Low motivation days
 

Do you ever have days where you are totally unmotivated from the moment you wake up? I have found that I will have a series of high productivity, motivated days and then suddenly suffer from a total lack of motivation. I have a feeling I'm not alone in this regard.

My own solutions to this have been varied: waiting it out and exercising when I can muster the willpower. Is the best solution prevention? What do you think?

I find on low motivation days the best thing to do is to in your mind break away from your normal routine to re-energize you. Participate in activities that you really enjoy and that should re-fuel your energy for the next day. Music related activities seem to be a great motivator for me, so often I will listen to music, or go to a local club for a concert, to break away from my low motivation. I usually find the next day my mind is ready to attack whatever needs to be accomplished.

Matt

When I feel unmotivated, it's usually because I have daunting tasks. What keeps me going are the mini-goals I set for myself everyday.

When I have low motivation days I either:

1) Do really mini tasks that are easy to do and finish. That way my energy gets juiced up little by little with every mini accomplishment.

2) Chill. I don't know why but it seems to me like our minds, bodies and emotions need time to 'defrag' themselves and the whole system slows down when that's going on. Ever spent a day doing a whole lot of nothing and feeling totally refreshed the day after, or is it just me? :)

I experience this myself since I like to push myself beyond my capabilities, and get the most done the best I can. After a few days or weeks my motivation crumbles and I'm tired of being productive.

Taking rests for a while every now and then helps me. It fuels my motivation even more so since I'm eager to get back to what I was doing. Breaks for me are usually doing an enjoyable hobby, having a good conversation with a friend, or meditating if I need to really relax.

I just had one of those days yesterday... :)
What I did was constantly remind myself that bad days pass and that good days pass, all days pass and tomorrow is a new day, everyday. And you know what... I feel great today... and since I know this too shall pass... I try to make the most of it... just as yesterday I just kicked back and relaxed, accepting the low day into my life...
When you fight the low mood it will tend to stay the course... when you accept it... it will get bored and leave you.

Just get going?
 

The difference between mostly procrastinating through the day, and mostly working productively can be small.

Start doing the thing you have to do, first thing in the morning, allowing yourself to stop when you feel like it, and you may find that you've done a lot of work, and don't even want to stop.

Rudder Of The Day
 

Boris is right. Just force yourself to do 5 minutes of work - doesn't sound much challenging huh? - and your day will be much more productive. I know the feeling too, and this is the most effective method that I've come across. You should also replace "must" with "want".

Check out Steve's post about this: Rudder Of The Day

He says:

I use Alvin's method. I take a short list of really small, easy tasks and just sprint through them. Completing tasks always helps to improve motivation, so getting anything done will help lift the fog of low-motivation.

Another tactic I've started using for larger tasks is to set a timer for 50 minutes, and then to make sure I work at the task continuously for those 50 minutes. At the end, I get up and have a walk and some tea to let myself unwind. Having this reward at the end helps to keep me focussed.

The chances are that low-motivation is caused by having tasks that are too broad. It can be hard to visualise the completion of large tasks, so by breaking them into smaller chunks you can visualise a lot of mini-victories. Each of these adds to your motivation and sense of satisfaction, and helps you to complete the larger tasks much more easily.

Inner Game
 

When I have days like that I usually discover that something was bothering me, but couldn't quite break the surface of my conscious mind. Once it surfaces I'm ready to go...:)

Every day is a low motivation day for me. My issue isn't as much how to break out of it (since it is normal and comfortable for me), but how to get the rare motivation filled days to stick around. LOL.

I've had days where I didn't do anything the whole day. It doesn't always satisfy me, but I think the defragmentation analogy fits right in there, your mind and body need some rest too every now and then.
On the other hand, when I just push myself to do something, like cleaning something up, I often end up cleaning the whole house.
I guess that works like the upward spiral Steve once talked about, the first, small, accomplishment that you forced upon yourself motivates you to go on with it, it energizes you, and after you've done that next task, you have even more energy, well, mentally anyway. And then at the end of the day you're totally exhausted but hey, you did clean the whole house, sort out those stacks of paperwork, and sunlight once again shines thru your window, not at it. ;)

I can totally relate to this. I don't have much motivation on a daily basis, but when it comes to cleaning my house, once I start I can't stop until it's all done. I'll get up to unload the dishwasher and end up scrubbing the whole house top to bottom. LOL

i think that minitask are good for discipline

I think I found them! They're right between purpose, interest and motivation..)

For me, the tough part for every situation would be to sustain the energy to push on once I have started something. I find that having something to look forward to after finishing whatever that is in front of me helps tremendously.

Of course, then there is the temptation to ignore the task completely and just jump to the reward. Now that is something to be suppressed.

A good, daresay "classic" article on motivation and productivity, from Joel Spolsky:

Fire And Motion - Joel on Software

Also, there is always the possibility that there is a deeper issue at hand: whether or not you actually like what you're doing. I tend to get that "big productivity, big crash afterwards" when I am working too hard at doing something I don't really like, but "have to" do.

A related article on work + passion by Paul Graham...

How to Do What You Love

I think it's possible to ALWAYS have high-motivation days. I suffer from low motivation days, but I'm slowly improving it.

I think it's a matter of making high-motivation part of your default state.

Affirmations and audio programs seem to help.

I know exactly what you mean. Some days I can work all day and still feel like doing more work, and other days I can barely bring myself to do anything.
The key for me is to just get as much done as you possibly can when you are motivated. Luckily I'm a college student, so I have a fairly flexible schedule and can get away with doing no work one day and a lot of work the next day. Nothing feels better than having all your homework for the entire rest of the week done on Monday.

At the other end of the spectrum, a post on lifehack a while back suggested working 10 minutes out of every hour. It's best for those days when you're fully motivated to do some things -- things like mailing letters and filing papers -- but unmotivated to do the really useful things like calling clients and setting up the new business department. It's especially good for us work-from-home entrepreneur types, since I can legitimately argue that reading stevepavlina.com IS an important business-related activity...but I still shouldn't be reading it for 8 hours/day.

It goes like this: Set a kitchen timer for 10 minutes. For those 10 minutes, work diligently on whatever truly important thing you have to get done today. (I have to get a chapter written for our business plan, or we're not going to get this franchise rolled out in January.) When the timer goes off, set it for 50 minutes. Then do your "semi-productive" things, like reading these forums or rearranging your to-do list layout for maximum clarity, until the timer goes off. Then do 10 minutes of super-productive stuff.

It won't take many of these rounds before you find the super-productive stuff more interesting than the semi-productive. But even if it is a really low motivation day, and you really spend 5/6 of your day working on semi-productive stuff, at least you started the really important things. And as Steve says, if you start something enough times, you'll eventually finish it.

I cant find that "defrag" option on my windowz.. :s
That will be really cool ah! :D
Nice post!

offtopic: you run Windows on your mind?
caramba! wouldn't like a blue screen of death in that case..

I think Steve hit the nail on the head with the Rudder of the Day post. When I get right to work in the morning on something important, I tend to have a good productive day.

On the other hand, if I check email, news, blogs, or forums first, the day can quickly turn into a low-motivation one.

One thing that I've found to help is that when I get derailed in the morning, I'll turn "the minute I get back from lunch" into the Rudder for the afternoon.

For me, low motivation days happen when I've been doing too busy the night before.

But when it happen, I usually will take the morning very slow, and I don't do much things. I just like, sitting in front of my PC, surfing and reading some blogs. I don't talk much, I drink something, begin finding the key to energize myself, and get the motivation for the day. It was like, reading something motivational (like this forum :D ), or something new but light, for me like the internet technologies, cars, and so on.

That's what I do... :)

There are lots of great suggestions here. It depends very much on each person I guess but every method is worth trying.

This morning actually I was about to stay in bed for longer when the clock rang. But I thought: how will you achieve anything today if you sleep? I thought again of the goal I have set to achieve by mid-2007 and got up straight away.

It's normal to have low-productivity days. The consolation is that after one of those, you realise how little you have achieved and that can work as a great incentive to do more to compensate.

I would have to say that in order to boost your motivation, you should either read things that inspire or motivate you, or meditate for maybe a half hour, either by deep breathing or by concentrating on what it is that really makes you passionate. If you are passionate about something, then think about it and imagine your "idea scene," as Marc Allen says. Put your life in perspective and see where you want to be headed. And you'll naturally become motivated to start on this path. You don't have to do a lot on those low motivation days, but simply thinking about building your stock, your purpose in the world will make you want to get started on whatever it is you're ready for

Motivation
 

I find that the best way to motivate myself on days that I am feeling lethargic and unmotivated is to sit down, stay away from the TV, and just start writing things that I want to do and want to get accomplished. I also make sure I include several simple items, because it is alot easier to get motivated to do a small task than a large project.

Starting small is a great way to become motivated, and once you get motivated, your motivation usually only intensifies afterwards (unless you turn on the TV).

why "day"
 

I think part of the problem is calling it a low motivation day. It implies that once you notice this is it one of "those" days, you know you're doomed for the entire day. In my experience, at some point I realized that this was some kind of underlying belief which was incorrect, and that it was letting my laziness/procrastination take over until something external would kick me out of that state.

Nowadays I don't do that anymore. I still get days when I wake up unmotivated, but I'm much more aware, I notice the state I'm in and accept that it's just a temporary state. Some of the advice given before makes sense to me, especially
listening to or reading self-help/motivational material -- I find it a really good solution, because it's really hard for me to concentrate (e.g. meditating, writing) when I'm not motivated.

Well in my experience, I've had these "low motivation days" when I had "a low motivating life" or so :-/. When I've been unhappy or my life seemed to go nowhere... forgetting about my purpose. When you think someone good is waiting if you wake up you don't have these problems I think.

Let the music play!
 

I’ve had some of these low motivation days myself and I can tell you that such an attitude can really bring you down. I think the best way to regain your energy and feel confident and motivated again, is to focus on something you really enjoy doing. It can be anything from playing your favorite band’s CD or watching 10 minutes from a Charlie Chaplin movie, or simply taking a short walk around the block. In no time, you'll feel energized and ready to face the day. :)