How I Coax My Inner Slacker To Take Action
By: Lynn Leigh Neild
Tags: Inspiration, Life, Advice, Life Lessons, Motivation

How I Coax My Inner Slacker To Take Action

Four small steps for fixing productivity burnout

You have issues with motivation. So do I. So does everyone. It’s part of being a human being.

Some people find it hard to begin a task, while others find it excruciatingly hard to finish one. The transition points from one step to the next can be difficult, as well. Why does this happen? For all kinds of reasons. Maybe the task is unpleasant, dull, or stressful. Maybe there’s a lack of resources to complete the task without a struggle.

A few weeks ago, I was struggling with my own sense of motivation. I woke up each morning feeling overwhelmed by the level of activity going on around me. My mother was in the hospital for an injury. Our house was in shambles due to renovations. My work calendar was exploding after an unexpected sick leave due to the flu. I know what you’re thinking, these are all “first world” problems, right? Well, sure they are and, of course, there are people out there struggling with way more than me on any given day. But that doesn’t mean my experience (or yours) is effortless and without challenges.

There were so many things that I wanted to accomplish, tasks that I even looked forward to doing — but for the life of me, I couldn’t get myself moving. I would sit there on the couch thinking about how great it would be to make progress on “x, y, and z,” but I couldn’t get myself to turn off the Netflix true-crime documentaries and get to work. Even in my case where I could identify things that I wanted to accomplish, my focus just wasn’t there.

The temptation to give in to a more convenient, more comfortable mindset like procrastination is, at times, a much more powerful draw than the goals I’m trying to achieve.

Procrastination is enticing

It’s likely of no surprise to you that I’d preferred to focus on entertainment than the monthly bills or my neglected emails. We all have an inner voice, and mine can sometimes be unhelpful, even mischievous.

But a vacation to Slackerville is rarely worth it. Procrastination eats up precious time while providing no advantages whatsoever. After all, those tasks aren’t going to disappear. They’re just going to pile up, along with that nagging, guilty feeling that saps mental energy.

The unwashed laundry. The unfinished business plan. The project that lay idle on my desk. These things hovered over me like an ever-darkening storm cloud for days. They were symptoms of my demotivated mindset, and they created a sense of half-pleasure, half-guilt for not doing things on time.

Wrestling My Inner Slacker

I’m not a chronic procrastinator. As I’ve mentioned in a previous post, I journal consistently enough to have observed and reflected on the circumstances which typically lead me to struggle with motivation. It tends to happen in situations when life has genuinely gotten out of hand; when there’s an unreasonable amount of to-do items on the list. Basically, my productivity is in trouble the moment I reach burnout.

That seems obvious enough, right? Who isn’t demotivated when they’re mentally fried? Well, the problem is that I don’t always recognize when burnout is approaching. Things tend to be quite intense in those moments and I’m too distracted to notice the foreboding overwhelm settling in.

But once I do notice that there’s a problem, how do I strengthen my focus from the ground up? Here’s my process:

Step One: Identify the things that sap energy

Through the years, I’ve found that it’s the little, straightforward, things that set me off first. Many times, these areas are not entirely connected with the situation that triggered my procrastination in the first place.

For example, a long time ago I was struggling with an extremely challenging, stressful project at work. My boss had asked me to prepare a presentation that I’d be delivering to our executive team on a completely unfamiliar part of our business. I had three months to learn what I needed to know, identify the presentation theme, and prepare the content. What made this a terrifying proposition was that I had no idea where to start and I’d never presented to leadership before. I’d never even sat in on one of their meetings, so I had no previous experiences to guide me.

One morning soon after that, I struggled badly to get up on time for work. I felt exhausted and convinced myself that I had a migraine coming on. I called in sick to work — and yes, I did get a stress headache later in the day. But it wasn’t from a migraine. The culprit was too much time on the couch mindlessly scrolling through social media for hours on end. In fact, there was nothing wrong with me medically. I had been bitten by the procrastination bug.

From there, my laziness habit took hold like a bad case of the flu. I had a terrible time waking up for multiple workdays in a row. It got so bad that my husband started to complain about how frequently I hit the snooze button. The situation snowballed. My work calendar became a consistent mess, the challenging presentation project loomed over me like a dark shadow, and as things spiraled out of control, my stress level climbed. The extra sleep I was getting did absolutely nothing positive for me.

I’ve learned that the first practical step to reviving a healthy sense of motivation is to identify the task, situation, or activity that is depleting my energy. In hindsight, I can tell you the problem was that high-pressure presentation. But at the time, things weren’t so clear. Other times I’ve felt certain that I knew exactly what was draining my motivation, only to realize that my first assumption was way off.

That’s why to fix this problem, I always start by listing the tasks that I have the least ambition to pursue. What are the things which are making me feel disheartened? Reflecting on my answers, I’m always able to point out patterns, and then ultimately the culprit of my bad attitude.

The next step does not include crossing those unpleasant tasks off the list. Sorry, but we all have to face things we’d rather avoid, whether it’s three loads of laundry or the project from hell. The point of this exercise is to remind yourself what your mental energy thieves are. If you can’t eliminate these tasks, try to appreciate them by considering how to manage them more efficiently. I’ll say more about this in a minute.

Step Two: Evaluate the risks (and benefits) of not feeling motivated.

I’ve learned that sometimes there are benefits to having no motivation. The mental and emotional recharge you can get from increased rest or recreation is one example. At times, I do need to put that stressful, draining task aside for a bit and give myself a mini mental health break. That can be okay as long as I’ve evaluated the risks of doing so. However, many times when I evaluate the risk/reward of procrastination, the rewards are very few and far in between.

To make a proper evaluation, I take the list I made in Step One and add the benefits and dangers of procrastination to each of the tasks I’d identified as energy suckers. Then I focus specifically on the risks. I imagine, as vividly as I can, what it’ll look like and feel like if that risk comes to pass. What will my boss say to me at that moment? How will my significant other react? What will the days following that be like for me? Will I be happy, stressed, depressed?

This may seem rather rudimentary, but sometimes when I’m deep in my funk, I need to come as close as I can to feeling the consequences of my procrastination through my imagination. Nine times out of ten, this helps pull me back into reality so I make better choices.

Step Three: Push yourself

I’ve come to believe that pampering myself too much is a real bad habit that feeds the procrastination bug. In the middle of remodeling our home, I told myself that we simply didn’t have time to cook as often. We started living off take out. Thirty days later, I was 10 pounds heavier and shocked at how badly we had depleted our checking account on something as frivolous as glorified fast food. What appeared to make my life easier ended up an unnecessary waste of resources, and to be honest, the food wasn’t that great.

Over pampering can lead to bigger problems than a little weight gain. It could cost me my job. Better opportunities that were coming my way may shift to someone more worthy. Not to mention that it’s hard to be successful and spoiled at the same time, regardless of the perception that the modern celebrity casts on social media. The reality is that successful people (celebrities included) work very hard and sacrifice a lot no matter what their Instagram feed looks like.

How do I break out of the habit when I’m pampering myself too much?

If I know I can do a task in one hour, I’ll challenge myself to finish in 30 minutes instead. Or I’ll experiment by adding more a few more outputs to my weekly or monthly goals. Basically, I try to re-energize by striving for high performance for a set period of time (typically for at least two weeks, but no more than thirty days). Then I’ll check in with myself at the end of my challenge to see how I feel.

Why does this work? Experience has taught me that motivation is like exercise. The more I do it, the stronger I become, and the more energy I have available. There is also a certain sense of pride and accomplishment in being able to defeat my occasional worst enemy — myself.

That said, I’m always careful not to push myself too hard. Work/life balance is essential, and I always try to leave time in the day (even if it’s just five minutes) for rest and recreation to recharge the mind and body.

Step Four: Stop Listening to That Voice in Your Head

I don’t know about you, but sometimes I feel like I have not one, but two voices in my head, battling for attention. One voice encourages me. It tells me to keep up with my tasks, it nags me and fires up the guilt when I need it, and it’s my personal cheerleader when I’ve achieved even the slightest thing. I like this voice.

But the other voice is a master of negative dialogue. It tries to convince me to delay my work. It’s the voice that tells me I’m not going to succeed, that I’m a failure. Why bother trying at all?

Unfortunately, the second voice wins sometimes. This typically happens when I’m so busy and engrossed in my day that I’m reacting subconsciously to the internal messages I’m giving myself. The most motivated people I’ve known are those who have learned to be mindful of their inner dialogue. They’ve learned to watch out for the negative, doubtful, lazy voice within so they can discount it immediately. In those moments, they take control of the situation with the wisdom of their conscious mind to bring things back in focus.

These people have taught me to take the time during my day to stop and reflect on my own inner dialogue. What am I telling myself and what am I responding to?

I’m not always perfect at achieving this level of awareness, but I try my best. If this is an area where you might struggle, I recommend that you consider journaling the messages that you tell yourself as I do.

How does your inner voice guide you? Are you telling yourself things that undermine your motivation? The more you learn to pay attention to this aspect of your mind, the easier it will be to stop complying with the unhelpful messages.

Step Five: Envision the completion of the task

Manifestation and self-fulfilling prophecy! I know there’s plenty of people out there that don’t believe in either concept, but I’ve seen it work. In this context, it starts with visualizing the completion of the task that’s causing all my demotivation.

I start by closing my eyes and imagining what that moment will look like. Will I be sitting at my desk at work? In a conference room with my team? In my now tidy laundry room that no longer has piles of dirty clothes all over the floor?

What will I do after the final action that officially completes the task? Will I email my boss with a final update, share the output on social media, celebrate with colleagues or family, or merely move on to another activity?

How will I feel at that moment? Usually, this is when feelings of satisfaction and euphoria come to mind. I might think about how good it’s going to feel to never have to think about doing that task again. I might think about how great it’s going to feel, plopping down on the couch to watch a movie with my family, knowing that they’ve got my complete attention — my mind is clear. Maybe I’ll consider how proud I’ll feel of myself for sticking with something that was clearly a struggle for me.

What I know, no matter what I envision, is that I’m going to feel great. The guilt and shame will be gone. I’ll feel lighter and freer, having the burden of that task off my plate. That always energizes me.