I recently sent out a survey and a common struggle I saw is getting motivated. Now, I definitely have days where I am completely unmotivated, but in general, I’ve found these tips to be incredibly helpful in getting and staying motivated to tackle that to-do list.

Use small steps 

Having a monumental task sitting on your to-do list is overwhelming and that makes it unmotivating to work on. Instead, I try to break things down into steps that can be done in 15-30 minutes or less. Anything longer feels intimidating. It’s much easier to have the self-discipline to do a small task than a big one.

This is also a reason why I’m such a huge fan of quarterly goals over yearly goals, because when it’s in that smaller time frame, it is, it just gives you so much more urgency and motivation. And it’s not some far off thing that you want to try to do. It’s in the here and now, and that is definitely motivating.

Practice Self-Care

I know I get so overwhelmed and I just kind of run myself ragged. If I don’t take the time to recharge and take care of myself, I will become completely unmotivated to pretty much do anything.

I’ve found that if I take just a few minutes to take care of myself – which usually involves a cup of coffee and quiet (well, as quiet as it gets with 2 small kids around). Or if I get a chance those few minutes by myself to recharge. You may need something completely different, and that’s ok. Take a few minutes to take care of yourself in a way that fills you up.

Stay motivated by managing distractions

We are constantly bombarded with information from every direction, it’s nearly impossible to get away from it. So I have to set some big boundaries with my phone and with technology to be able to focus on the task at hand.

One of the biggest things that can strip any motivation away is getting sucked into the rabbit hole of social media scrolling, news reading, phone pinging, etc. So make a plan for how you’re going to manage distractions and even look into setting limits for apps and other things that distract you from what’s important.

Put up some boundaries with what you find yourself getting distracted with. I know we can’t do anything about some distractions, but we are here to manage what we can control and one of those things is our time spent on our devices.

Those are my top 3 tips on getting and staying motivated. Use small steps on your to-do list, practice self-care, and manage distractions. What are you going to implement first to improve your motivation?