Lack of motivation & Delaying tasks – Real world solutions

Hello,

I find myself these days with a weak creative mind and generally with less activity power – That mindset makes me delay many tasks, some of which are of high importance. This has happened for me before and after looking  for a solution to these hard times which many of us just don’t have the will or power to act or do anything – I have built a simple list which once act upon can get you back into your work, fast.

Guidelines to preventing the delay of tasks or work:

1. Put easy listening music that you like now, in the background – Mine are beutifull 80’s / 90’s ballads like sting, lionel richie etc…

2. Write about it in your blog, if you don’t have a blog – open one,  I’m just doing it in this post.

3. Instead of thinking about getting things “done” / “finished” think about getting things “started” – Sometimes we have too much work and actually thinking about finishing the work makes us feel exuasted – Think about starting the work, maybe the first task out of a big project  – just start doing something related to it,  most of the time it’s ok not to finish the work on the same day.

4. Choose to do your work,  create a  tasks listing and choose what to do by sorting the tasks with importance / urgency in mind – Stop using words like “must” if you have a task list and you have just chosen this task – it’s not a task you are forced / must do, but a task you chose to do after looking at all of your tasks – this will add motivation to the flow of your work.

5. The global picture – Do you have a calender set up? whats the time frame for the current project? If you don’t have a time frame this might get you spending time on other things and you’ll probably have difficulty in ever finishing / starting the project because you’ll never feel the urgency to do so – Knowing where are you going and when will help you mind is giving you the correct mindset to start / finish a job.

6. social life – I really have a problem with this one, but try to have a social life and even get it listed on your calendar – because I have a rough time with this one I even have a “food time” alert on a daily basis on my phone because sometimes I just don’t stop doing something and actually forget to eat!

Social life when scheduled and on a daily / weekly basis can really free your mind for the times you start your work and have lots more of that good feeling and motivation that comes after a good social interaction.

7. sport – This must seem unrelated, but having to sit in front of the computer almost all the time in the past 2 years – I have found that sport is a necessity, and I’m not going to tell you like everybody to go to the gym 3 times a week and have a 2 hour session each time. Basically everyone tells you that sport is a must in your life,  I agree with that – But you choose how to add it to your life. Just get yourself every day / two and have a run around the block – then get back and do some push ups or whatever sport activity you like. don’t force yourself to join a routine that will put on your life on a must do 2 hours of sport everyday, just feel the need to go out for a run / walk and have fun with it, it doesn’t matter how much time you spend on it or how much KM/Miles you are running or walking. Your heart needs you to have aerobic activity – And your body will really help you feel better when you do have some sport in your life.

TOP TIP – I don’t even put a sport session in my calendar anymore, I used to force myself to run 4 KM 3 times a week and do about 5 hour of muscle training each week, one day I just got sick of it and stopped doing sports for about 8 months, this has happened because I forced myself and when we force ourself we can rarely continue doing something without stopping – Doing sports for fun and just getting outside and running / walking without metering yourself will get you the healthy feeling that sports brings to one’s life but will keep away the whole “you have to do it” syndrome.

Yours,

Tzvi.