3 Ways to Stay Motivated and Productive

Being motivated and productive is great. Unfortunately, being motivated and productive doesn’t last forever. Eventually, you’re going to want to stop what you’re doing, take a break and be lazy the rest of the day. If you can, then go for it. If you can’t, however, you need to know what you can do to motivate yourself to continue on your path of productivity.

Let There Be Light

Natural light makes you feel more productive, relaxed and awake. Open some windows, sit by a window, head outside; do whatever you can to find some natural light and make it part of your current situation. It can help you to motivate yourself to work harder.

Time Yourself

If you’re finding it difficult to get motivated, set a timer. A timer is a bit like the last minute – and everyone knows there’s nothing as productive as procrastinating until the last minute. When you know you only have a certain amount of time to get something done you suddenly have a lot more motivation to do it and get it finished than you did a few minutes ago.

Reward Yourself When it’s All Done

A reward is a great way to help you stay motivated. For example, promise yourself a Friday afternoon pedicure if you can get all your work and deadlines met by Thursday before you pick your kids up from school. This is what I do; working from home makes it difficult to always be super productive when there are always so many other things to do, such as clean and organize and be exhausted and pregnant with twins (on top of being a wife and mom of two little girls already).

I remind myself that Fridays are for me and that unless I’m productive the rest of the week, I’m not going to get what I want on Friday mornings. I like getting what I want so it’s a nice way to motivate myself. Additionally, I like to spend time with my girls after I pick them up from school, so I use the time I have to leave as my timer to help me get things done and be able to put my computer away for the rest of the day. Doesn’t always work; but it works most of the time.

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