Sometimes, tough love and a dose of reality is just the medicine when it comes to motivating yourself to get shit done.
Need motivation? We all do, TBH. Author and creative thinker Dr. Jason Fox knows a thing or two about “designing motivation” and telling self-sabotage where to go. The prescription? Giving yourself more space to do less, think smaller and de-stress.
Sounds counterintuitive, right? Dr. Fox has some hot tips for you to try, that’ll prove it’s the little things that can make a big difference to your motivation levels.
Get out of your own way
We let ourselves get pulled away by an email that pops up, or we choose distracting circumstances, like a friend of mine who chose to work at a co-working space, which is great for collaborating and networking, but not so great when you need to write a book.
Then there’s physiological self-sabotage, where you’re in that terrible cycle of staying up late, not eating well and drinking too much coffee when you know better, preventing you from doing your best work. Stop it.
See through the lies you’re making up
We tell ourselves, “I can’t start work until I clear these emails,” or “I won’t be able to focus unless my desk is tidy.” But these are just stories you’re feeding yourself to put something off.
Another classic is, “I work better under pressure,” and you leave things to the last minute. Then when you get a migraine or your computer crashes right when you’re trying to finish things, you have an alibi for not producing your best product because you “ran out of time.” Don’t believe your own lies.
Do less
You pretend you’re “too busy” and there aren’t enough hours in the day. “I mean, what can you expect? I’m volunteering on this thing, I have the family stuff to do and all these other committees that I’m involved with.”
Let go of the commitments that don’t really matter and only say yes to things that do — then focus on only them.
Think small, not big
Make it hard to make it hard for yourself, by breaking projects down into bite-sized goals. Instead of focusing on the large, distant target, divide it into small wins along the way.
These will keep you accountable for making meaningful progress.
Perfect isn’t progress
Stop spending so much time on details like a font or a logo. You’re just fooling your brain into thinking you’re making progress by stopping to make each step unnecessarily perfect.
