We all have those days when you really have to drag yourself to work or you get there but find yourself unable to actually do anything for some reason. Well, while that’s perfectly normal for any working individual, it would still be bad to continue like that and not do something about it. Because you can’t just skip work when you don’t feel like working, here are some tips to motivate yourself and help you get through those dreadful days.
Tell Yourself That You Can Quit After You Do One Important Task
During those days when you barely managed to get out of bed to get to work, getting started with your tasks feels even harder than usual. Probably because whatever motivation you have left was spent on forcing yourself to go to work, so once you reached the office and your desk you just wanna go back home.
But since you’re already there, I would be a waste of time and energy to just slump at your desk all day right? What you can do is to sift through your tasks for the day and pick the most important one and tell yourself that you’ll go home once you finish it. It’s a trick to feel like you’re allowed to be a little lazy while still accomplishing something for that day. But the thing with this trick is that, once you actually finished that important task, you probably won’t go home or lazy around after that because that feeling of productivity high will kick in and will get you in the mood to proceed with the rest of your work.
Make Use Of Apps That Blocks Social Media Sites While You Work
One of the worst culprits of feeling lazy at work is social media. Once you’re on that rabbit hole it’s hard to get out. You can tell yourself over and over that you’ll only check them for 5 minutes but you’ll find yourself scrolling through all of them for an hour or more every time. Be honest, you it’s true.
So you’ll need something stronger than your will to stop it. There are free apps that can be installed on your desktop where you can set the timer to block social media sites and other websites that usually distracts you from working. What happens is that when you try to load the sites you blocked, you get an error message like those ones you get when there’s no connection. So you have no choice but to go back to your tasks. Sometimes you may even forget that you blocked those sites and assume it’s a website issue every time. This eliminates the distraction completely so you can get things done
Start The Day With A Fun Task
We all know that the first trick above may not work every time. So you have to find a way to make yourself want to actually work. You do that by attacking the tasks that you enjoy doing first. No matter your profession, we all have those tasks that you enjoy doing every day and hate so much you even contemplate on paying someone else to do it for you.
So on those days you don’t feel like working, try to ease yourself into work by doing the fun bits first. This way you’re more into it than what you’re initially feeling. To make sure you don’t leave things behind, you can alternate fun/easy task with the boring/hard ones. This way you don’t end up with a pile of tasks you don’t enjoy by the end of the day.
Get In The Mood
While we’re on the topic of fun, how about make work more pleasant for you even when you don’t really feel like it? You can do this by listening to upbeat music (on headphones, of course) while tackling your work. Or watch a short clip of room decluttering or something like that before doing a task that you really dread. Sometimes watching other people accomplish a dreaded tasks makes you wanna do the same.
Keep Your Energy Up
Movement is energizing, and studies show that walking increases creativity and helps you think. It's easy to feel tired and unmotivated when you've been sitting for too long. Get up and move around, ideally outside in the fresh air. You can spend your time thinking about the work you need to do or let your mind wander. Either way, the exercise will help.
I recommend taking a 20-to-30-minute stroll to clear your mind and boost your energy levels. If you can't take that long, get up, get some water and go to the bathroom. Even five minutes of movement will help.
Plan Ahead
Around holiday season or those months when work is usually packed, you can expect a million and one things going on at the same time. This is the reason why you feel disheveled trying to stay on top of things and lethargic at the same time because you just want to breathe and escape the chaos. Avoid this by planning ahead. This way you know everything that you should be doing and can finish them on time.
Prioritize And Know How Long Tasks Will Take
When you have a lot on your plate, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed and end up not finishing anything at all. Save yourself from this black hole! Assess each task you have and decide which ones to work on first depending on their urgency and importance and then attack them accordingly. This way you’re actually getting some work done instead of stressing over having so much to do and not being able to work on them because you’re already slammed by stressing over it.