Most people can accomplish a lot of work when they are feeling good, but being able to be productive during a lazy day is a learned skill. I know that I’ve struggled with my motivation, especially after being yelled at for a mistake.

There is one rule that you must keep in mind:

You’ll rarely ever be as productive on a low motivational day
as you would on a motivated day. Accept this and work with
the attitude you have.

If you can remember this rule then you can feel successful on low motivational days. There have been days that have started slow and I’ve been able to get my internal motivation excited and it turns into a highly productive day, but this is rare and never seems to last the whole day through. Working with the flow of my mind, I’m able to maximize its ability.

It doesn’t matter if you work for a company, yourself, or if you’re jobless; there are always days that never go quite the way you want them to. I’ve been refining eight mental tricks that I’ve used over the past couple of years to turn a low motivational day into a productive one.

Work Happy Now! - Eight Mental tricks:

1. Make it a game.

I’ve dealt with many low motivational days and the first one that comes to mind is the day I call “Why is everyone yelling at me.” I was yelled at by the President of the company for a small mistake on an important report and for missing a meeting, by a co-worker for being too pushy, by a driver who I accidentally cut off, by a lady who didn’t like my dog sniffing up on her, and my mom in an email I read before bed. I had to think of all these mistakes and realize that they are moments that I can use. Like a character in a video game or a baseball player coming out of a slump, I can learn to use my mistakes to improve my next move.

After I was yelled at for the third time I began to see that it was mostly my mistakes that were causing my low motivation. I knew that I had to release these errors or my motivation would sink even lower. I looked at myself from the third person, as if it wasn’t me getting yelled at, but just my character I was controlling that day. All this yelling couldn’t hurt me if I was just a character in a game. It would only make me stronger and improve my ability to make a better decision.

2. Watch your emotions.

Waking up and knowing that the day will be a struggle is a feeling I now revel in. The last time I awoke with low motivation I actually smiled. I saw the emotional possibility in front of me.

Sitting at my desk I drank a cup of caffeinated tea to spark my motivation. Nothing happened. My energy level felt lower. I knew that the day was going to be a challenge. I was lucky that on this day I wouldn’t need a lot of energy. I could just take my time and do each job methodically. I felt like I was in a haze. I had to read a report four times before it finally sank in. By watching how I reacted and not trying to force myself to snap out of it I was able to cruise through the day and get many things accomplished.
o Stuffing marketing bags
o Writing an email to a co-worker
o Setting up a few appointments
o Enjoying a lunch outside
o Reading a report and summarizing it for my boss

After the day was done I realized that just watching my mood and going with the feelings allowed me to be more accepting of my circumstance. I didn’t push myself into a further grumpy state and the day ended up being one of average productivity that was probably better than some of my highly motivated days.

3. Enjoy the external show.

Sitting through a two hour meeting is never fun, but it can be enjoyable. Although it’s difficult to focus, it is possible to cajole my attention. There was a two and a half hour meeting that I got roped into because they wanted my input. The meeting was only 10% relevant to me, so I was stuck and unable to participate for most of it.

I looked at this meeting as an opportunity to study people’s facial expressions. I am usually so caught up in meetings, trying to get my point of view in, that I miss a lot of the show in front of me. This time I made sure to watch each smile, wrinkle of the eye and nervous habit. I got so into the meeting that when it ended I felt disappointed. This technique also allowed me to listen in a different way and I came away with new ideas and respect for people that I had never really given a chance.

4. Immerse yourself in low motivation.

Dive into the sand of low motivation and bury yourself and see what happens. Sometimes I have trouble getting out of the emotional weight, but this technique can work. During one particularly rough Sunday when I had to mow the grass, write a blog, clean the kitchen and cook dinner, I immersed myself in the low motivational feelings.

I sat down on the floor and let out a large breath. I knew I could not ignore this mood, so I dove in and felt everything that was going on within me. My sluggish thoughts, the negative emotions, and the desire to close my eyes, lean back and take a nap on the floor. That’s what I did. I fell into the low motivation, letting my thoughts and feelings take me where they wanted. I set a timer for twenty minutes and gave myself that time to just relax and allow the feelings to do what they wanted. After the timer woke me up the feelings were gone and I could sense my energy rising. I was able to get all my tasks done and I also wrote two emails to a couple of friends.

5. Compromise with yourself.

When I’ve been stuck in a day where I need to get certain things done, I made sure to give myself opportunities for mental breaks throughout the day. I created a little plan to keep my motivation balanced.
8:30 – 9:00 I relaxed and drank some coffee while reading my enjoyable emails.
9:00 – 10:00 I got to work on my report.
10:00 – 10:30 I went for a walk around the office and stopped by John’s cubicle to talk for a little while
10:30 – 12:00 I got back to my report and finished the first draft.
12:00 – 1:00 Lunch
1:00 – 2:30 Edited the report and finalized its content
2:30 – 3:00 Walked around the office building and read an article about marketing that I saved on my computer
3:00 – 4:00 Reviewed the report and sent it to my boss
4:00 – 5:00 Coasted through the rest of the day by cleaning up my desk and talking to my wife on the phone.

Not every day can be a sprint through work; you have to compromise on those days that your body is just begging for a break. You’ll be less likely to burn out.

6. Tackle the easy stuff.

Allowing myself to work at a more compassionate pace has helped me use low motivational days to my advantage. I usually get monotonous and time draining work done, so when I am motivated to tackle the big projects I don’t have to worry about tedious stuff.

Every job has its tasks that require mind numbing focus. I have to stuff marketing bags and fill in forms, jobs that any middle school student could do, but since I must listen to the boss’s wishes I have to get it done. When I have low motivational days I am able to get the tedious stuff accomplished. The bonus is that I look busy and productive to my boss and I get the work done that I normally put off for later. During low motivational days I’m just not able to focus on the difficult stuff, so stuffing bags and writing emails is the best way to get through the day and then be able to relax at home.

7. Know that the next day won’t be as bad.

Some days are just rough on the psyche. Instead of thinking of the day as fixed in stone, I imagined myself getting tougher after each setback.

Every time I tried to work on a report I would get interrupted, or if I tried to do some research into our competition I was blocked by my company’s Internet filter, or I just couldn’t get the right words out to get my point across in an email. Everything I was trying to do failed. I used each stumble or failure as a stepping stone to alter my feelings. I imagined the mental drain leaving my brain, converting into energy, and entering my muscles, storing up for the next day. I saw the next day as a highly motivated day because I had built up all this extra energy. It worked. I plunged through the day. The next day was high energy and productive.

8. Give in.

There’s nothing you can do; you’ve tried the seven mental tricks from above and you can’t get out of your funk. Go with it and stop fighting your feelings.

The last time I felt like this I had some time off with pay, so I used it. I couldn’t be in the office any longer, so I told my boss that I wasn’t feeling well and I needed to go home. I had to take a mental health day or I was going to explode. I watched a movie that I’ve been putting off for weeks and I cooked dinner for my wife. That smile on her face perked up my day and I could feel the sluggishness oozing out of myself.

Each day has its own challenges, no matter how brilliant you are. These mental tips can be applied in almost any circumstance. Give your mind a new perspective and apply one of the tips to make any low motivational day into a productive one.

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Create a plan and you’ll relieve your worry. When you have a lot on your mind you probably try to over think the situation. However, worrying only creates more confusion.

Planning helps create internal balance. When you’re stressed out, organizing your thoughts is the best way to get yourself back on track.

Step 1: Understand your worry

Step back, take a deep breath and look at the situation objectively. Make a mental or actual list of everything that is causing you stress. Let’s say that you are afraid you might lose your job because of cutbacks. You’re worried that you’ll lose your source of income. That’s understandable and should create a little stress, but you know there is money to be made in every industry. Use that stress to formulate your plan.

Step 2: Create a plan

Now that you’ve figured out what the problem is you can create a plan of action. Give yourself at least two or three options, this way if one fails or you need more choices, you are covered.

Write out your plan. For example:

• Update your resume
• Connect with old contacts
• Search the web for jobs

And you’re back on track to creating the career you desire.

Step 3: Execute your plan

Many people create a plan, but are afraid to execute it. They feel overwhelmed by the process. That’s why you wrote out the list and why you should start by tackling the easiest thing on it. Start out slow, then gradually allow your actions to build and gain momentum. Before you know it you’ll be out on an interview, creating your own career instead of leaving your life in the hands of someone that probably doesn’t care about you.

Stress is dictated by how you perceive a certain situation. If you look at the possibility of losing your job as an opportunity to find something that you truly love then you won’t be stressed out, you’ll be excited. You’ll harness this excitement and find the job that you deserve.

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Creating social networks within your organization will improve communication. You’ll be encouraging a “village community” atmosphere instead of cliques (separate groups) who only visit each other when they need something.

Your company can try implementing a social friendship plan. You can do this by rotating various departments to help each other work on tasks or come up with new ideas and systems. If you want your company to foster relationships, you need to create a spider web of connections that help everyone support each other.

This is different from cross-training because you are trying to create new friendships and networks that will help get around some of the red tape as well as construct a friendlier atmosphere.

You don’t want people just hanging out like it’s a mini-party and dragging down the productivity of a department, so you’ll have to figure out the best way to encourage work. You’ll probably want to foster a Teacher-pupil relationship, having the “teacher” show the various tasks that go on throughout a day. You’ll probably be surprised by how much work gets done because the teacher wants to show the pupil how intriguing or intricate their job can be within those few hours.

Creating a Village Solution

Everyone in the company should rotate around the various departments, until everyone gets a larger idea of what the other department does throughout a day.

Small Company

If you have a small company with under ten people, then try a rotation of partnerships every Wednesday morning for an hour, until everyone has had a chance to work with each other. The best way to do this is to pick half the company to rotate to another person’s job. When their time is up then switch the rotation. It should take less than two months and only 9 hours of time. You may think that it will hurt your bottom line because it’s one less hour that they are working on their task, but you must think long-term. The health of a company depends on its relationships and if a small company can stay close-knit then you’ve helped create a team that will assist each other when they are in a bind.

Medium Size Company

If you have a medium size company, between 11 – 500 employees then try rotating between three of the closest related departments.

For instance:

• Put sales with marketing and production

  • Sales needs to understand the message that marketing is putting out to the public. They also need to understand where the product/service comes from so they know how to explain the features and benefits.

• Put marketing with upper management and sales

  • Marketing needs to understand the direction that management wants the products/services to go in to create their message. They also need to understand what is working and what isn’t by communicating with sales.

• Put accounting with creative people and marketing.

  • Accounting needs to understand what the creative people have in mind, so they can explain what the budget looks like for the upcoming projects. They also need to understand the money that marketing spends and what they can do to make their money stretch farther.

By putting the departments together that have the most to learn from one another then you can create open lines of communication. You can also do this with large companies, if you feel like it would benefit the organization. People want to work together for the greater good of the company. It’s up to management to make sure that it happens.

Large Company

If you have a large sized company (greater than 501 employees) then try rotating people within their own department. A Sales department can be filled with 1000 or more people. Everything is so specialized that they might not even know what one of their co-workers is accomplishing. It will foster learning and a little competition.

By rotating a department around you can open social networks, encouraging people who want to help each other achieve success.

Your company should encourage the employees from different departments to get to know each other. It will create friendships and loyalty toward each other. What should happen is a tighter knit group, willing to support each other instead of fighting for better position. You’ll have some grumps and kill-joys in every group, but after a short period of time communication will open.

Discuss Communication Project

The most important part about trying to implement this plan is to recap the project with the employees involved. Ask them what they liked and disliked. You can use this to adjust for the next time. When they see that you are trying to create a more open and friendlier atmosphere they will be more willing to participate.

Opening social networks should also improve company retention. People stay with a company when they feel they are a part of a family atmosphere. Over time, as the program progresses, the villagers will encourage change and adapt new ideas as they learn from each other.

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