How to motivate yourself to do the right things
There are a million motivational tips you can give. But usually they come up with the fact that they need to force themselves to somehow take the first step – switch to new principles of time management, play sports or stop eating at night. In the summer, somewhere between vacations, we at Maxilect gathered to discuss exactly how we were taking this first step.
It should be noted that experienced remote workers with self-discipline and motivation are doing well. But even we have temporary crises. This article is about what my colleagues and I do when “it doesn’t work out on its own” and you still need to force yourself to do the right things.
Soviet education – rely on discipline and you will have everything. If you don't want to go to work, get up and go.
But it's not that simple.
Below you will find some tips from our team.
Set realistic goals
You shouldn’t plan on sleeping for 2 hours all week and working the rest of the time and remaining efficient. Look at things realistically.
You need good sleep and rest from work. You need not only to spend time with your family, but sometimes to be alone with yourself. You need to do the things you love at least sometimes.
If you don’t take care of yourself, no matter what level of internal discipline you have, productivity and the quality of your decisions will begin to decline.
So the first step is not really the goal itself, but understanding your limitations. Let's say that in the morning you need a pause of 20-30 minutes between getting up and starting work. Or that an evening walk is the best way to stay in a good mood (and it’s better to immediately schedule time for this walk).
Once this is figured out, you can set goals that fit within these limitations. And we recommend setting goals immediately with deadlines. Like getting on a bike tomorrow, not sometime in the future.
Break down your goals into simple ones
It's hard to “find a new job.” But it's much easier to go through the list:
update your resume;
write and post on social networks a text stating that you want to find a new place;
look at open vacancies in several interesting companies;
and further according to plan.
Decompose complex tasks into simple subtasks. This way there will be less uncertainty, which means the internal resistance to the start of movement will weaken.
Start doing something small
Continuation of the previous idea. Have you ever heard about the fear of a blank sheet when doing mental work? You open a document and don't know where to start.
So start with anything. Do you need to write an article? Write the word “hello”. It is clear that it will not remain in the final version of the text. But there is no longer a blank slate, you have started – it will be easier to continue.
Open your work files. Look, while they are opening, you will already have an idea on how to continue from where you left off yesterday.
We need to do some repairs, but we don’t have the strength or desire to do so – pick out one tile. Yes, it looks stupid. But the next step will be a little easier.
This trick works with any “correct” actions. You need to change your lifestyle and start moving more – include a 5-minute walk today. You don’t even have to promise yourself to do this every day just yet. Just start. You don’t need to immediately plan global reforms in your life – try something small. As long as it leads in the right direction.
Take small steps
This advice partly echoes the previous two. Don’t “scare” yourself with global plans. Go step by step: take one, see how your reality has changed, and adjust the next one if necessary. This approach, like with sprints, allows you to reduce the risk of errors from incorrect planning for years in advance (and the fear of these errors too).
Educate yourself and find inner motivation
A deeper understanding of oneself has already been discussed above, but this is good from all sides. It is worth noticing your habits and characteristics, using them for good.
The business should not only be useful, but also “tasty.” Think about what you like about this business? Are there moments you could enjoy?
For example, it’s easier for you to start interesting tasks. So start with them in the morning, when you just can’t get into work. Start with the interesting ones, and then, switching, take the rest (just watch the balance so that there are no failures in uninteresting, but necessary areas).
This approach is essentially a search for internal motivation. As a reward to yourself for performing the right action, you choose a certain pleasure option. For example, from the process.
But in this search it is important to be honest with yourself. If the only motivator to get things done quickly is “the rooster has already pecked,” then adapt and use it. Deadlines are partly about external motivation. But the inner feeling “everything is on fire” works for many. If this applies to you too, try to plan your tasks in such a way that waiting until the last minute does not create a huge wave of undone tasks.
Less compromises
Don’t “train” yourself to the fact that putting off important things has no consequences. In terms of realistic goals, if something needs to be done, it must be done. You have to get up at 8 am – that means you have to. This means we set one alarm clock and don’t allow ourselves to snooze it or turn it off (to supposedly wait for the next one).
The brain loves consistency
A regular schedule helps you stick to the correct sequence of actions. If you go to bed and get up at approximately the same time, choosing them so as to get enough sleep, then there will be no problem getting up in the morning.
By the way, the idea of consistency is true not only for schedules, but also for rituals. Creating the right ritual for yourself that leads to work or sports is also good. Pleasant and familiar rituals help you stick to your schedule.
Some ideas for such rituals from colleagues:
turn off the computer to finish your work day on time (and not stay working until night) – this makes it easier to maintain a balance between work and personal life;
go out for a walk to mark the beginning or end of the working day;
set reminders for lunch, the beginning and end of the working day. This can be done through any voice assistant (the same Alice) – for some it is important that such a reminder comes as if from the outside.
And some more interesting tips from the Internet
Set the right goals. By achieving a goal, you want to solve some of your problems. Which one exactly? If you can’t start moving this route, can you come up with another one to solve the same problem? Maybe there should be other goals there?
Plan changes in your life (right actions) when you are in a good mood. This way you will not associate your negativity with the upcoming changes and there will be less internal resistance.
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