Happy Monday, everyone! Does anyone else secretly kinda like Mondays? In my mind, it’s another chance to get ‘it’ right. It’s a re-start button on anything that went wrong last week.
Today, I wanted to talk a little bit about the discipline and how important it is when you no longer have ‘motivation.’ In life, I’ve always thrived via motivation. Whether it be at work, in school or in my personal passions, I’ve always achieved progress from being fiercely motivated. Motivated by learning something new. Motivated by a potential promotion. Motivated by competition. I’m motivated by many things. However, when motivation runs out, it’s hard (for me) to find the will to drive progress.
Recently, I worked on a project that I was the LEAST motivated to get done. It was one of those projects that I felt as if I’ve done at least 1000 times. I thought there was little to learn and it was going to be more labor intensive than anything else. I don’t think I’ve been so unmotivated to do something ever before.
**SPOILER ALERT** I eventually got it done and I was totally wrong. There was a TON to learn from the project and I’m actually super proud of it now. However, I never would have gotten to this point without a shit ton of discipline.
Below are my top 5 tips for disciplining your way to success:
1| Timebox the shit out of your day. Give yourself a end time. Otherwise, it’s IMPOSSIBLE to even think about getting started. I schedule the shit out of my outlook calendar– every meeting, phone call, chore, etc. has a specific time in my day. The same should go for your ‘free-time’ or ‘working-time.’ Giving yourself specific tasks within a specific amount of time makes it more attainable (especially, when you don’t want to do it in the first place).
2| Set project-specific goals. Everytime I sat down to work on this project, I set a very specific goal. Think about what exactly you want to accomplish in that session. If you’re motivated by ‘productivity’ or ‘output’ (like I am), this will help you check something off your ‘to-do’ list and be at peace with the attention you gave the proecject in any given sitting/day/week/etc.
3| Find a collaborative partner. Ya know how it is easier to go to the gym when you have a workout buddy? Same goes for projects you aren’t motivated to do. Finding a work-buddy, will help deepen your perspective on the project or offer additional opportunities to learn from.
4| Delegate someone to keep you accountable. Find someone on your team to continuously check-in on the project and hold you to a specific timeline. If you aren’t into the project, it’s extremly easy to procrastinate and put it off until the last possible minute. This only results in stressful nights and poor quality work. Don’t let this happen!
5| Give yourself a reward. Have something to look forward to at the end of the project. A sweet treat, a day off, maybe some retail therapy? Anything to let you see the light at the end of the tunnel.
It’s impossible to feel motivated to do every single thing your job entails. It’s just the way of the world, but discipline certaintly helps make it easier. What are your discipline hacks? God knows that I need some more!
