Imagine you need to write a report for a client. You sit in front of your computer looking at the blank screen for minutes, but you never get started. Instead of start typing, you open YouTube for music and then get distracted by other videos.
Are there times when you just can’t find the drive and the motivation you need to get things done? Do you feel dreaded to work on most of your tasks and just can’t seem to focus to get them done?
It happens to many people, not just you. It is difficult to get started because when you lack momentum. But once you get things moving — when you are in action mode — things become so easy and you become unstoppable. You become motivated and able to tackle every task that gets to you.
So, how do you motivate yourself to get started and get things done? How do you stay focused on your work so that you will never get distracted? Here are 3 powerful hacks to help you become more productive than ever…
1. Start Small
Yes, tell yourself that you’re going to start really small. If your job is to write a 1,000 words article, tell yourself that you just need to commit to writing 100 words. If you find that it is difficult to write just 100 words, commit to writing just the first paragraph.
The smaller the commitment, the lower the resistance. The key is to make the work so small and so easy that you will not negotiate with yourself whether you should do it.
Do you know that the groundbreaking book, How to Win Friends and Influence People, started as rules printed on cards? Dale Carnegie started by preparing a short talk about the topic and then it became a full course because people loved his ideas.
And because Carnegie needed teaching materials for his course, he wrote the rules taught on his course on a card. And from there, his teachings grew, and he started to use a bigger card, and then a leaflet, then a series of booklets, expanding in size and scope every time.
After 15 years of experimentation and research, Carnegie ended up with a best-selling book, How to Win Friends and Influence People. (Read this article: Why Start Small? The 5 Important Benefits of Starting Small)
That’s how success is created. You start small.
The same goes for everything you want to do. Whether it is to achieve your goals, to pursue your dreams, or to get your work done, you start small.
By committing to the small steps, you are making it easier to act and execute. And once you got things started, you will gain momentum and continue to take more actions.
This is how you can drive yourself into action and get things done.
2. Build a Supportive Environment
When it comes to being productive, you want to make sure your environment supports you rather than distracting you from your work.
Anne Thorndike is a physician at the Massachusetts General Hospital, and she conducted a study on how the environment can affect people’s eating behavior.
Thorndike and her team changed how the food was displayed in the hospital’s cafeteria. They placed bottled waters on the visible and convenient area throughout the cafeteria. After 3 months, they discovered that the sales of soda dropped 11.4% and the sales of bottled water increased by 25.8%.
Nothing has changed, except that they made bottled water more visible and easily accessible. That alone has encouraged healthier eating habits in the cafeteria. (Read: How to Change Your Environment to Create Better Success in Life)
This is how your environment can affect your mood, motivation, and ultimately, your productivity.
If you want to read a book, where do you prefer to read it from? A quiet and cozy library? Or a noisy wet market where people are everywhere?
The answer is clear, isn’t it? That’s how your environment plays an important role in determining how productive you are.
As a blogger, one of my key tasks is to write articles. And I have to admit that there are times when I don’t have the motivation to write at all. I just want to procrastinate and do nothing.
When this happens, I will pack my laptop and head over to a nearby local coffee house. I will sometimes go to Starbucks and make it my second office. It is not because of the coffee, instead, I’m there to change the environment and my mood, so that I can focus and get my articles done.
You can do the same. Arrange, organize, and design your environment so that your surrounding drives you to work.
Set yourself up to win. Change your environment to support your goals and the success that you desire.
3. Take Short Breaks
Imagine your day is all work but no play, how does that make you feel? Bored and dreaded, right? This is why taking short breaks throughout the day is important.
According to this research from Harvard Business Review, “Statistically, taking more vacation results in greater success at work as well as lower stress and more happiness at work and home.”
It is common sense. When you know there is a vacation and you get to play after work, your productivity will increase because you will be looking forward to the fun, hence, you work for a purpose.
This is why taking short breaks throughout the day is important too.
Jonathan Levav, a professor from Columbia University did a study on the judicial rulings by Israeli judges.
And Levav found that judges gave more lenient decisions at the start of the day and immediately after a scheduled break in the court proceedings such as lunch break. (Read: The Importance of Taking a Short Break According to Research)
This is because after a short break, we are recharged. And we tend to be able to focus better and make better decisions. When you are tired and exhausted, it is difficult to focus on work. You will suffer decision fatigue if you go on too long without taking any break.
Therefore, schedule short breaks into your day. Make sure you take breaks after focused work.
Follow the Pomodoro Technique if possible. Work with intense focus for 25 minutes, and then take a short 5 minutes break. After 4 cycles, take a longer break for a meal. That’s how you maintain your energy and perform at your peak.
Conclusion
Motivation is a state of emotion, the same goes with your willpower. Hence, whenever you need the motivation to focus to get things done, use these 3 hacks:
- Start small and make it easy to take action.
- Change your environment to improve your productivity.
- Take short breaks to maintain your focus and energy level.
