i have no motivation to do anything productive whatsoever

[MrRowe]

it’s affecting everything i do in a negative way and im not sure how to feel motivated, any tips?

[romantic_thi3f]

Hey MrRowe,

Welcome to the forums and thanks for joining us!

Oh yeah I really struggle with this too sometimes. There's a couple of things that really help; one is figuring out my why. Why is this important to me? What do I want out of it? Maybe this could be how good you feel after a workout, or a certificate at the end, a job doing what you love.. We're so much more likely to do things when we have a really good reason to do them.

The other thing that really helps me is to do it for 5 minutes. It's really small, but it sets my expectation super low and then most of the time I end up doing it for longer. Like when I can't be bothered going for a walk, I tell myself I'll just go for a super short one, and then a lot of the time I end up going a bit further; or I might tell myself just to read a couple of pages for an assignment, and I end up reading more. It's so much easier then 'I have to do all of this' which is much more daunting!

Hope this gives you a place to start. Looking forward to reading everyone else's comments too.

rt 🙂

[sbella02]

Hey MrRowe,

Thank you so much for your post. Welcome to our forums!

I struggle to feel motivated too, most days. I love what romantic_thi3f has suggested, I think they've got some fantastic advice. Definitely consider the reasoning behind doing certain activities, or why it's important to you in the first place. That always helps me get back on track.

I was watching a few videos on this ages ago, and one quote that stood out to me was that "action comes before motivation". It's often not about waiting for motivation to strike, but more so starting something and finding that the motivation to continue doing it will follow. I see that this also ties in with romantic_thi3f's second point, about doing something for five minutes leads to doing something for ten minutes, or twenty minutes, and so on.

A similar principle to this is "chunking", which I find is really helpful if I have assignments that seem overwhelming. This simply involved breaking a project down into smaller pieces and telling yourself "I'm going to do 50 words on this day" or something along those lines. Most of the time, you find that you'll exceed this task that you've set for yourself, thus encouraging productivity.

Having somebody else doing activities with you can also help with your own motivation. Whenever I've set a time to go to the gym with somebody else, this motivates me to go and to work hard. Sometimes I'll study with some of my friends, and we all encourage each other to be more productive.

I hope this advice helps! Which ways do you resonate with the most? What tasks do you need the most help with in terms of motivating yourself?

SB 🙂

[jtjt_4862]

Heya MrRowe,

Warm welcome to the forums. I feel you about getting motivation to do things. Sometimes I struggle to complete simple activities due to lack of motivation as well. I found that the lack of motivation manifested because of my fear of failure. I highly doubt I will ever escape the "fear of failure", and the only way forward is to work with this weakness of mine. So I try to remind myself that it's okay to fail, and no matter what happens, I'll be ok. Taking small steps at a time, and taking short breaks whenever I feel like it. I also like to tell myself "you're doing great, you're working your best" as I make these small steps. It helps build momentum to getting things done.

There are days where it's just a complete defeat day, where not even small steps or self-pep talk will help. So I just allow myself to accept the defeat for the day, and will try again tomorrow. I feel sometimes I have to just go with the flow instead of trying to fight the current. Though I think there may be better ways to deal with these "total defeat" days, but this is how I deal with them for now.

Hope that helps 🙂

Jt

[jaz28]

Hi there

i am sorru you are feeling this way. it can be hard to be motivated when you do not feel 100% mentally. have you spoken to your doctor about this? they might be able to refer you to an appropriate support service.

you need to find what can motivate you, something you enjoy - and start there. for me, once i get in the mojo of doing something fun, i can continue that energy into the more productive tasks i need to do from day to day. it can be hard to get started, but once you do - you are fine.

i hope this helps,

Jaz xx

[HappyHelper88]

Hello there thanks for reaching out

how about setting goals or working towards something that you really want

and when I get my set goals done each day I feel relaxed

I Hope this helps

[Rach_1]

It will pass, i no it feels crap right now but you will be ok 🙂