How to Keep Yourself Motivated to Work

Find Good Reasons for Doing Your Job and Reward Yourself

Nothing is more de-motivating than working without a reason and without ever rewarding yourself for what you have done.

• Before you even start working you must concentrate on the reasons why you are doing it. In order to keep working, everybody needs an urge and a purpose to accomplish things. Without a purpose, you cannot be motivated or inspired and you will never be able to start or complete anything.
• Concentrate and list the reasons and purposes for doing a certain job, even though at the beginning they may not seem very convincing or obvious. In a very short time you will discover the true ones.
• Whenever you feel stuck with some task, remind yourself of these reasons, whichever they may be. Beside the salary, they can often include many other personal and human elements, such as helping others, feeling useful, being creative or learning and expanding your skills.
• Once you’ve accomplished one part of your task, reward yourself with something that will make you really happy. Establish ahead that you will do it and think about the way you would like to reward yourself. This will give you something to look forward to and keep you motivated to work.
• Staying focused at work is not always something easy to do, so any way to keep yourself inspired and motivated to work can be good and justifiable. Rewarding yourself for little progresses you’ve made and small goals you’ve accomplished is one of the best ways to keep your enthusiasm high.
• Buy yourself something you’ve always desired to have, go to a nice restaurant, take a trip somewhere or simply relax at home – it will renew your energy and keep you motivated to carry on.

Establish Long and Short Term Goals

It is very important to have a goal or something to look forward to, which challenges you and keeps you motivated to work.

You need to establish a long term goal and focus on it, having always in mind how great and successful you will feel once you’ve achieved it. If you have a clear vision of the goal you want to accomplish, your work will become a lot easier to do and you will feel more inspired to carry on with it.

In order to not become overwhelmed with excessive work, which may lead to feeling de-motivated, you need to establish every morning the utmost priorities for the day. These will be for you the most important tasks to complete during your working time.

Avoid losing yourself in non-urgent tasks, for they will make you feel that you haven’t accomplished much and you will end up being highly de-motivated by the end of the day, as well as the following morning.

Divide your project into a series of smaller tasks and goals to achieve each day, week or month. Make sure that they are not too big or hard to accomplish, so to keep your motivation and interest alive, without making you feel bored or prone to crash.

You will be amazed how accomplishing smaller tasks and goals can keep you motivated to work and go on with anything you are doing.

Organize Your Work Day

Once you’ve established goals that you really want to achieve, the other important step is to find the right approach towards your daily work and organize your day in an efficient way. Having a strategic plan for each day is very important to achieve desired results and to avoid sliding into insecurity, panic and de-motivation.

The more organized you are, the more you will accomplish and feel satisfied, as well as have more time for yourself. If your daily plan and your approach don’t work well, change them! There are numerous ways to organize your work day in a satisfying way and with just a small effort and a little willingness you will certainly find the one that’s best for you.

• Make sure to take regular breaks throughout the day and have enough time just for your self.
• Having short rest periods during your working day doesn’t necessarily mean taking only lunch breaks or simply changing your office chair with another one and continuing to sit down, while still thinking about work.
• When you take a break, you should completely switch off from work and dedicate this time to something that really relaxes, stimulates and refreshes your mind. This will greatly renew your energy and make you go back to your office inspired and motivated to keep working.
• The other important thing in organizing your work day is to tell yourself that as soon as you get stuck in a particular task, you will switch to doing something else. When you can’t manage to continue working on a certain issue, it is better not to insist – you will only risk losing time and de-motivating yourself. Try doing something completely different and when you return to your initial task, you will approach it with a new and refreshed energy.
• Always establish the time when your work day ends and make sure that you really knock off from work exactly at that moment. All of us need breaks and time to do other things in our lives, in order to continue being motivated to work.