How to make yourself self-motivated–these 5 easy tricks will help you do work even when you don’t want to. Learn how to make yourself self-motivated, stay self-motivated, and get more things done so you can finally stop procrastinating and feeling guilty.
Here’s what Wednesdays used to look like for me:
- Get to work; plant butt in cubicle.
- Stare at my to-do list, read some things online, daydream.
- Get a few things done.
- Go home and start over again the next day.
I was working at a small publisher at the time, and the pace was s-l-o-w. I had just come from another editor gig that was relentlessly fast-paced–each day was chockfull of meetings, paperwork, and dozens of things only I could do each day.
Now suddenly I was plopped in a quiet office, with almost no meetings or urgent to-dos. The 8-hour day stretched endlessly, and I couldn’t figure out how to structure my time, keep up momentum, or get things done when it was just so much easier to put things off until tomorrow.
I was bored, unproductive, and definitely not living the How to Get Sh*t Done life. I realized I would have to teach myself a key skill: how to make yourself self-motivated.
Now my Wednesdays look like this:
- Wake up, grab laptop and coffee, and write a blog post before 9 am.
- Reward myself with a shower and getting ready for the day.
- 8 hours of emails, proposal editing, contract review, calls, etc.
- Shut my laptop promptly around 6-7, make dinner, relax.
It took a long time, but I finally learned how crucial it is to do the most important thing first in the day. So now, every weekday, I start the day by proposal editing, pitch letter writing, blog post writing, or whatever else is going to take the most brain power and concentration.
That was so game-changing for me. I finally (mostly) beat back my lifelong habit of procrastinating and avoiding tough projects. I’m not perfect and definitely still fritter away time, but now I know a bit more about how to make yourself self-motivated.
But that was just one of a few productivity tips that have completely changed how I work and stay self-motivated. So today I’m sharing one of the essential articles that has changed my life–it’s from one of my all-time favorite writers, Leo Babuata of Zen Habits.