Last week, we talked about the importance of pre-work rituals and why everyone, especially people who work from home, should incorporate key simple yet effective activities to get them ready for work. 

But how do you get started with work when it just feels like you don’t have the mental and physical Energy to do anything?

No, three cups of coffee is not the solution. And if you need three cups of coffee to function, we might need to address another issue there. Instead, here are some of the healthiest ways to combat low motivation at work. 

Take a nap

Let your eyes and your mind take a break. This will benefit you two-fold: first, you’re giving your eyes a rest from staring at the screen for so long. More importantly, you’re giving your mind a breather. 

Set an alarm for 15-20 minutes and just empty your head of your daily stressors. If you’re not a nap person, no worries. You don’t even have to lie down for this, although there are some benefits from lying down and putting your leg up on the wall to alleviate fatigue and get your circulation going. 

The goal of this “nap” is just to empty your head as much as you can. Instead of checking social media, sorting emails and messages, or dreading over to-dos, you’re allowing your brain to not think. Clearing your mind from worry and other negative thoughts will allow you to get to work with renewed energy.

Visualize your desired outcome

If you can’t clear your head, another thing you can do is think about your ideal end result. Think of how you would feel so proud of yourself at the end of the day if you finished drafting your proposal early. Or you can even think long-term: imagine yourself as a successful and dependable financial consultant, making a name for yourself in the field. Thinking of your success may just be the fuel you need to get started on work. 

Get moving

Get up and get moving! Stop thinking about all the work you have to do and just do something physical. This gets you out of your head and into your physical body. More importantly, this improves circulation which is so important for your brain to work well. 

Play some music and clean the house, take a walk around the block, do some yoga – any form of movement is good movement. When you’re Unmotivated, you often don’t want to move and not moving is what’s zapping out your energy even more. Break a sweat and get your blood pumping with some daily light workouts and you’ll see your productivity increase rapidly. 

Work for just 25 minutes.

Tell yourself that it’s just 25 minutes! That’s so short, it’s basically just 5 songs. 

Set a timer and promise yourself that you’ll do nothing but the task you have to do for that 25 minutes. The caveat: you don’t have to work in that 25 minutes but you’re not allowed to do anything else. Multitasking is one of the worst enemies of productivity. Either you work or you do absolutely nothing. No checking messages. No making coffee. No checking your calendar. No writing in your journal. You sit down and work or you do absolutely nothing at all. 

Trust me, doing nothing gets boring really fast. You’ll get so bored doing nothing, you’ll think that doing work is actually interesting. 

Do you sometimes feel unmotivated? What do you do to combat low energy at work? If you’re looking for more science-backed strategies to improve your work performance and reach your fullest potential, be sure to subscribe to our newsletter and check out more Mental Rockstar content.

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