It often feels like getting yourself to start work is the hardest part of modern day capitalistic culture. When you sit there with the empty page in front of you,, and the likes, how can you get yourself to finally put something to the page. How can you make yourself work instead of watching Netflix etc?
You can get yourself to start working by packing up your environment, and gathering your work equipment, then setting distractions away. These steps move your body, and allow you to be more present in the moment, thus to be more ready to start working.
A more detailed breakdown is found right here.
Why Can’t I Start Work?
It is hard to get yourself to begin working because studies have proven that when having to choose between long term goals, and short term goals, people often choose the short term goals, even if they contradict the long term goals.
This is a similar question to the one answered in the how to be consistent article. As the studies in the article show, people generally find it hard to resist short term goals, even if they contradict their long term goals.
For example, a person may want to be healthy (long term goal), but they may also want to eat some sweets (short term goal). In this instance, its often more like a person wants to work, but they also want to the warmth of their bed.
There are other reasons why a person may find it hard to work though.
In the self-therapy article, we covered the usually cycle of destruction to productivity that people go through.
It basically starts with a goal. The person is inspired to do something. Then, in their inspired tone, they set a high bar for themselves so they can either get the best results, or get the quickest results.
When the time for performing the goal arrives, their anxiety rises. So, they decide to watch a YouTube video to calm themselves down. Unfortunately, this leads to them missing their opportunity to act.
This breaks their heart.
So the person starts feeling self hatred. They consume more stuff to drown that feeling. before long, they’ve successfully forgotten about their goals, thus can’t hurt themselves with self hatred anymore.
Both these situations have the same thing in common; the person does not do the work when they should. So how can they avoid that? This article will be dealing with both cases.
How Do You Start Working When You Don’t feel Like It?
1. Physically Move
The first step to starting your work is to physically move your body so you can rest your mind.
The worst part about not working is that you usually are working.
You are usually watching a YouTube video, playing a game, watching a move, or indulging in all sorts of things.
This is what does the real damage.
Your best weapon is your mind. When you fill it with all these stimulating things, and increase the dopamine, there is a certain low that it will fall to when you must finally start to work. This makes work unfulfilling, unenticing, and uninspiring.
However, even if you do manage to make yourself work it would not be enough. You could still make yourself successfully work.
However, you will find your work will not be of good quality.
Your mind will be wondering of rapidly, and often. Sometimes, you won’t even be able to focus on simple things. This will make the whole experience worse then unproductive. Now, it will actively be destructive. How do you activate your mind, and lower it’s bar so that you can be excited to work again? And how can you do it quickly so that you can get to work at the moment.
You physically move.
By physically engaging your body, you spread the blood from your brain to the rest of your body. Also, you increase the connection between your mind and your body, which will make you more present in the moment. This improves your work quality.
So, the action step here is that you just need to go for a walk, do push ups, or jumping jacks. Then, we see if you aren’t engaged.
2. Tidy Up The Room
The second tip is you need to tidy up your room.
The first obvious benefit for this step is that it connects to the first one.
You could have been sitting on your bed, and watching as your study/work hour draws nearer. When the time arrives, and you just get straight to work, you won’t be able to concentrate. Even if you do manage to work on something, it will be poor quality.
Instead, when you physically move around your room, and start clearing things up, you open your mind up to working.
However, there are also additional benefits to cleaning up. mainly, the cleaning process, and the eventual consequences of a clean environment.
When it comes to the cleaning process, it is enough to kick start other people’s working power. I know it’s true for me. When I walk around the room, and start tidying up, there is a lot i have to do. i have to decide where to organize things. I have to remember where other things are. I may even need to patiently hoover the whole carpet floor, using methods like listening to music to increase my patience.
All of this is very similar to working. Specifically, it is similar to writing.
When I write, I have to organize scenes, plot events etc. I need to remember words, plot threads, and other set ups I placed in the story. Finally, I have to sit patiently and type for hours, using things like music to increase my patience. So, tidying up is usually enough to get me in a working mood.
Then there is the second portion, which is the clean environment.
For some people, being in a clean environment is enough for them to start feeling like working. That’s not me. I usually write from a trash can. So try it out for you, and report how it works.
3. Set Up The Tools For The Task That You Must Do
The third thing that you could do is to gather, and organize the things that you will need to start your work.
This one works all the time for me, specifically when it comes to drawing.
So basically, for some jobs you may need a series of equipment to complete them. Maybe you are cleaning the backyard, or washing the dishes. Then you will need a lawn mower, and dish washing soap. You will obviously need much more than that, and that is the point.
You could begin putting together all the things that you need, and it could be enough for you to start wanting to use them.
Most of my drawings used to start like that. I’d be wondering where my pencil is, and I will go looking for it. Then, I wonder where the drawing pad is. I would then sit on the table, and test out the pencil to see if it needed sharpening.
And boom goes the drawing.
I soon realized that this is a technique I could use.
However, it has some weaknesses. Specifically, work that does not need that much physical equipment. This technique never worked as much for me when it came to electronic things.
Things like writing, or doing college assignments. It just would not work. So, do not use it there.
4. Distance Yourself From Distractions
The fourth thing that you should do is distance yourself from all the distractions that you come across when you are about to work.
In a lot of lists, this would have been the first steps, but not here. The thing is, it’s important you know what to do, where it is tidying your room, or getting your equipment, before you start getting rid of your distractions.
The reason is simple. Sometimes, when you start by getting rid of the distractions without having any definitive goals, you will find that the only thing you ever think about are the distractions. So, you end up just doing the distractions all over again.
So, start with those, then finally get to the reoval of distractions.
The most common time wasters/ distractions are shown here if you want a run down of what is probably distracting you. This covers things from social media to social interactions. Try to distance yourself from those that you discover to be your most common distractions.
You could use things like appblock for your phone.
5. Maintain A Streak
The fifth step is to try and change your main goal from working, to actually playing a game I call ‘Maintaining A Streak’.
This is turning work into pleasure, which I alwasy talk about.
As mentioned in the second reason why people do not start working, it is because of their goals. They are too big. They want extreme returns or they want returns in short time. This is not good.
Instead, it would be far better to change your goals to be things that are more manageable.
So turn your goal to managing to maintain a streak. If you finally finish moving, packing up, and organizing your things, then you sit down and begin writing. Now, maintain the streak. Try to work for as long as you can without stopping.
Play an album, and tell yourself you will work until the album is finished. Then, play 2 the next day. Then 4. Finally, you will see that your work time increases.
Initiative is a lot like a skill. You need to train it, master it, and it can be lost if you do not do these things. Maintaining the streak will make getting yourself to work become easier and easier.
6. Turn It Into A Ritual
The sixth thing that you could do is creating a ritual for every moment you begin to work.
Choose a specific movement, or word that you use to put on your work mode. For me its fairly simple. I breathe out, clap once, and say, “Alright!” This automatically makes my mind start thinking of the problem, and I always immediately start working when I do this.
However, that is because of my history with the ritual.
I think I started doing this back in high school. It was my final year, and I was studying for the exams. I found that whenever I did this, I immediately got in the mood for working.
So, when I do the action to do, it reminds me of those days. I’m sure it also reminds my body. That is why it works for me. It’s also the only way it could ever work for you too.
You need to add some of your own history into the ritual, and this will allow you do get in the mood to work, all the time.
7. You Could Have A Catchphrase
The seventh step is to have some form of catchphrase.
As previously mentioned, this is the catchphrase that you can use in the ritual. However, what is even more important is to understand that your mind speaks to your. It whispers certain things, trying to convince you that you should not work.
Even worse, that you are not worthy to work.
These are called cognitive distortions. Pay attention to the things that you say before you work, which make you feel better about not working. Write these down, and then write down the opposite of each.
Whenever you find yourself being lazy, just say the opposite of the things that you said.
8. You Could Do An Action
The eight thing is to try and discover some sort of action that you can do.
There is a number of action you can choose from. Clapping. Snapping your fingers, or even jump. Just make sure that it is explosive, so that you physically break out of your lazy stupor.
9. Doing This Action Is So Important
Finally, make sure that you combine everything in this blog, and tie it down with this final action, then do this for about a week. You will find you can get yourself to work immediately afterwards.
Combine all these 8 steps, and then make sure that you are thinking of them when you do your action. Remember what I said about the history that you build with your ritual? You need to build a history with your action.
Basically, this action is a lock that ties everything together. it is the simple trick that I am giving you.
This will make it easier for you to start feeling the emotions that will allow you to work when you must. When that happens, you will find that you are mastering mastery.