Lately I’ve been suffering from a lack of inspiration and motivation. It’s something that happens to everybody from time to time, and something I’ve faced many times in the past. The downside of when this happens is that it’s significantly more difficult for me to be productive – both at home and at work – and I end up not getting very much accomplished. Quite often I feel like I’m just spinning my wheels, which leads to higher levels of stress and frustration, leading to my general morale to be much lower than I would prefer.
It’s not for a lack of desire to be motivated and inspired, or a lack of desire to get things done. Quite the contrary – I feel anxious and uneasy that I’m not getting as many things done as I want to get done. I’ve been re-reading “Getting Things Done” from David Allen, the father of the GTD movement. I’ve even recently started reading “Making it All Work”, his followup to GTD. Part of the hope there is that I can jump-start my productivity again, get back on the wagon and start getting things done again. Some days I do great and feel like I get a lot accomplished, but the next day I don’t feel as though I really accomplished anything and the motivation that built up the previous day disappears.
I find myself desperately wanting, NEEDING, to have a string of productive and inspiring days. I have so much I want to do, so much I want to accomplish that I just can’t afford to lack the motivation and inspiration I need to do them.
I’m looking for ways to rekindle the motivation and inspiration that seem to have fled me of late. I’m considering a good deep cleaning of my home office, or trying to find a geeky project to tackle saturday or sunday to try and rekindle the inner geek and energy that I know is lurking untapped under the surface.
Have suggestions on finding motivation and inspiration? Leave them in the comments and I’ll give them a try!
I often find that getting started is my hardest obstacle. I use the Pomodoro technique to force myself to focus on one thing for 25 minutes. Once I get going I often don’t want to stop. However if I do, I reward myself with a 5 minute break and then choose another task to begin for 25 minutes.
Getting started is most certainly the hardest obstacle, and one that the GTD methodology is helping me make progress towards eliminating (or at least greatly reducing). I could try the Pomodoro technique, it certainly couldn’t hurt.
I appreciate your feedback!