How To Get Motivated At Work

To dream by night is to escape your life. To dream by day is to make it happen. ~ Stephen Richard (Tweet this)

It’s no secret.

Whether you work from home or go into an office everyday sometimes you need to know how to get motivated at work to get you through the day.

I mean, you’re only human.

And, as a human, you tend to procrastinate, spending time on:

• Unimportant Emails
• Facebook notifications
• Text messages that could wait
• Cat videos on YouTube

They take up time that you probably should spend doing real work, right?

Well, don’t worry if that sounds like you right now. Because, you’re about to learn how to get motivated at work and procrastinate less.

Edit your life frequently and ruthlessly. It’s your masterpiece after all. ~  Nathan W. Morris (Tweet this)

This article will show you:

• How to stay distraction free at work – whether in an office or at home?
• How to find the why behind your work?
• The best baby steps to take to get the work done complete.
• How to take control and focus when you need it most?

Want to know how to get motivated at work? Start with passion

One of the best motivators when it comes to work is doing something you’re passionate about. If you love your job and the work you do every day, you are less likely to seek motivation on a regular basis. It will come naturally.

So, ask yourself:

• Are you doing something you love?
• Could you change what you do, if you don’t love it?

Alas, even those who do the work they love need motivation once in a while. There’s only so much coffee in the world, and you may need a little boost.

Think about your “why”

Ask yourself why you are doing your current task. Taking a second to step back and think about the bigger picture is a great place to start. Are you doing the work because you have to, or because you’re putting off a bigger, scarier task?

If you are finding a task difficult, think about when you are doing it. When are you most productive? Is it first thing in the morning, just after lunch, or just before you go home?

Find out, and do the difficult tasks now.

Giving yourself a time-slot to do certain tasks will make the whole process easier, setting yourself up for the rest of the day. If you find you’re doing something to procrastinate and look busy, then stop. Put it to one side and start to make a dent in what you actually need to be doing. Take the fear out, and get it done. 

Take baby steps

Some work stuff is a little daunting. It’s the same in all walks of life. Whether you’re at school with a project due, or a looming deadline at work; it feels scary, so you put it off.

Setting yourself sub-deadlines is the best way to deal with this. Tell yourself you’ll work on X project for five minutes, and then take a break. Go make a coffee, walk around the office, have a biscuit. As you get little chunks done, up the time limit until you’re completely in the zone.

More often than not you’ll end up working for longer than intended as you get into the flow. You’ll get to a point where there’s no reason to stop, as you’d have to start the whole process again.

Work on a win

Even the smallest of successes can make you feel on top of the world. So plan ahead. Set yourself a schedule the night before and start ticking it off as soon as you start work.  Getting things ticked off—no matter how small they are—will get you in the flow of work, taking away the fear and anxiety around bigger tasks.

Need to make a really important phone call, send a big email, or face your boss in a meeting? Ticking off a list will get you pumped up and ready to face anything the day throws at you.

If small problems are turning into bigger issues, get these things done first. Eliminating as much stress and anxiety as early on as possible will free your mind up to focus on bigger, more important things, giving you the motivation to keep going.

Take control and focus

Setting your focus towards how you want to feel at the end of the day is another great motivator. It ensures you take responsibility for how much work you get done today. Be realistic, and don’t set the bar too high, as you can always add things to your schedule if need be. But allowing a little wiggle room for life to happen ensures you keep on target whilst remaining flexible.

Take control of your day. Whether you have a boss to deal with or not, taking control of how you run your day can be a huge driving factor in motivating yourself at work.

Case in point, the author Tim Ferris sets specific times in the day to respond to emails. He set himself an auto-responder to state he would only be dealing with phone calls and emails at a set time each day. If the person contacting him really needed something, urgently, they could call his mobile, leave a message and he would get back to them.

And you know what? It worked. He had fewer distractions and was able to focus on being more productive.  Obviously, this is something you would need to okay with your boss—if you have one—but putting this in place makes your schedule very clear. It keeps you focused and takes away distractions, especially those made by other people.

Move more, sit less

One of the best ways to keep you on track at work can be as simple as moving around. Set yourself a timer on your phone or computer and every 30 minutes get up and do some movement.  Even if it’s just once around the office and back to your chair, having the intention of rebooting and refreshing your system will work wonders. Other ways to move more and sit less at work are:

• Invest in a standing desk: these are great, especially if you get an adjustable one so you can stand up and sit back down at your leisure
• Think about your posture: sitting in a more spine friendly position will not only help your posture, but it will help keep your mind positive and focused
• Exercise throughout the day: whether your office is at home or not everyone can find some time to exercise during your 9-5. Go for a little run/walk on your lunch break, do some squats every hour or so, do a few rounds of the stairs. Do something to get your heart rate up and your body out of the sedentary position.

Whatever you need to do to answer the question of how to get motivated at work, do it. Whether it’s packing in your current job and finding something you love, moving about more, or setting a daily schedule; there are plenty of sure-fire ways to keep yourself on the motivation train at work.