Hi dear readers,

I hope you had a fantastic start to the new year and are full of motivation and energy.

If not, don’t worry, I understand and thought I’d create a little space to share your struggles. I’ve talked about productivity, organisation and motivation in some of my blogs before, but at the time I was really super productive and on top of everything. So I wanted to share with you what I do when I feel the total opposite of that, since I am sure that some of you can relate.

First of all, and this is something I’ve also had to realise myself, it’s okay to not always feel the same way when it comes to getting work done. Lately, I had been doing so well with being productive and getting things done every day that I felt a little lost when that wasn’t the case anymore. I was still so used to that motivation to work, collecting data for my thesis every day in the summer and then getting hugely excited when I started analysing all my data, that the moment I hit a lull I felt like I was never going to get anything done again and it made me very upset. Suddenly I was taking forever to complete the smallest tasks, I was wasting so much time on useless work or putting it off, and I was dissatisfied with the results I had achieved so far. Suddenly working on my dissertation was no longer exciting at all, and when I realised this feeling, it got worse, because I knew that the work would actually be fun if I had a better attitude towards it.

But what do you do when you realise you’re in a funk, but no matter how you try to motivate yourself, it just doesn’t seem to work? That’s exactly the question I asked myself after every Monday when I told myself I would “turn it around” this week and be productive again. Well, that’s easier said than done. I think a big part of why it’s so hard for many of us to be unmotivated is because we sometimes – and perhaps unconsciously – measure our worth by how productive we are. So if we’ve had an ‘unproductive’ day, that’s automatically a bad day, and I realised that in this way I was engaging with productivity in a way that was, ironically, very unproductive.

Also, if my day didn’t start off with me getting work done, I always thought that my whole day was screwed up and I had to try to do better the next day – and that was one of the first things I tried to change to get back into the swing of things. If my day didn’t start the way I had planned, I tried to stop fretting about it and instead just try to get something done in the afternoon. After all, I would tell myself that even an hour of concentrated work is better than no hour of concentrated work!
Something that is also very important when you have a slump is free time. There’s likely a reason you’re struggling with your workload, and it’s probably not because you’re lazy! I’ve had to find that it’s natural to go through phases where I can work more in a day or week and be more productive, and then the opposite, slowing down and needing more rest. So let’s be gentle with ourselves and spend the weekends away from the computer to recharge, and stop berating ourselves for not working enough, which only makes you feel less like working more.
If you are struggling with your academic work but don’t want to feel like you are doing nothing, find other ways to feel productive. Exercise, go for a walk, tidy your room or do something creative. Maybe do something for yourself or meet up with a friend you haven’t seen for a while. If you’re still doing something and being active, you’ll find it easier to find the energy to do your academic work too because you’ll be busy and won’t have time to just sit around waiting for motivation to overtake you, which unfortunately doesn’t just happen.

Also, don’t just stay at home to get your work done. Meet up with friends, and mix up your study locations. Try out all the buildings on campus, even go to a café or visit the library in the city centre. Especially now that it’s cold outside, it’s so easy to hole up at home, which doesn’t help you to be motivated or productive. If you enjoy coffee or a specific tea or any other drink maybe treat yourself to it when you sit down to do work as a little motivation. Make plans with friends after study hours so you have things to look forward to, and try not to wallow on bad days. I am saying this as someone who is definitely guilty of it. If you are struggling maybe also try to confide in someone. Some of your friends might feel the same and you might be able to help each other out by making some study plans and get through it together.

I know it is not always easy to have a good attitude about everything when you feel like you are struggling and don’t feel motivated. But in the end it is you that has the power to get your motivation back and have fun doing your work. If you have any tips of what helps you when you are unmotivated don’t hesitate to leave a message below, I can always use some advice int hat regard! 😀

I hope you are doing well otherwise, talk to you again soon //M.

 

 

 

 

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