A Positive Mindset in 2022 - Managing Ebbs and Flows of Motivation

A Positive Mindset for Productivity in 2022

Or: How to keep your motivation fires burning in 2022

 This is the third in a series of blog posts about productivity and motivation.

 

In the first few days of January, I released a digital reflection journal for 2022 (grab a copy here for $2.00!), designed based on my own experiences with productivity and what truly motivated me as I tried to move forward with my goals and tasks I wanted to accomplish. To compliment its release, this series of blog posts will share my lessons learned over the past handful of years as I have struggled to create a method of keeping track of my productivity that helps me feel motivated to keep moving forward.

In the first post, I talked about defining productivity and why that was an important step for me. It helped me understand what I specifically needed in order to feel satisfied with my day - and feel productive. I view the connection between productivity and motivation as cyclical. If you feel productive, you feel more motivated to keep going, which in turn means you accomplish more things, and you feel productive, which makes you feel motivated, and so on. 

In the second post, I talked about how we can keep a positive mindset while trying to be productive, even when things don't go our way. Managing expectations and having the grace, understanding, and flexibility required to nurture our productivity in a positive way is critical to having a sustainable and healthy experience. 

 

Productivity, as I've mentioned, is linked to motivation. But we're not always motivated to work on a specific project or task. Sometimes, this is because of the nature of the task itself - maybe it's a monotonous chore that is time-consuming, or maybe it's a difficult issue that needs to be tackled. Often, though, it has a lot to do with the natural ebbs and flows of our motivation.

Some working professionals advocate for overcoming lack of motivation through sheer will and discipline, and being productive regardless of how you feel. I think this is unsustainable in the long run, because it completely ignores natural cycles in our bodies and changes we experience that affect, among other things, our motivation levels. It's must healthier, in my opinion, to work with yourself than it is to work against yourself.

Think back on the most recent handful of months. Have you felt that your motivation - and lack thereof - comes in waves? Does it look something sort of like this graph?

A very poor sketch representing the waves of motivation over time. Do you feel like your sense of motivation comes in waves that sort of look like this?

I feel that mine does. I can be extremely motivated for a handful of days, then very unmotivated for a few days, then highly motivated again - and so on. For some projects, my motivation lasts longer than it does for other projects. But I've also found tools and methods that help me stay motivated in a project longer than I would have been otherwise, and I can go into those in another blog post. 

For now, if you do recognize that your motivation seems to come in waves, then let me assure you: it is 100% natural!

Understanding Your Productivity Flow

There is absolutely nothing wrong with going through a short phase where you just don't feel motivated to work on anything. Usually, you can try to reignite that motivation by just starting on a task or project regardless - getting started is often the hardest part! But, sometimes, you can also work with yourself to prolong the periods of motivation and shorten the periods where you feel a lack of motivation.

To do this, you need to realize how your workflow - or, I suppose, a better term is simply productivity flow, since not everything you do needs to be work - functions. Here are just a few questions you can ask yourself to get a better grasp on how your productivity flow tends to work:

• Does it help you to sit at a desk for hours at a time without disturbances or distractions, or can you only work in short bursts of time? 
• Does it help you to have a dedicated space for work, or can you work anywhere? 
• If you live with roommates or family, do you find you're more productive with chores when you're alone, or does it help if there's someone around you, possibly helping you out or also working on their own chores? 
• Do you find that you prefer to do certain tasks at certain times of the day, or certain days of the week? 
• Are there tools/methods that you've found help you accomplish certain tasks? These can be apps, software, physical tools, or anything else that you've found makes your life easier when tackling specific tasks.
  
• When do you usually feel your energy dipping during the day? Is it feasible to rest and accomplish low-energy tasks during those times?
  
• Are you more of an early bird or a night owl? Is this by choice or as a result of your needs or established routine? (For example, I'm a podcaster, and sometimes late at night is the only time I feel comfortable recording.)
• What do you enjoy doing for entertainment or to relax? How long do these activities usually take? Do you do these activities daily?

There is a lot more that you can ask yourself, but get started with those for now. Engineering your lifestyle to help facilitate your motivation and therefore productivity is one of the biggest things you can do to help yourself. This is one of the main functions of the 2022 Reflection & Productivity Journal. It pushes you to consider what you've accomplished during the day and reflect on the challenges that you faced, and then asks you to consider what you'd like to do moving forward. This provides a good place for you to reflect on your productivity/motivation as you try to understand them. You can grab a copy of the free January 2022 sampler if you want to see how it works!

As you may have noticed, the questions above are not questions that only deal with work. Productivity isn't just about how productive you are at your job or for your employer. It's simply what you accomplish during the day that produces some kind of (hopefully) beneficial result for you or someone else. Here are some examples of things you might find yourself doing on a daily basis, and how they help benefit you and others:

• Watching a movie or TV show that you like can make you feel better. It's a form of entertainment, and you're enjoying yourself. If you watch it with others, it's a form of socializing. These will all benefit your mental health.
• Cleaning your room keeps your surroundings clean and orderly. Obviously, this is good for you because you keep your environment healthy. Studies also show that having clean and organized surroundings help you achieve clarity and de-stress, which is good for your mental health.
• Working for your job creates direct benefits in the form of monetary rewards, which helps you to live your life, purchase the supplies you need, and pay for your rent/bills/etc. If you're working a job that you feel is purposeful, that, too, means that you benefit from being part of an impactful project that touches the lives of other people. 
• Studying results in improved knowledge and development, and places you in a position where you gain more expertise about your field of study. Once again, this is a good benefit for you! Completing study requirements can also help you find better jobs and opportunities.
  
• Taking a nap can be restorative and helpful to even out your energy levels and mood. 
• Exercising keeps you feeling healthy and fit, and staves off a plethora of diseases and illnesses.
  
• Cooking or baking can provide stress relief and allows you to create healthy homemade meals that will benefit you (and anyone else who eats with you) nutritionally. 
  
• Praying regularly has great spiritual, mental, and physical benefits.
• Chatting with friends or meeting up with them is a form of socializing and can help you de-stress, enjoy a good conversation, and connect with others.
  
• And so much more!

You can think of pretty much any task or activity that you do throughout the day. Each and every one of them is done for a reason. Each and every one of them impacts your life in a positive way. (And, if it doesn't impact your life positively at all, then why are you doing it?)

If you're working on a long-term project and are losing steam, you can also try to reignite your motivation for it by either taking a break or talking about it with others (or a "rubber duck"). This usually does the trick for me! Sometimes, I try to remember what got me excited to work on that project or task in the first place - remind yourself of the benefits of completing that task/activity, or of the reason you started working on that passion project. Let others see what you've done so far and get positive and constructive encouragement from them. Motivation can be nurtured in these ways and in others, both internally and externally. 

When it comes to those dreaded dips in motivation, though, there's really only one thing for it: greet them with a positive mindset. Your brain is telling you it wants a break, or maybe to change things up, or maybe to do something else entirely. If none of the tips above help you out with your motivation, accept that your brain just isn't up for it at the moment and wants a change of pace. Try different things, get some distance, and give yourself some space.

 

Managing Motivation for Increased Productivity

So, now you know a little more about your productivity flow. It's time to link it up with what you know about your motivation. Find out what helps you stay interested and motivated to work on a project longer, and what has the opposite effect completely. Here's an example based on my writing experiences:

When I first started writing The Qarran Tales, my fantasy series (which, at the time, was only one book), I looked into how I could write a book from beginning to end. Many articles claimed that planning your book out can help you get it done quicker and more efficiently! So, I spent a while planning out the whole book. By the time I was done planning, I wasn't interested in working on it anymore. My motivation was completely gone. I wanted to work on my book, but I just didn't feel like it anymore.

Recently, when I started working on the nth rewrite of my upcoming murder mystery novel Marie/Elise, I decided, kind of out of the blue, to make flashcards to help me plot it out. This coincided with some in-depth research that I was undertaking about literary devices, of which plot was one. I learned that plotting isn't planning, and as I made my flashcards, I kept this in mind. I then resolved to write the contents of one flashcard per day for the entirety of the month. 

It worked tremendously well! For most of the month, I wrote every single day for Marie/Elise! Wow! I'd never had that kind of consistent productivity on a story before.

In this case, I learned that the method or process that worked for others didn't work for me, and through some experimentation of my own, I figured out what did work for me to keep me productive and motivated. It was a simple fix - making flashcards and re-learning literary basics - but it made all the difference for me.

By using this method, I was able to prolong my motivation by working with my productivity flow rather than against it. Because I was more productive through this method, I was also more motivated, which made me more productive - and the cycle continued, until finally I finished my self-imposed month-long writing challenge.

So, that's your goal moving forward: Find out what works for you - and it's not necessarily going to be what works for me, or for others! Productivity and motivation are very individual, personal things. They're not going to be exactly the same from one person to the next, though there can be overlaps.

Next up, I want to wrap up this series of blog posts by talking about how my own productivity increased, and how my own understanding of my productivity flow helped me get better at getting things done and feeling great at the end of the day!

~⭐~

Grab the 2022 Reflection & Productivity Journal here for $2.00! Try out a full-month sample free here!

Check out my psychological thriller Apartment. Add it to your TBR on Goodreads!

Looking for a writing prompt workbook? Check out 101 Writing Prompts.