I remember that in the past I used to lose all my motivation to work after checking my to-do list for the day. All my to-do tasks were either boring things i didn’t enjoy doing or things outside my comfort zone.
It was always a big struggle for me to motivate myself to work. Without even noticing, I would always look around for other stuff to do. I would always get myself distracted with questions like “Should I make some coffee? What is in the news? House looks messy, should I tidy up a little?” It was like this whenever I had stuff to do I didn’t enjoy. And when it was too late to start doing actual work, I would feel very guilty about it. A terrible feeling.
It’s not like nowadays every task I have is an amazing task I truly enjoy. I still get a lot of boring or uncomfortable tasks to do daily. Though nowadays I don’t struggle as much in motivating myself because I realized something in one of those mornings full of procrastination.
I was sitting on my couch, doing everything but work, avoiding real tasks. I started thinking about a personal project I was very excited about, building a personal website. It wasn’t the most original or biggest idea but it was actually something I was really excited about. And more importantly, it was something I was very eager to get started.
Shortly after, I found myself completing those boring or uncomfortable tasks one by one. My plan was to finish boring stuff as soon as possible so that I could start working on my small personal website project. It worked, and I had a very productive day. I was proud that I managed to finish all my tasks in hand, and I was happy that I had a chance to work on that project I was excited about.
In the past, when I had stuff to do that I didn’t really enjoy, I would just accept the fact that they needed to get done, and I would force myself to work as much as I can. As I mentioned above, this was a big struggle for me. More often than not I would end up feeling guilty about procrastinating. Now, I am aware that the thing that really motivates a person is not only self-discipline but also excitement. Excitement about enjoyable things that can be worked on after boring stuff is complete.
We should all really have things we can work on that we get excited about, that makes us happy, that we just enjoy doing. These things are the real motivation behind getting through all other tasks we have to work on.