One tiny step at the time

There comes a time when you are tired, unmotivated and depressed. It might be today or weeks from now. Project is not going so well, the boss is being difficult or you have challenges in your personal life. In these times, all work seems to be extremely hard and it would be easier to just stay home or chat with everyone in the coffee room, instead of working. 

This is perfectly normal and sometimes it might be the best option to take a few days and see if it helps. Often it does not. It just feels more depressing since after a few days off you are even more behind in schedule. 

At these times it is not feasible to wait for motivation. It won’t come. You just need to get the work done and today I’ll give you one example of how to get back to the saddle. 

First thing is to remember that ALL work we do consists of tiny, miniscule, little tasks. Whether it is to write a 50-page report, plan the next experiment or build a robot. 

At these times when everything feels too heavy, it is essential to break the work into these tiny little tasks. Make yourself write the first sentence. Make yourself check that fact. Make yourself do anything.

At the time I am writing this, I have been preparing a very boring tax report for the whole day. I was tired already and that task really dragged me down. I hated it and it was almost impossible to get going. 

However, I realized that 1) it needs to be done anyway, 2) I would feel totally relieved when it was done and 3) I only needed to do it one step at the time. 

I decided that I would do the first bit and then reward myself with a cup of tea and a short walk outside. It was horrible to get that done, but I did it. And I rewarded myself. Then, feeling a little bit better, I started the second little chapter on the report. Still horrible. I did it anyway and rewarded myself by reading an interesting article about something I loved. So I did, little by little the whole document and hated every second of it. But I finished it that day and I felt great afterwards. And I knew I did not have to continue it the next day. 

I was not particularly proud of myself after finishing the report. It should have taken me only a few hours, but it took almost the whole day. Still, I did it. It is not always important how much time you spend on it or how many reward moments you need to have before it is done, the important thing is that it is done. 

More you push yourself through these horrible days, the easier it becomes. Rewarding is – at least for me – a very important step in getting through the boring tasks and never count the time of those pauses. They are what is getting you through them. 

You do not always have to like what you do and there are always tasks that, in an otherwise lovely job, are boring and daunting. Go ahead, hate them! But since you know they are ahead of you anyway, better to just face them and get going. One tiny task at the time.