noted earlier, getting started is often the most difficult bit. If you worry that a task will be too difficult, make a plan to work non-stop for only half an hour. Set a timer and minimize potential distractions.
Once that time is over, you’ll probably realise that the work isn't as hard as you thought, and you feel ready to keep going.
6. Take note of your energy levels
All of us have times of the day when we feel more energetic than others. Perhaps you feel more energetic during the early morning, whereas others may experience a boost of energy in the mid-afternoon.
Be mindful of this when creating your daily schedule. You may want to tackle your most challenging duties during your peak energy hours.
You can handle your easier and more monotonous duties when you're less energetic.
7. Be kind to yourself
When you’re being unproductive, how do you talk to yourself? Do you berate yourself and call yourself useless?
That sort of self-talk isn’t helping you. It will make you feel worse, which in turn will zap your desire to improve your habits. By contrast, being compassionate with yourself is a better pairing for self-improvement.
Self-compassion improves the likelihood that you will work on your weaknesses, and be more productive, as shown by this study from the University of California.
Conclusion
All of us struggle with motivation now and then. There are days when we just don't feel like it. Luckily, there are ways to boost your productivity. By sleeping better, starting our days well, planning ourselves and being mindful of our habits, we can put ourselves on the path to self-improvement and better productivity.
Comments