How To Do What You Have To Do When You Don’t Feel Like Doing It
How often do you get that lazy feeling? You know the one. It’s that heavy feeling that weighs down your entire body so the only things you really feel like doing is watching TV, surfing the Internet, or playing your Wii. Or, maybe you just feel like doing something fun instead of working, when you know you really need to get some serious work done. These are serious productivity killers, especially for home-based business owners…but there are ways to fight back. Use these tips to get back to work and see your productivity soar.
First, plan ahead. You can’t always predict your moods, but you can plan ahead so you start out with the right state of mind. If you wake up without a concrete plan for your day you can easily waft into checking e-mail and social networking sites before doing any actual work. This is the sort of time-sucking activity that can eat up half of your workday (if not all of it!). If you develop a plan of action and go to bed with a strong commitment to wake up the next morning and get to work, you’ll do exactly that.
Second, as part of your plan, wait until late morning or early afternoon to open your e-mail software or check any social networking sites. This is something that Tim Ferriss, author of The Four-Hour Workweek, recommends. If you check your e-mail, there’s a strong chance that there will be something in your Inbox that will require action on your part, and you can bet you’ll feel compelled to deal with that e-mail before you get to work on the tasks you had planned for the day. Talk about derailing your productivity! Even more importantly (especially if your work requires you to check e-mail first thing), keep your personal and work e-mail accounts separate, and only check your personal accounts when your work is done for the day.
Third, once you’re ready to work, minimize distractions. Turn off the TV and the phone ringer and disable any chat or text/instant messaging software. I have a client whose productivity is regularly disrupted by phone calls from friends and family members throughout the day. It’s especially important when you work from home to make sure your friends and family know when you are working, so you can maintain a consistent, productive environment.
Fourth, if you’re trying to work and keep getting distracted by thoughts of something else, take care of whatever is distracting you and then come back to work. If it’s “fun” that’s distracting you, take a half hour out to go do something enjoyable. My husband and I regularly break to take walks outside on a pleasant day, or to bake a loaf of bread. Sometimes you just can’t focus, and if that happens, it’s best not to try to force it. In fact, the stress and pressure can make it even harder to focus and you may end up doing poor work. So take some time out, have a little fun, relax, and then come back with a fresh, new perspective.
Fifth, for some, it works well to build in a system of rewards and punishments. Generally, most people recommend positive stimuli only. But sometimes you want to avoid something just as much as you want to gain its opposite. So the reward and punishment can actually be two sides of the same coin: if you accomplish your task, you get to do a particular fun activity and if you don’t accomplish your task, you don’t get to do that activity. This can be a powerful motivator (but if you really are struggling for motivation, see my article from last week).
Finally, there’s the powerful “just do it” strategy. Once you start working and getting in the groove of productivity, you’ll find that it’s much easier to stay in that “productivity zone.” And once you’re in that zone, you may find that you can get more accomplished in an hour than you might normally get done in a entire day. Sometimes you may have to do some real self-direction to get to this place. One technique that works well to get you into the productivity zone is the “act as if” exercise. In this exercise, you think of someone who you respect and admire who is good at whatever it is that you want to accomplish. Then, you envision what that person is feeling at that moment, step into their shoes, and “act as if” you are them. It’s not enough to act like them, you actually want to act as if you are them. This enables you to temporarily leave the you that isn’t “in the mood” to work behind and in essence, be someone else for awhile.
Use these tips and your productivity will be high with consistency. You’ll avoid the time-sucking, distractions and derailing attitudes and “I can’t believe the day is over and I didn’t get anything done,” will be a thing of the past.
WRITER'S BIOGRAPHY
Susan Baroncini-Moe
Susan Baroncini-Moe started her entrepreneurial adventures with a lemonade stand. Now, Susan is the CEO of Business in Blue Jeans, dedicated to helping you design a business you'll love or transform your business into optimized profitability. Learn more at BusinessInBlueJeans.com.Other links: Blue Jeans Web Sites and Susan's No Suits Allowed! E-zine.
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Comments
Gregg Krech says on March 26th, 2009 at 9:55 am
Hi Susan,
Your advice comes very close to that of a Japanese psychiatrist from the early 1900’s by the name of Dr. Shoma Morita. He developed a model called Morita Therapy, which helped people shift from a life in which feelings were the primary criteria of what we do (and don’t do) to when in which “purpose” becomes the driving force. His advice was to abandon attempts to try and control our feelings and thoughts and, instead, to accept the ups and downs of what goes on inside us, while controlling our behavior and taking action in a more purposeful way. You can find more information about his ideas at
http://www.todoinstitute.org/morita.html
Keep up the good work and happy Spring!
Gregg Krech
Director, ToDo Institute
http://www.todoinstitute.org
Shanel Yang says on March 26th, 2009 at 10:10 am
All great suggestions! A few more include:
1. Do the most difficult, most dreaded, and, hence, usually, the most important, task first. It will give you a huge boost of pride, confidence, and energy to get that out of the way first.
2. Before you leave your office for the day, always spend at least 10 minutes planning what you are going to start on the next morning. This will actually get your brain thinking about it subconsciously so that great ideas will automatically come to you — usually just before you fall asleep, so keep a pen and notebook by your bed!
There are a total of 21 great tips like this that Brian Tracy shares in his “Eat That Frog!” I’ve summarized those tips at http://shanelyang.com/2008/06/02/eat-that-frog/
Good luck, Everyone!
Vicent says on March 26th, 2009 at 11:50 am
Thank you. It was just what I needed!
GoEverywhere Team says on March 26th, 2009 at 11:51 am
Great tips Susan! I’ve recently started working on several projects and have had to plan out my day to allot for each of them. I actually check my email first thing in the morning (I don’t think I could wait until later in the day!), but give myself only 30 minutes to read, respond, and prioritize. Normally it doesn’t even take me that long – but I don’t have it hanging over me the rest of the morning. I then start tackling the individual projects I go back to anything that I didn’t have time to complete. It keeps me on task and focused. I also love having easy access to my webtop wherever I go, because if I need to quickly logon from my mobile phone or laptop – when I’ve got a few minutes waiting in line – I can do it!
Steve @ Freedom Education says on March 26th, 2009 at 7:24 pm
Hi Susan,
I love the reward and punishment system.
It’s always easy for me to identify with other entrepreneurs when the speak of discipline and maintaining effective habits; especially when there is no “boss” around to tell us what to do :)
Great article; it reminds me of why I got into life coaching in the first place and how important it is to be inwardly directed as an entrepreneur.
I better get going, the “internal boss” is calling ;)
Organic says on March 26th, 2009 at 10:07 pm
I am sometimes like this , now you have just given me an idea on what to so when i got this feeling again. thanks!
Vincent says on March 27th, 2009 at 4:07 am
Hi Susan,
I always apply the 15 minutes rule when I am feeling unmotivated to start doing something. As long as I start doing something for 15 minutes, I will get my momentum going and in the end hours of work will get done.
Cheers
Vincent
Personal Development Blogger
Mike Wilson says on March 27th, 2009 at 12:59 pm
I hate to say it but I have this problem relatively chronically lately. Maybe it’s just a profound seasonal lack of inspiration but the most basic tasks just don’t get done (as though the elves were going to do them in my sleep.)
Thanks for the ideas, and to Gregg for the link to Morita.
Checking everything out in this arena lately.
Got more tips? I’d love to hear ‘em.
- M
Mike Wilson says on March 27th, 2009 at 2:05 pm
Hmm… Shanel: Re #1.
Yes, when I’m motivated that’s really a wonderful approach, owing to the “success feedback” it yields. But when I’m having trouble getting started I find that trying to face the biggest task first causes me to do the mental equivalent of “hitting snooze.”
Thoughts?
Georgette says on March 27th, 2009 at 8:30 pm
This will sound counter-intuitive: If I have trouble getting started, I find that if I sit down and meditate for ten minutes, I end the session with energy to DO my life. Weird, but works for me!
emonweb says on March 28th, 2009 at 12:09 am
Every human is a leader of himself. if u cant lead yourself you cant successfully do it for any other actions.
Ugis says on March 30th, 2009 at 3:41 am
Hallo, Susan!
Worthwile and usable advices. Lot of people are distracted and frightened now. WWW or/and TV serves as a sand for the ostrich.
I want to observe one thing. What I do when I must to do something when I don’t feel like doing it.
First I’m making out with a reason, motivation (deep and actual) why I must to do this. Dig deep enough until my reason becoming like a fridge with a coke in Sahara (my unfavorable trade). Without an awereness of real reason other suggestions above mentioned can turn out less effective.
Best regards!
Mike says on April 1st, 2009 at 5:03 pm
Often the tasks that I dread most are the ones that are mundane. It helps me to put on a mindless movie and start cranking through tasks. As I get into more difficult tasks, the difficulty of my work takes over and I lose interest in the movie.
Mark Foo | TheBigDreamer.com says on April 4th, 2009 at 3:45 pm
Hi Susan,
What I’ll do is list 3-5 important tasks for the day and start with the one I’m most comfortable with or enjoy the most and work my way to the least attractive task. That way, even if I don’t manage to finish all the tasks, I’d still have gotten a few important tasks done.
Cheers~
Mark
Jan Richards says on May 14th, 2009 at 9:13 pm
Excellent summary, great ideas.