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Motivation can be a tricky thing. When it comes to DIY projects, my motivation to begin them is ceaseless; my motivation to finish them ebbs and flows. And sometimes, when the work day is extra long and I have school projects due the next day, finding the desire to do anything at all is damn near impossible. So when it comes to forging ahead, what can you do to get yourself going? Here are my favorite tips:
It’s OKAY.
Say it with me: It’s OKAY that I’m not feeling very motivated today.
If you take ANY advice from me on this (mini)series whatsoever, I want you to stop giving yourself a guilt trip when you simply can’t find the energy for one. more. thing. It happens to everyone, and it’s totally normal to look at a pile of laundry and think, “No. Just no.”
Giving ourselves grief about the things we’ve yet to do only makes the list look longer. It makes it harder. It serves no functional purpose. But it is so easy to look at our tasks in a negative light. We ignore the things we’ve already done and focus on what’s left. And then we make ourselves feel bad for it. SO STOP IT. I’m no stranger to feeling this way, but I find that when this happens, I am quickly on my way to feeling overwhelmed. I start thinking in more sweeping terms of never and always, which is just as defeating to say it to myself as when I say it to another person (next time you find yourself in an argument, pay attention to how quickly emotions escalate when you use generalities like that).
So stop it. It’s okay to get the “ughs” every now and then. When you accept that it simply happens, it’s easier to pick up where you last left off.
Sleep.
I don’t sleep for a consistent amount of time each night. I wish I could, but on certain days with approaching deadlines, I burn the midnight oil. I’m naturally a night owl and find that I write best when it’s really late and quiet. I have honed procrastinating like nobody’s business (I consider it a skill because not everyone is good under last-minute pressure, and this is sometimes very necessary in the entrepreneurial world I’m trying to enter). But when I’m especially tired, I’ve learned that it’s sometimes better to close the computer instead of trying to keep up. Rebooting is good for me and my computer!
And when it comes to sleep, I’m not a catnapper. (Wait, that makes me sound like a person who steals kittens.) I don’t take naps. At least, not short ones. I have a difficult time falling asleep, but once I do, I’m out. I’ll be down for at least two hours, which is why I usually spend my lunch hour running errands or trying to take care of other things in favor of taking a long nap once I get home at night. It also means that if I have a day off, I give priority one to sleeping. Even if that means every Sunday I’m napping at noon (since the other six days are consumed by work or school). The house and everything else can wait until I feel more refreshed; and I don’t feel guilty!
The point is, I am learning better that stepping away and allowing myself to simply shut down, shut off, etc. is just as much of a part of goal-keeping as actually finishing something. It allows me to recharge and approach my projects with more energy when I wake up, which is actually more efficient than fuzzy-braining it for weeks on end. And keeping my mind clear results in fewer stubbed/broken toes. And fewer wrinkles.
Refresh.
On particularly bad weeks, I look up the latest spa discount on Groupon. No further explanation needed here.
Switch up what’s being exercised.
In some ways, it seems odd to me that exhausting myself physically helps me re-energize mentally, but that’s exactly what happens when I go for a run. Again, I’m disconnecting from the real task at hand, but I’m also creating momentum… literally. I feel more optimistic (probably thanks to endorphins). It’s shown that running helps lower your blood pressure and reduce stress. I try to go for a run the night before any exam – and it really seems to help get the blood flowing for maximum knowledge absorption. Side note: this is doing it wrong.
Even if it’s not school that’s getting me down, running also helps to get me off my butt and out of the house. When I get back afterward, I’m more successful at not sitting down. I almost always work on something after coming home.
Take one step.
Create momentum by starting on a new, simple project that can be completed in an afternoon, like my recent agate slice wall art. I created the art while watching TV, and set it on my chaise in the bedroom until I finished the walls. And then the bright pink color caught my eye every. single. day. I told myself that all I needed to do was just roll that one part of the wall where I knew it would hang, and finish the rest of the wall if I felt like it. Instead, I wound up painting the remaining walls upstairs, crossing off a few more walls from the overall list. Then I hung the art. And now I have something to smile at every day going up the stairs – which inspired me to go out the very next day and begin collecting materials for my next project.
By taking one small step, I created a little momentum and excitement to keep on going. And I got more done than if I had focused on the finish line of getting all of the walls painted.
“It will all be over by __________.”
This is a tip I have used time and time again with school projects. I tell myself, “just think, by next Friday, this will already be done.” It may seem strange to look forward to a deadline, but I find that by trying to focus on the reward (having it DONE and OUT OF MY LIFE) in just a few short days/weeks helps me to stay on task. Instead of a deadline being something that looms over me, it’s my light at the end of the tunnel. Once the deadline has passed, I will either have turned it in or not; and either way, it isn’t likely going to be a life-ender. And then I can hit the spa or grab a beer to celebrate.
So now, it’s your turn. What do you find gets you re-motivated, so to speak? And also, how are you liking this miniseries so far? So many have asked about how I get things done, but I don’t think any one thing I’m doing is cracking some secret code of time management. So here’s your opportunity to give me some honest feedback and let me know if we should stop this train before I get too far off the track :)
I ALWAYS use the “it will be over….” line. Proceeded by quickly taking on more tasks! For some reason though it always gets me through. It’s all a mental thing for me.
I still love your “don’t sit down” post and I need to hang it on our garage door!!!!
I love this series. It always amazes me that you are so busy yet you manage to accomplish so much! Keep up the good work!
Any tips on how you deal with your puppy when you are at work or school so much? I am starting a new job with much longer hours and I feel so much guilt about leaving my dog for so long.
I hear ya on that. I feel like a lousy pup parent too sometimes. I tend to buy her treats more often when I work late, or take her for longer walks or extra trips to the dog park. She seems very used to the way things are now, and she definitely perks up a little when I get to be home doing nothing for more than a day. All in all, she’s very well behaved. She has her own spaces in the house that I tend to let just be “hers”, so she’ll retreat to them when she feels like it. And she’ll hang at my feet when she wants me to know I need to up the cuddle time!
Great advice. I use the last one, too – about how good I’ll feel when it’s over. Also, sleep is GOOD! Charlie has the right idea.
Keep er’ going! I follow your blog, have very little in common with you (married, stay-at-home mom of two tween girls, run an etsy shop–see?) but still read every stinkin’ post you write. I think your series is well written, down to earth, do-able, and interesting. No one wants to follow a complicated step-by-step plan. Just hearing the words from someone else (like crazy, busy Sarah) helps put things in perspective. And sometimes that is all one needs. Keep up the great work!
I love your time management mini series. Reading about your adventures in general made me realize I can work part-time, go to school full time, remodel a house, volunteer, and not suck at everything I do. However, I do draw the line at writing a blog. Great work Sarah!
Hi! Stumbled upon your blog while searching the interwebs for this very sort of insight! Oh, so glad I found you!
We’re in the (seemingly never ending) process of fully remodeling/refreshing our 1929 abode. We are doing everything completely DIY and while we are really proud of every project we check off the list, it can be draining! With full time jobs that quite often leave us working over the weekends and late into the wee hours of the morning, it’s hard to find the balance between picking up the pace on the house and much needed rest/restoration time we need personally. I wish I was a night owl, but I’m often crawling sleepily into bed before 10pm more often than I care to admit!
For me, the most important lesson that I have learned (read: am STILL learning) along this little journey is to enjoy the process. I am admittedly the instant gratification-type, and find that I get swept up in a blunder if a project takes too long without noticeable results along the way. So often it seems that many people around us are able to hire in contractors/designers and come home from a long day of work to a new kitchen/yard/tiled bathroom, but I keep reminding myself that we are DIYing this for a reason and it’s something to be darned proud of, if not sometimes completely exhausted by it :)
I’m grateful I happened upon this little series of yours! It’s comforting to know that I’m not the only one out there living in a “work in progress”!
Hi Sara! Thanks for the motivation tips! We all need a little extra motivation now and then…
There are two things I do to help me get motivated:
1. Try to think about why I started the project in the first place. Sometimes when you get bogged down by the details you forgot the overall project goal. Closing my eyes and recalling my plan helps me get excited all over again about what I’m working on.
2. I make myself do one little step. For instance, if I don’t feel like painting a room, I’ll at least make myself get up and do one little step – taking down the wallplates, or spackling holes that i want to hide, or taping off the trim. Usually once I get started I end up doing more than one step, but even if I don’t do more than that, at least I’m one small step closer to the finished product.
Both very good tips to remember :)
Hi Sarah, I love these time tips. Im a long time lurker first time commenting. One trick I use to motivate myself on a project I just can’t seem to move forward on is to tell myself I’m only going to work on a tiny piece of it. No pressure to finish it or get a big chuck done, just one small move forward on it. like when I wanted to refinish my kitchen cabinets I had a hard time moving forward on those doors and they sat in my kitchen for a while. Since I needed to paint them in the shed, one day I decided to just take them out to the shed, nothing more. And that got me started on sanding them, which motivated me to prime them. And then I wondered why I had even put it off in the first place lol.
Happens to me all the time too, and exactly what happened with that pink wall art. Great tip!
Sleep is my favourite. Being in a clean and healthy environment greatly improves your motivation. Make sure you do your daily cleaning chores – swipe the dust, swipe the windows, etc.
I love these tips! I think I’ve already known all of these, but it helps SO MUCH to just re-read them and join in with saying… “it’s okay if it’s not done yet.”
I also like to way overdo a list (so I feel more accomplished and can cross off more items)… Like writing “cook dinner”, “eat dinner”, “take out the trash”… just so I can feel accomplished enough to tackle the bigger “repaint bedroom” stuff.
Great tips! But what really stands out to me is the beer. Founder’s is from my neck of the woods. About 45 minutes north of me. I have a feeling you’d dig the brewery/pub building. It’s awesome. Both times I’ve commented on your blog have been beer-related comments. Last time about Oberon and now about Founders. If you’re a stout person, you need to try the Breakfast Stout. Seriously. Breakfast in a bottle.
I promise to try to comment on something other than beer in the future. But I really like beer. And DIY. And beer.
I don’t have many commenters speaking about beer, so I really don’t mind that you respond to it! Glad to have a fellow beer lover in the mix!
This is an interesting post. There are lot of times when I am not motivated and I reach the ‘burn out’ stage. Even I like to sleep when i am tired and not feeling motivated. Other times I just like to take a day off and watch some movies or listen to my favorite music. I like to remind myself of how good it would feel when I achieve my goal. Visualizing about my goal has helped me lot of times to bring back the motivation.