Having trouble finding a reward awesome enough to get you off your butt? More on how to stop procrastinating here. What else do you need? How about nagging, compliments and guilt? Research shows peer pressure helps kids more than it hurts them.
When people join groups where change seems possible, the potential for that change to occur becomes more real. The Longevity Project , which studied over people from youth to death had this to say:.
The groups you associate with often determine the type of person you become. For people who want improved health, association with other healthy people is usually the strongest and most direct path of change. And the research on friendship confirms this. From my interview with Carlin Flora , author of Friendfluence :.
Research shows over time, you develop the eating habits, health habits and even career aspirations of those around you. More on the science of friendship here. How do we wrap this all together and get started?
That means the most rational thing to do now is stop being rational. Get those emotions going:. Think of yourself as a motivated, productive person. Research shows how people feel about themselves has a huge effect on success. For most people studied, the first step toward improving their job performance had nothing to do with the job itself but instead with improving how they felt about themselves.
This can backfire by causing them to lose motivation—which makes it even harder to get more things done. See if other tasks can be moved to a different day. Prioritize the most important things on the list, and move those to the top. You might find a slight change in your to-do list—or the way you view your to-do list—will help you to see your tasks as more manageable. As a result, you might feel more motivated to get to work. Sleep-deprivation, a poor diet, and lack of leisure time are just a few things that can make trudging through the day more difficult than ever.
Create a healthy self-care plan that allows you to take care of your mind and body:. Create a small reward for yourself that you can earn for your hard work. You might find focusing on the reward helps you stay motivated to reach your goals. For example, if you have a long paper to write for class, you might tackle it in several different ways:.
Consider whether you are likely to be more motivated by smaller, more frequent rewards or a bigger reward for a complete job. You may want to experiment with a few different strategies until you discover an approach that works best for you. Rewarding your hard work at the gym with a sugary treat might be counterproductive.
And counterproductive bad habits will decrease your motivation in the long term. If your motivation remains low for two or more weeks, seek professional help. You may also want to seek help if your lack of motivation is affecting your daily functioning. Schedule an appointment with your physician. Your doctor may want to rule out physical health conditions that may be affecting your energy or mood.
Your doctor may also refer you to a mental health professional to determine if your lack of motivation might be related to a mental illness, like depression. If so, treatment may include therapy, medication, or a combination of both.
You may also want to consider an online therapy program to address any underlying issues and tackle your lack of motivation. Sometimes, no motivation can be the problem. At other times, your lack of motivation may cause you to procrastinate. And the more you procrastinate, the less motivated you feel. In this case, improving your motivation to get work done can help you feel better and perform better.
Interestingly, giving advice rather than asking for it may be an even more effective way to overcome motivational deficits, because it boosts confidence and thereby spurs action. In a recent study I found that people struggling to achieve a goal like finding a job assumed that they needed tips from experts to succeed. In fact, they were better served by offering their wisdom to other job seekers, because when they did so, they laid out concrete plans they could follow themselves, which have been shown to increase drive and achievement.
A final way to harness positive social influence is to recognize that the people who will best motivate you to accomplish certain tasks are not necessarily those who do the tasks well.
Thinking of those people and our desire to succeed on their behalf can help provide the powerful intrinsic incentives we need to reach our goals.
A woman may find drudgery at work rewarding if she feels she is providing an example for her daughter; a man may find it easier to stick to his fitness routine if it helps him feel more vibrant when he is with his friends. In positive psychology, flow is defined as a mental state in which someone is fully immersed, with energized focus and enjoyment, in an activity.
Alas, that feeling can be fleeting or elusive in everyday life. More often we feel like Baron Munchausen in the swamp—struggling to move forward in pursuit of our goals. In those situations it can help to tap the power of intrinsic and extrinsic motivators, set incentives carefully, turn our focus either behind or ahead depending on how close we are to the finish, and harness social influence. You have 1 free article s left this month.
You are reading your last free article for this month. Subscribe for unlimited access. Create an account to read 2 more. Personal productivity. Four strategies for motivating yourself by Ayelet Fishbach. Jason Schneider. Are you feeling burnt out, hungry, or thirsty? These uncomfortable states can make tasks feel much harder to accomplish. While treating a legitimate case of burnout requires longer, more thought out changes, others like hunger can be quickly taken care of.
By making time to sit down, audit outstanding tasks, and acknowledge completion of other tasks, I gain a sense of accomplishment for what I have achieved and clarity about what I still need to do.
Mark Lavercombe, a specialist physician, medical educator, and writer at The Productive Physician , tells Healthline. Knowing how capable you are provides sense that you can take on things which may have appeared daunting or impossible before. Whether you take a quick walk around the block, do some stretches at your desk, or get a drink of water, give yourself five minutes free from the pressure to work.
Set aside breaks in your day to indulge in your emotions. She acknowledges that some people will need more breaks than others. Add a few new songs every once in a while to keep your attention. While you may turn to caffeine as a way to keep going throughout the day, too much caffeine may not be the best thing for staying focused. Also, you should probably try to cut back on foods and drinks that are high in simple sugars. This includes things like soda, candy, and other sweet treats.
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