Motivation is a trick your mind plays on you
STOP WAITING TO BE MOTIVATED!
Motivation doesn’t work. It just doesn’t.
We get told often enough that motivation is useless and that we need to have more discipline. Have you ever heard the quote “discipline is the big brother of motivation”?
The problem is that motivation doesn’t work (on its own) and discipline is incredibly tough when you’re starting out with difficult or challenging tasks.
We can spend our whole lives waiting to be motivated to do the things we really want to do. Before you know it, you will be looking back on the past 10 years and wishing you had just started.
The problem? When you wait to be motivated you’re putting yourself into a catch 22 situation. Why? Let’s dig into it.
First let’s start by defining motivation……
Motivation can be defined as: the feeling of wanting to do something.
Let be honest for a moment here. How motivated is anyone, really, to do difficult things in life? Like for example: studying, cleaning, exercising, working or paying bills?
They’re not usually things you WANT to do. But things you know you need to get done in the grand scheme of things. And this is where the problem comes in. You’re waiting to feel like wanting to do something that you don’t really want to do. In other words, you are waiting for motivation before getting into action. The action doesn’t come because the motivation doesn’t come and so on & on down the negative spiral.
It’s ACTION that drives the motivation in the first place. We however get sucked into thinking that once we are motivated that we will get into action, almost by magic.
It’s a trick our minds play on us and it keeps us from ever getting started. (I’m sure you’ve been there when your mind says, “you know what? we don’t need to do this today/ I don’t feel like doing this today/ we can do that tomorrow/ these tasks will still be here tomorrow”.
The issue is that this thinking leads to procrastination and then motivation becomes a complete illusion.
You actually need to generate action FIRST then motivation will come which then generates even more action. This then creates a momentum where you can steadily keep going.
None of us need to be motivated to watch our favourite TV dramas, right? Why? Because we enjoy them and carve out time for them like our life depends on them .
What if you could apply that same principle to anything you want to do in your life long term? I’m not saying go and clean the house with a fake smile and start repeating “I love cleaning” again & again. That is one way to depress yourself. I’m talking about ways to make tasks more fun in a peaceful way..
When it comes to getting into action what you need is to want to do thing you’re wanting to do. But HOW?
It all comes down to the ‘fun factor’ and this is a part of being more productive (stay tuned for a whole series of posts coming on this next month!)
Fun is a huge thing for human beings. We all naturally gravitate towards things that are fun. We don’t need to be told twice to do anything fun, we naturally look forward to our favourite TV shows, or that second cup of coffee. These things give us a natural boost of energy.
The ‘Fun factor’ doesn’t just mean doing the things you enjoy and leaving out everything else. It’s about getting yourself to do the work in a way that doesn’t feel like you’re constantly grinding and forcing your way through the day. It’s about simplifying things and then building in rewards & enjoyment into everything you do.
Adding the ‘fun factor’ into your daily life:
You can build the ‘fun factor’ into your tasks by doing one of two things:
1. Making it really easy to get started or by
2. Creating rewards for completed items. You can also use a mix of the two.
Getting started!
“The hardest part of getting started is actually starting”.
The 5 minute rule: I set a time for 5 minutes and tell myself I will just do five minutes of X task. What ALWAYS ends up happening is that I get momentum and then keep going until I’m finish. Be careful though, in any given day you can trick yourself about 2 or 3 times then after that your brain will start to get tired. I tend to use this 5 minute rule for decluttering the house or writing blog posts. Both tasks that I know will take time but that once I start it’s easier to keep going.
The 2 minute rule: if as task takes 2 minutes or less I do it straight away instead of adding it to a task list. If I find myself with a lot of 2 minute tasks then I scribble them down on my notepad and get these all done in an admin block during my week. In a typical week I will block off time for 3-5 admin blocks ranging from 30 to 90 minutes in length. On days where I’m doing admin things I will not put anything else intense on the calendar because I find it totally drains my energy but remember to do what works for you.
Designing my work space: This is important as it will affect how much work you get done. It’s all about making it easy for you to get into work mode and stay there for a given amount of time. It’s about removing distractions that stop you from focusing on work.
For me this comes in the form of removing my smart phone from my desk. The first time I did this it felt strange but after a few weeks of doing this it became more habitual. Now when I’m working away from my smart phone, I find that I don’t even think to check it until my work is finished. A work block means anything from cleaning to blog writing to office work to anything that involves deep concentration.
The Magic Question: In my last post I talked about one of my favourite tips from Kendra Adachi’s book ‘The Lazy Genius Way’ it’s the magic question. It’s about making things easier later so that when it comes to the time to start you have all the resources you need to get going. This can be used very effectively in getting started with work! It can involve work space design as above or things like scheduling your week loosely around kids and colleagues and special event. There are just so many powerful ways off applying the magic question. Check out that blog post here.
Rewards:
Giving yourself something to look forward to after doing tasks makes it more likely that you will associate the task with the fun thing that comes after.
A treat for a block of time – For example: when I complete 30 minutes of admin tasks I allow myself to watch a 20 minute show on Amazon Prime. I set a reminder on my phone so that I don’t lose track of time. Once the 20 minutes is up I then get back to work. More on admin blocks coming next month.
A treat for a longer projects – For example deep cleaning. This involves things like a bubble bath or buying myself some flowers and putting them on the table. Or it can be something as simple as putting oil in a diffuser and sitting next to it with a good book. It helps to relax my mind and leaves me feeling calm.
Physical products as rewards – I’m always careful of suggesting this as I know that for many people this can go against their no spend goals. I like to treat myself to fun products for hitting targets. So for example for losing weight I will treat myself to new workout clothes which further helps me weight loss journey in terms of feeling happy. When I was first getting started, I didn’t feel very excited to do pilates every day & I kept procrastinating workouts. I got around this by buying a beautiful yoga mat and now I love to exercise just so that I can use it. Do what works for you and your mind to keep yourself happy and keep the momentum going.
Let me know which tip you will use for getting started and rewarding yourself. I’d also love to know your favourite hacks for getting things done!! If you have any questions on productivity and motivation definitely leave a comment or DM me and I’ll be able to give you some suggestions that have worked for me!