To be productive when you are not motivated takes some planning and changes in your working schedules. There is a lot of saying about motivation and get done but sometimes we just feel so uninspired to do anything.
Whenever I have a lot to do (most of the times), I feel overwhelmed and could not find the urge to be motivated to do anything. Whenever I try to look at my to-do list, I get more overwhelmed. My big to-do list just sits like that without any tick mark because I haven’t completed anything.
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This feeling originates from nowhere. I feel this originates from the feeling of having a lot of unplanned work. There are a few steps you can take to combat that feeling. I feel like
♠ Making goals and slaying those goals is important. If you want to make goals in every sphere of life, I highly recommend using this printable planner to plan your goals.
You can also access this free slay your goals guide to help you crush your goals.
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Read here how to be productive when you are not motivated to do anything
1. Analyse your situation
Everybody has a different situation when it comes to being motivated and productive. The urge to do nothing originated from the feelings you have about a certain task. All the bad feelings you have, will not let you concentrate on the tasks in hand.
Keep in mind that your present situation emerged from your feeling and your emotions about your present or past time. Analyse those emotions and write down those on a paper.
Now try to feel the emotion you want to feel instead. Write down that feeling in front of the unwanted feeling. Now close your eyes and start to feel the emotion you want to have for the particular task. This may change how you want to feel about a certain task.
You may start feeling good about working or in other words, you may start feeling little inspiration to at least give this task a try. Sometimes taking your first step can lead to the successful completion of the task.
2. Listen intentionally to your self-talk
I know you are not motivated to do anything. Your own feeble voice inside you may be saying something to you which you are not listening. This is the time to be with yourself. Sit with close eyes and listen to your inner voice. Go deep inside and if you find that your self-talk is getting too negative, change the shift of your self-talk.
Say few positive words about the task in hand. Think about how this is going to change your life forever. How better you will feel on its accomplishment. What fruits this task will bring after completion.
3. Analyse your goals
Our goals make a huge difference in our lives. If the goals are too complicated and big and they feel like a huge amount of work, they impact our minds. If you have a big task in your hand, you go on working on it but feel like you are not getting anywhere.
At this point, have a look at your goals and break them into smaller pieces. Make each task a small goal. These smaller goals are easy to accomplish Please don’t forget to write down the rewards in front of those goals.
♦ Emotional tip: Write down reward in front of your task. Reward yourself after accomplishing every goal, even if it is a small accomplishment.
4. Evaluate your to-do list
It is really important to have a look at your to-do list because it will help you in figuring out the most important tasks and delete the less important ones. Sometimes your to-do list becomes so big that it overwhelms you and you start feeling unmotivated to do anything.
Small to-do list with very few tasks keeps you inspired to work on those tasks and move further. Here you should prioritise according to Eisenhower matrix. And first, handle those tasks which are urgent as well as important.
♠ Making your goals along with intentions help you stay motivated. Use this 60 page printable planner to plan your goals.
5. Start working in small intervals
If you are in an uninspired zone at the moment, you cannot think of working for too long on a task. Set a timer for 15 minutes and work on one task. Multitasking for these 15 minutes will make you overwhelmed. After 15 minutes, you would have accomplished a task. It means you are one step nearer to your goal. Feel happy about it.
Take a 5-minute break and then gain set a timer for 15 minutes. Start working on one more task. After another 15 minutes,
Timer: Set a timer for 15 minutes → A small task started → 15 minutes and Timer off: task accomplished
You: Happy → take a break ?
Again start the same pattern. Have a look at your progress after one hour. Hey, you have accomplished a lot. Take a coffee/snack/tea or any break which you love. For me, it is a tea break. Or you can dance on your accomplishment of inspiring your own self.
6. Organise yourself/working area
At the time when you just don’t want to do anything, have a look around your working area. If it is disorganised, spend 15-20 minutes cleaning and organising that area. It will really help you in having a clear mind to start working again.
I feel like I am the most unorganised person and keep things here and there. But whenever I organise my work area, it feels so good (for a few days) until it gets messed up again. But a clean look of your working area has a positive impact on your work.
7. Take the first step
Sometimes, taking the first step is the most difficult. Once the action is taken, it becomes easy from there. Just starting a task makes it bit easy to concentrate on. Start something and continue from there. When I feel like not doing anything, I will start the task really mindlessly after convincing myself to do it for 10 minutes. I always reassure myself that I will leave the task after 10 minutes. But to my own astonishment, I would go on doing the task for a longer time.
If nothing works, I just leave everything. And go out for a walk, or watch TV, or movie. Just anything instead of work.
8. Let go the feeling of perfectionism
Sometimes you just don’t do anything because you feel like you would not be able to do the task perfectly. There is nothing like being perfect. Just do it. You will hone everything on the way. You will be able to see the results. Suppose you want to write a blog post on an idea which is so dear to you.
You will put on writing because you want to write a perfect post. You just go on procrastinating for days. Instead of that, take action now. You can improve things on the way. You will not become perfect on the very first attempt, how hard you try. Like the Nike slogan, ” Just do it “.
9. Cut your self from Social Media
Social Media is interesting. It entertains you with funny pictures, funny posts and messages from friends. Open any Social Media platform, stare at the screen for 5 minutes. When you will come into senses, you would already have spent an hour doing nothing.
If you really want to keep yourself motivated to do the pesky tasks, keep social media to a minimum. Because you are already in the MODE OF NOT DOING ANYTHING, social media will keep hooked you. And your uninspired soul will keep procrastinating the important tasks.
For this, keep time in a day when you will check the interesting matter. For me, it is at night. Set aside sometime when you will check it.
You can read a beautiful post from Nicole Stone which talks about being productive while working from home.
♦ Set a timer for the time you will engage on social media platforms. You will save time and will accomplish more.
10. Figure out your optimum time and keep that for big tasks
We all are different. And so our optimum working times. At certain times, we feel more productive and are able to focus more on difficult tasks. Figure out when you are most productive and work on your most dreaded tasks at that time.
Keep small tasks for the times when you don’t feel in a mood to work. Check social media, emails and de-cluttering for the time you don’t feel doing anything.
If you are working as say at home mom, I know how your working day could be. Sometimes you may not be able to work at your own time because you have to look after your kid’s needs. Even then keep track of your optimum time.
11. Give your self some time
Give yourself some time to do what you feel to do. Whether it is watching TV or movies or just lying on the bed. Just do it for some time. I know how difficult is to relax when you have a lot of work piled up.
Even then, it is better to spend some time pampering yourself rather than wasting time just fretting overwork. Set a timer for all those relaxing things you want to do. Indulge in all those activities you want to do to procrastinate on a given task.
After some time, come to your important tasks. This helps in releasing the boredom from the mind. You have to remind yourself that you need to start working after a certain time. Your brain will start thinking that way and it will help you in being productive again.
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♦ If you want to be productive and want to set and slay goals for each area of your life, Use this 60 page printable planner to plan your goals. It is really important to set your goals with intentions and crush them.
Planning and little changes in your working schedule will help you in being productive again.
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How do you get your work done when you don’t feel motivated to do anything? Do tell me in comments.
