4 ways to get seriously motivated

Getting and staying motivated to keep turning the crank on your life is a never-ending challenge. It's all very well to build a perfect Getting Things Done system for yourself, but at the end of the day, it's wasted effort if you don't do the things that need doing.

Here's four ways I've found that work to recharge your motivation batteries:

• Get up and move. Whether you get up and move to dispel the lethargy that comes from sitting in front of a computer too long, or you're going to start taking exercise seriously, moving your body is a proven way of generating real motive power.
• Connect to the Block. Sometimes, not being motivated is your mind's way of saying, "Wait a minute - you should not do that!" Example - I've been seriously putting off writing a specific chapter for my next book. I had it outlined, but just could not muster any enthusiasm for it. I woke up today realizing my whole approach had been off, that the real story for that chapter was something entirely different. Instant energy! If you have a task you rationally know you should do, but you haven't, maybe it's time to ask yourself why.
• Break it up. Too often, especially if you are live/work online, you end up with a whole project pretending to be a task. For example, my My Documents folder is totally overgrown with files and folders, yet "Clean up Files" has been stuck on my Current List for months. Why? There's at least a dozen actual tasks hiding inside those three words - review two dozen downloaded .pdfs, install/try 4 different apps (but not before Friday, I promise!), move completed projects out and cull their files, etc. etc. Projects - or strings of tasks - pretending to be a single task are motivation killers - cut them down to size.
• Connect to what you want. Why are you doing this (unmotivating) task? If you can't connect that task to something you care about you are not going to do it - just that simple. You can connect to it in terms of what you get, or in terms of what you avoid - but if you can't explain to yourself in five seconds or less why do something, that's a very good sign maybe you should not do it at all.
  

Comments

[Alina Popescu]

I use "get up and move" quite often, to be honest. It sometimes help. To just relax or simply move away from it all and get a better perspective. However, your recharge advice that made me want to try it most is the last one on the list. I am pretty sure I will give it a try.

[Scott Carpenter]

Well done that are on track to meet the no-install/tinker goal by Friday! ;)

IMO an organized and neat workspace can help with motivation - as you have touched on already - http://www.todoorelse.com/2006/10/clutter_or_work.html