How to Stay Motivated and Get Shit Done

January 16, 2015 - 6:27pm - by Alyson Shane

Life is insane right now.

I walked into the office today with a million things on my plate and of course another million smaller things popped up along the way. Add to it managing client work, personal projects and secret (soon to be not-so-secret) projects I spent the morning feeling like I'd much rather crawl under a rock than actually do any of the stuff that I need to do.

Except I can't.

So instead of throwing myself a pity-party I decided to spend my lunch hour jotting down a few of the ways that I get shit done and stay motivated when I feel like this:

Figure Out What I'm Avoiding, and Why

I'm scared by things that I don't know but that doesn't make a lot of sense when I say it out loud, so here's an example to illustrate what I mean:

I want to get into podcasting but I have no idea where to start, so I Google "how to make a great podcast" and open a bunch of tabs, but then get overwhelmed by all the new information and, oh hey, Reddit sure looks interesting right about now... and then 45 minutes later I still haven't finished that first article that I started. 

It's easy to put off things that make us go beyond our comfort zone or, in my case, confront the fact that I don't actually know everything about everything. 

Figuring out why I'm avoiding something helps me start taking steps to work at it.

Make Time by Making Time

I know I sound like my mom but seriously I'd never get to the gym if I didn't pre-pack my gym bag the night before. Same goes for laying out work to get done in the morning and organizing my thoughts the night before by creating daily to-do lists (my saving grace). Little things like that make me feel a million times more organized (even when I'm a total gong show) and can really save time.

Put The Goddamn Phone Down

Otherwise known as: get the hell off social media, which I have a huge problem doing. I put my phone face-down, close my tabs (yes ALL of them) except what I need and have notifications disabled on both my iMac and my Macbook, so nothing "pops up" to notify me on my screen while I'm attempting to focus.

I've also had some really good experiences with SelfControl, which is a tool that allows you to set a timer which will cause your browser to behave like it's offline. You can whitelist or blacklist certain sites so that you don't have to totally disable the internet (calm down) while trying to focus. It's a Mac-only product, though. PC users can use Freedom, which is similar.

Figure Out When I'm Most Productive

I kick the most ass in the morning. In my ideal world I would get up, hit the gym or go for a long run, then settle in with a cup of coffee and do my thing until about 3pm which is when my energy takes a nosedive. 

Also: take breaks! If I've been working for several hours and feel my brain waters getting low it's totally okay to go for a walk to grab groceries or (just this once!) check out what's happening on Twitter. I try not to guilt myself about these breaks (though sometimes I fail) but I know that letting my brain chill out can really boost productivity if I've got a long haul ahead of me. 

Get Lit

Obviously I don't mean getting stoned and useless. I mean sitting somewhere where it's bright, preferably near a large window or (when the weather permits) sitting outside. I have a great goose-neck lamp from IKEA that I love at my desk, but sitting anywhere with some nice non-fluorescent lights is key to getting work done and not ruining my eyesight or giving myself a headache.

Organize My Mess

I'm a neat freak and I hate working in sloppy spaces. Sure, when I was writing 30+ page papers in university and had several stacks of reference notes all over my desk for one particular project I could handle it, but that's different. What I mean is the keeping the area around where you're working clean (or relatively so).

Is it dusty? Are there old dishes everywhere? Are there leftover papers, pens, notepads, books, whatever all over the place? For the love of god put it away. 

Clutter clutters the mind, or however that saying goes.

Also if you're a girl putting fresh flowers in your work space make you at least 96% more productive. Scientific fact.

What about you? Do you have any tips for getting shit done and staying motivated?