We’ve all had days when doing anything just seems to be impossible. And now that more of us are working from home, the temptation to lounge around and put off responsibilities until the last minute is even harder to fight off.
That doesn’t mean that demotivation is impossible to conquer though. Here are some psychological tricks you can use to get both your mind and body working again.
Ten Minutes at a Time
Whether it’s replying to work emails or cleaning your apartment, applying the 10-minute rule will help you get started on accomplishing your to-do list effectively.
This means getting over the struggle of starting by telling yourself that you’d only have to do a dreaded task for 10 minutes and then you can decide whether you want to stop or continue going after that.
A List of Good Reasons
When we’re in a motivation slump, we tend to have that discouraging voice in our head that feeds us excuses to not do the things we needed to do. Fight it by being your own voice of reason.
Start by creating a list of good and logical reasons why you need to do something. For example, run through the positive effects of working out while you’re on the way to the gym or while you’re preparing for a run.
Prepping Ahead
Another effective way to convince yourself to keep moving is to set yourself up for success. This means preparing ahead of time.
Do the necessary things to make a task easier by removing potential obstacles in your path. For example, you can go to sleep earlier at night or set your coffee machine
The Power of Visualization
People often daydream about them reaching the finish line to motivate them. But some psychologists have found that it’s more effective to visualize yourself going through the motions of running the race instead.
Imagine yourself suffering through distress and overcoming it. You’ll likely succeed more doing this than just skipping right to the end without acknowledging inevitable hardships.
The ‘Now’ Deadlines
When you perceive a deadline to be far ahead into the future, you’ll have the tendency to put off working on a task. To counter this, give yourself some ‘now’ deadlines to accomplish even when a work output isn’t due until the following week or month.
This involves chipping away at a task daily to avoid the brain going into procrastination mode, which could derail you altogether.