How To Motivate Yourself When You’re Just Not Feeling It

We all have days like this, don’t we? Or even weeks or months?! As someone who works for myself, alone, from home, this one can be a challenge from time to time so today I thought I’d share my top tips on how to motivate yourself when you’re just not feeling it. 

Set Yourself Small Goals

Sometimes the tasks ahead of you can seem huge and overwhelming which can then demotivate you to even begin them.

This is where you will need to set yourself small goals.

Be realistic with yourself about what you can get done in the timeframe that you have and think about what ‘needs’ to be done and what you ‘want’ to get done.

You can split your lists into these goals if that helps you to see them as more manageable.

You might then want to give yourself a little break when you achieve each smaller goal, before moving on more motivated to the next one. 

Change Things Up

Change can really liven you up and keep you pushing on, so if you can, change the job you’re working on or move around the order you’re doing things in. 

Move your list of priorities around and work on something else for a bit before returning to the task that you are really not feeling. 

Alternatively, change where you are working, whether that’s your seating or standing position or perhaps move to a new room or location. 

If you work alone, you might also find it useful to work with other people from time to time so look out for others in your position or work spaces that are available near you.

Whilst I know this isn’t always possible, if you can do this, it can really make a difference.

Recognise Your Mood

It’s always worth recognising and acknowledging the mood that you’re in, so that you can do something about it.

It can be tempting to get up and intend to plough onwards even on those low motivation days and then you can end up hitting brick walls. 

If you’re feeling a bit flat, maybe you need some fresh air to get you going, some movement, some upbeat music, some serotonin boost from somewhere – I cuddle the kids or Herbie if I need this!

Take a moment to understand your mood and what you might need to be able to put in a productive and motivated day. 

Put A Reward In Place

This one can work really well, you just need to be disciplined enough to stick with it and be honest with yourself. 

You might set yourself a goal and then promise yourself that if you can reach it you can treat yourself to xyz. 

It needn’t be anything huge, just a little treat like a well earned break, a chat with a friend, a bar of chocolate, whatever works for you in that moment.

You might be struggling to motivate yourself as you really just want to relax or do something else. If this is the case, make a deal with yourself that you can do those things, as long as you get a certain amount of work completed first. You’ll feel satisfied when you get that reward, knowing you earned it.

Accept It

OK, I recognise that this isn’t always an option, but I do think that if all else fails you might just need to accept that it’s not happening. 

Sometimes this is the right thing to do. Pushing yourself into something where you are making zero progress and feeling worse and worse is not going to help you.

Instead, step away. Take a breather and do something else.

The chances are that when you return to what you need to do you’ll do so refreshed and able to complete the task much more quickly than before.

I hope that these ideas help you, they certainly keep me going from day to day.

What would your top tip be?

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