Now that we understand some of the complexities around why it’s hard to find motivation, let’s get tactical. What does it take to get motivated at work every day? How do we “just start” when we don’t feel like it? What are the techniques and strategies you can use to get and stay motivated every day?
Let’s dig into each of these and find more ways how to get motivated at work.
How proper goal-setting motivates you at work
My definition of motivation is “the desire to act and move toward a goal.” And while we’ve already talked quite a bit about how to understand and optimize your desire to work, the goal is equally as important.
What you’re working towards will often dictate how motivated you are to do it. Are you slogging through the first draft of your novel because you dream of being a published author? That’s probably a goal you can get behind. Trying to get through that beast of a spreadsheet so your boss won’t yell at you? Probably not as motivating.
So, if workplace goals aren’t as easily motivating, how can we change that?
As we wrote in our Guide to Effective Goal-Setting, it’s more important to build a habit around the process than to focus on the outcome of your goal. Not only are habits self-motivating, but they flip your desire from outcome-focused (extrinsic motivation) to process-focused (intrinsic motivation).
In other words, you become motivated by the act of doing the work, not what it will potentially give you.
This is still a little high-level (and we promised tactics!) So to get started, make sure for each of your workplace goals you’re able to do these three things:
- Know your “why” (and connect it to your core values). It’s much easier to build a habit if it connects to something you care about. This isn’t the same as “passion”, but rather knowing your core values and making sure what you do aligns with them. Take a minute and write down 3–5 core values that resonate with you and find how they connect to your goals. For example, knowledge, creativity, leadership, or compassion.
- Create a step-by-step action plan: Vague, high-level goals are easy to put off. Instead, schedule your motivation for specific times and know exactly what you’re going to do. We’ve written before about the importance of breaking your goals down into smaller chunks. This is just taking that a step further and planning specific times and places to tackle those pieces.
- Be able to track your progress: Once you start working, seeing progress is what will keep you motivated. Whether this is crossing off items on your to-do list, using a project management tool, or tracking your time in RescueTime, find the way that is easiest for you.
5 ways to combat a lack of motivation at work
Of course, setting goals and defining your intrinsic rewards won’t always get you out of a rut. As we said at the start of this post, motivation is an emotional problem.
Sometimes we just don’t feel like doing things. No matter how much the work connects to our values and provides us with intrinsic rewards. Here is where we need to bring out the big guns and learn how to get motivated even when we don’t feel like it.
Here are a few simple exercises and strategies for dealing with a lack of motivation at work.
1. SET UP YOUR WORK ENVIRONMENT TO BE ACTION-ORIENTED
Crossing the action/procrastination threshold isn’t easy, and unfortunately, your workspace probably isn’t helping. We have a tendency to get influenced by the things around us. And a cluttered workspace means more opportunities to get distracted and unmotivated.
Instead, try using what Stanford psychologist BJ Fogg calls “designing for laziness.” For example, you might close all the tabs in your browser except the one you want to work on. Or block distracting websites like social media during the workday. Anything that will funnel your behavior towards the right actions.
2. SCHEDULE YOUR MOTIVATION
It’s easier to take action when you know exactly when it’s going to happen. And with enough planning, you can take the friction of getting motivated out of the equation.
Think about the tasks you want to get motivated to do. Now, set a specific time and place for when you’ll do them and put it in your calendar. For example, you might have “Write a blog post on motivation written on your calendar for 9–10: 30 am on next Tuesday .”
3. USE THE 5-MINUTE RULE
When it comes time to actually do the work, sometimes scheduling isn’t enough. Instead, you need a strategy to get over the friction of just starting. One suggestion comes from the Instagram founder, Kevin Systrom:
“If you don’t want to do something, make a deal with yourself to do at least five minutes of it. After five minutes, you’ll end up doing the whole thing.”
4. USE ROUTINES AND RITUALS TO KICKSTART MOTIVATION
Pretty much every prolific creator, from best-selling authors to CEOs, follows a number of routines and rituals. Your mind loves repetition. When it knows what it needs to do and can prepare and plan for it, it’s more likely to want to engage in that activity.
Not only that but rituals — small acts you perform before starting a new activity — are a great way of signaling your brain that it’s time to change its focus. Rather than get caught up and obsess over something you’ve stopped working on, a basic ritual like stretching or walking around the office is a clear sign that it’s time to move on.
5. REVISIT YOUR PAST SUCCESSES
Fear is one of the great demotivators. And it’s easy to distract yourself when faced with a difficult task or something that you struggled with in the past. However, studies have found that recalling your past experiences with these kinds of hard tasks — both good and bad — can help boost motivation.
So next time you feel paralyzed by fear, try to remember another difficult task you got through. The memory can help break you free and show you that just starting is better than feeling stuck.
3. Strategies for staying motivated no matter what
For most of us, the issue with motivation isn’t always at the start, but sustaining it throughout the day. We all go through productivity peaks and valleys during the day. And finding a constant source of motivation is tough. We get tired. Things get in the way. We get distracted and are vulnerable to giving up. Here are a few final strategies to help you stay motivated throughout the day.
Get rid of the distractions trying to take away your motivation
As I said before, we all go through natural highs and lows of energy, productivity, and motivation throughout the day. You can think of these as productivity cycles — the times during the day where it’s easier for you to get things done and stay focused.
Researchers call this our Circadian Rhythm — a 24-hour internal clock running in the background of your brain that cycles between alertness and sleepiness. Each person’s rhythm is slightly different, but there are some common moments you probably recognize (like the post-lunch energy dip or the “Second wind” you get close to the end of the day).
The problem isn’t that we have these cycles. It’s that we leave ourselves vulnerable to distraction all day long. When you’re facing a natural decline in motivation and focus, why leave yourself open to something that will take that away?
Remember, the way nature gets us to do what it wants is by making it pleasurable.
We run through how to discover your own personal productivity curve here. Afterward, you can make a few small changes to keep you motivated all day long:
- When you’re most likely to have low energy. You’re most likely to lose motivation when your energy is low and your brain starts to crave easier tasks (like scrolling through social media).
- When your energy levels are higher. You also want to optimize your high-energy time to make progress on tasks and build that ongoing motivation.
- When you need to take a break. Breaks are powerful tools for helping us stay motivated all day long. Look at when your energy levels dip and take a meaningful break During your afternoon dip. You can’t just take breaks during low-energy times. Instead, schedule low-impact tasks like getting through your inbox, organizing tools, or cleaning up your work environment.
- When you want to stay motivated. Motivation is all about action. By using your device’s Do-Not-Disturb mode at the start of a task, you ensure you can cross the threshold and get started.
Using the science of habits to stay motivated (and motivate those around you)
As we spoke previously, everything thing you can manage is to transform inspiration into a propensity. To do as such, you need to see how activities become ongoing and afterward make your day around those particular minutes.As we wrote in our Guide to Building Good Work Habits, the chain reaction of a habit is caused by three things:
- Reminder: The trigger then initiates the behavior
- Routine: The behavior itself; the action you take
- Reward: The benefit you gain from doing the behavior
So how does this work for boosting motivation?
How about we start with the update. The main piece of building inspiration is the beginning. What’s more, setting a suggestion to begin either through a custom, viewable signal, or really booking it on your timetable can help push you to begin.
For instance, suppose you need to get persuaded to compose a blog entry. You may plan it in your schedule, place a tacky note on your PC, or go through your pre-composing custom of making a decent mug of espresso.
Then, you need the actual normal. Inspiration is a ton like material science. When you’re moving, it’s simpler to continue onward (insofar as nothing disrupts the general flow). Utilize the energy of simply beginning and attempt to get into a condition of the stream.
At long last, the award. With regards to work, the vanity and achievement of completing things is an award in itself. Yet, to help yourself to remember this, you need to see improvement. This implies doing likewise activity each time. Follow a similar update and routine and keep tabs on your development.
In the long run, your work undertakings will turn out to be so constant you will not have to consider getting spurred.
How to get back on track when you lose all motivation
Unfortunately, there will always be times where you lose your motivation altogether. Maybe you’re feeling overwhelmed, burnt out, or simply just having a bad day. Whatever it is, there are ways to snap out of it.
- Start with the smallest task possible. Motivation is all about action and sometimes simply crossing off a basic to-do can help shake you out of your funk. This can be ridiculously small. For example, “create new Google doc for blog post” or “copy outline from Trello into a doc.”
- Go DND while you deal with your most important messages. Often we lose motivation because we feel overwhelmed by all the things we could be doing. When this happens, you need to stop the influx of messages and get through the most important ones. Again, progress builds momentum.
- Challenge yourself. Sometimes we don’t feel motivated because our work isn’t challenging. Human beings love to be challenged and finding the sweet spot between anxiety and effort is how we get into a state of flow. If you have a lack of motivation and doing something easy doesn’t help then try the opposite. Pick a challenging problem or idea and commit some time to it.
If none of these work, you might be facing more than just a lack of motivation. In extreme scenarios, a lack of motivation might be caused by feeling burnt out or working too much. If you can’t seem to find your “get up and go” it might be worth taking a moment to reflect on your current situation and what might have brought you to this point.
