Getting Yourself In Gear
Some days it can be hard to get motivated to get things done or start new habits - especially these cool winter days. When you find your productivity slipping and your motivation dropping here’s a few simple strategies you can use to leverage your mind to help get yourself in gear.
1. Break it down. By subdividing your larger tasks into smaller ones, you’re more likely to feel like you can start to tackle them - and more likely to get them done in the long run! We often avoid bigger tasks in part because we secretly like the sense of accomplishment that comes with getting “a bunch” of things done. Just like a dog thinks they’re getting a whole party celebration of fun when you break one treat into a few smaller ones, our minds also like to celebrate multiple wins, rather than just one. You can also break it down by time chunks if that works better for your situation. For example rather than “clean the house” maybe try “clean the house for 20 minutes”. Once you begin, you might find that suddenly it’s already been half an hour and you’re on a roll. Worst case scenario, you at least got 20 minutes done rather than zero!
2. Leverage one of the golden rules of physics. A body in motion stays in motion, and a body at rest stays at rest. While this rule generally refers to objects, it is true for our body as well. Even if you don’t know where to start, just start anywhere and then use your momentum to trickle down to other tasks. Alternatively, take the rule quite literally and actually get a bit of physical activity in to start the day. Going for a quick walk, taking the stairs, or hitting the pool or gym first thing can help you feel more energized and ready to take on the day. (And as a bonus - it can be added to the list of things you’ve accomplished in the day once you’ve finished).
3. Make a list: Be sure to include items like self-care and socializing in addition to the chores and/or work tasks that you need to get done. Again, breaking larger things down and checking them off will help you feel like you’re getting somewhere, or at least be good motivation for you if there are no checkmarks by mid-day!
4. Get to know yourself and what you avoid: Some people like to get the less enjoyable or difficult tasks over with first, in that case start your day with it. This gets it off your plate and you can move on to easier tasks later in the day when you might be starting to run out of steam. If you like to get a little momentum going first, then try to tackle one easy small task, then move on to the difficult one. This ensures you don’t keep putting it off to tomorrow.
5. Prioritize: When making your list, one strategy is to break the page into 4 boxes. What is important and time sensitive, what is not important but time sensitive, important but not time sensitive and finally not important and not time sensitive. Keep in mind this is what is important to you and your health - don’t automatically put self-care or time with family and friends into the non-time sensitive box - think about it first. Using these categories can help you ensure that you do the stuff that actually matters to you and the things that you need to do today.
6. Try the “other” 5 second rule. I recently read an article describing a 5 second countdown from thoughts to action described by Mel Robbins. She noted that we often don’t really want to change and as such have trouble motivating ourselves to get going. Because of this we might have a thought or an impulse to take action and get ourselves in gear, but then we spend the next little while talking ourselves out of it! So we have a thought but don’t actually end up taking any concrete or physical action on it. When you know you have to do something, rather than brainstorm all the reasons why you don’t want to do it or can’t, count backwards from 5 to 1 and then physically move to take action. You’re basically giving yourself a mini-deadline while also keeping your mind distracted with counting -instead of coming up with excuses! While this was suggested for bigger life changes, I’ve been testing it out lately for little things and have found it also works well getting smaller simple tasks done.
So don’t go running yourself ragged, but here’s to at least a few of us finally getting some things off the list this weekend :)