Skip to main content

Article Wednesday: 5 Tips to Overcome a Lack of Motivation

Often times just getting started is the hardest part of any project due to a lack of motivation. This frustrating mental barrier is a very real obstacle that confronts each and every one of us from time to time. Developing certain habits to restore and maintain your motivation in order to start and complete any given task is the basis of today's article.

Here are 5 tips to that will help you get motivated and maintain your drive regardless of what your goals may be. Plan Your Work It is important that you organize your efforts in a way that makes sense and proves most effective towards reaching your goals. Set up a schedule of when you intend to work on a particular project and how much time you intend to devote to it. Be realistic with your goals, the amount of time you'll need and when that time will be available to you. If the project is important, enough you'll want to consider scheduling the best time of day when you are at your best and most productive. For some people it is easier to get motivated in the early stages of the day when their energy level is at its highest. Work Your Plan Now with your plan in hand it is time to take immediate action. Your planning stages were the time to thoroughly think through the most efficient and effective process that will get you the results. Here is where you put that plan into motion and without hesitation. Simply following the plan you've developed will bring you closer to your desired results while increasing your sense of accomplishment. Pay close attention to not second-guessing yourself or reworking your plan. This will only burn more time and decrease both your self-confidence and your motivation. This is a dangerous scenario that could end up completely sabotaging your drive. The busier you stay the more progress you'll make and the more your self confidence will grow. Along with this will be a renewal of your own motivation to continue to move forward! This is the type of cycle you want to be in! Set Short Term Goals One of the best ways to motivate yourself and maintain your drive to complete your project is to set short-term goals. These are a great way of measuring your progress and helping you to recognize that you are moving closer to the completion of your project. Achieving your short-term goals and taking the time to identify that you have done so increases your own self-satisfaction. This helps make your efforts seem less like work and the last time I checked there wasn't anything wrong with that! Avoid Routine If the efforts you are putting forth involve any sort of repetition change things around to keep yourself more stimulated. Perhaps perform certain tasks at different intervals. Maybe even alternate these tasks to keep things more interesting. What you want to do is to minimize your boredom and increase your interest. This will lead to you becoming more fully engaged therefore making your efforts all the more productive! Schedule 'Down Time' As with most things it is easier to give it your best when you're fully rested. Be sure you include 'down time' in your scheduling to recharge and re energize. It will be easier to motivate yourself and keep your focus once you get back to your scheduled tasks. Overcoming a lack of motivation, in most cases, is essentially overcoming procrastination. By simply getting involved in any given project, you will begin to see progress, which in turn will further motivate you. It is the underlying dread that perhaps our efforts won't bring the results we seek that weaken our motivation and make the first step usually the most difficult! As Nike used to say 'Just Do It'!

About The Author

TJ Philpott is an author and Internet entrepreneur based out of North Carolina. For additional online success tips and a free guide that demonstrates how to find both profitable markets and products visit: http://affiliatequickstart.com

Comments

  1. Great tips, Virginia, especially the plan your work and work with your plan.

    I usually don't have a problem with motivation, I've always had a type A personality, although the MS has slowed me down. :)

    I do have a problem with not sticking to my plan and being a bit scattered.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Very true. It's ok to schedule down time.

    Thanks for sharing!

    ReplyDelete
  3. I need to work harder on that last one...

    ReplyDelete
  4. Terrific tips. I've started treating myself to reading the daily newspaper with a hot cup of tea before I tackle my day.

    ReplyDelete
  5. OMG, this is so what I needed to hear! I winced when you used the word "procrastination," and acknowledged to myself that when my schedule gets messed up, the first thing I do is procrastinate about things I don't really want to work on.

    ReplyDelete
  6. I like that. Now I'll just tell people "No, I'm not procrastinating, I'm just not motivated." Whether it's procrastination or a lack of motivation, it's my biggest problem. Thanks for the article!

    ~Bethany

    ReplyDelete
  7. Since I just wrote a blog about my procrastination problems, I needed to read this. Thanks for the helpful suggestions.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Great article! I have to struggle with procrastinating most days.

    ReplyDelete
  9. I loved this! Very helpful tips. I get into a "rut" sometimes with my writing and that is when I most feel a lack of motivation. I will turn back to this article next time that happens!

    ReplyDelete
  10. I'm no good at scheduling down time, but follow your other, "How To's." They work for me.
    Blessings,
    J. Aday Kennedy
    The Differently-Abled Writer
    Children's picture Book Klutzy Kantor
    Coming Soon Marta Gargantuan Wings

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Thank you for visiting my blog and for leaving a comment.

Popular posts from this blog

Interview Friday with Author Maggie Lyons

Maggie Lyons was born in Wales and brought up in England before gravitating west to Virginia’s coast. She zigzagged her way through a motley variety of careers from orchestral management to law-firm media relations to academic editing. Writing and editing nonfiction for adults brought plenty of satisfaction but nothing like the magic she discovered in writing fiction and nonfiction for children. Several of her articles, poetry, and a chapter book have been published in the children’s magazines Stories for Children Magazine and knowonder! VS: I want to thank you for being my guest here on The Writing Mama today, Maggie. To get things started can you share what you do to help balance your writing life with your family life? Maggie: Very fortunately for me, I’m retired and my son left the nest some time ago. That doesn’t mean I have no other commitments, of course. In fact, I’m very busy as a freelance editor, but I do have the privilege of being able to control m...

Interview Friday: Author Sands Hetherington

Sands Hetherington credits his son John for being his principal motivator. Sands raised his son as a single parent from the time John was six. He read to him every night during those formative years. He and young John developed the Crosley crocodile character in the series during months of bedtime story give-and-take. Sands majored in history at the University of North Carolina (Chapel Hill) and has an M.F.A. in creative writing and an M.A. in English from UNC-Greensboro. He lives in Greensboro. VS: I want to thank you for being my guest here on The Writing Mama today. To get things started, Sands, what do you do to help balance your writing life with your family life? Sands: Hi Mama and thanks for having me over. Actually, my family life was part of my writing life. I was a single (male) parent of a six-year-old son. We always did bedtime stories. One night John invented a red crocodile named Crosley for an after-lights-out companion. This evolved directly into...

Writing Prompt Monday: The Challenge

The idea is too basically express yourself on paper, learn how to use your five senses, or build upon an idea. Think back to when you were in school, it used to only take your teacher saying, “Write a paragraph or one page composition on any subject you want.” This was all it used to take to get those creative juices flowing, but what about now? If you are like me and most writers I know, you have most likely experience the dreaded word “Writer’s Block” from time to time. Getting past this wide-eyed, blank page stare can be hard, and the flashing cursor does not help matters. What is a writer to do? Well it does not matter if you are a New York Best-selling author or an aspiring author, we all need a little creative boost from time to time and that is where my Writing Prompt Monday comes in. In my search for a writing prompt for this week, I came across a great site called Creative Writing Prompts . They have over 300 writing prompts to get your creative juices flowin...