These days have been especially challenging for everyone. Being cooped up in the four walls of your home all day, having nothing to do, nowhere to go; life has become stagnant, depressing, mundane. During such times, it’s normal to lose interest in things you usually enjoy doing. It’s okay. What’s important is to know how to regain momentum when you feel unmotivated to carry on with your day.
Here’s how you can stay refreshed and regain motivation when you’re feeling low!
How to Regain Momentum When You Feel Unmotivated
The most important thing to do when you have a ‘mental block’, is to rebuild your disrupted momentum. Here are 7 strategies that can help you regain momentum when you feel unmotivated and stuck in life:
1. Practice Mindfulness
When you’re feeling super unproductive and worrying about how to regain your lost motivation, practicing mindfulness can be very helpful in increasing productivity.
Being mindful simply entails being aware of the present. Mental blocks are usually a result of your mind not being present in the moment. It means that your mind is racing with multiple thoughts and can’t find something to focus on.
This can overwhelm you, consequently, making you lose focus as you scramble around your thoughts to determine where to begin. This is where being mindful comes in handy.
Practicing mindfulness, whether through meditation to help calm your mind; or reading, doing a breathing exercise or taking a walk while contemplating and acknowledging your state of mind can help you regain momentum when you feel unmotivated.
Read more on how mindfulness can increase productivity: How Mindfulness can Increase Productivity.
2. Set a Goal
Setting a goal should always be the first step when you’re about to begin something new. Whether it’s a new job, a new school year, or even a new day.
Make sure you remind yourself of your goals for the next day the night before, so when you wake up, your mind encourages you to begin your day to achieve your goal.
Setting a goal helps you focus and inspires you to work for a cause. As a result, your thoughts don’t falter, motivating you to work harder to achieve the set goal for the day.
Read more about how to find and set your life goals here: How To Find And Set Your Life Goals.
3. Take a Break
When you’re not sure how to regain motivation in life, try taking a break from the chaos and your depressing thoughts.
When you’re stuck and keep putting off your tasks for the next day, you end up with a rapidly growing pile of work.
As a result, you stress out and get frustrated until anxiety consumes you. Taking a break works as a breath of fresh air that helps you relieve stress and anxiety and allows you a few minutes to collect yourself.
So, take a break when you’re overwhelmed with anxiety and let yourself calm down before you continue with whatever it is you need to do. Not only does it clear your head and refresh your mind, it also helps you regain momentum when you feel unmotivated.
4. Break Things Down
Sometimes when you’re overwhelmed, ‘big things’ fail to make sense to you. For example, if you have a 12-page assignment to work on, you’ll keep freaking out over the fact that it’s so long instead of actually working on it.
Breaking things down into portions makes it easier to keep up with them. In addition, it gives you a sense of accomplishment when you finish one small segment of work after another, exciting you to move to the next step with a newfound enthusiasm to achieve more, allowing you to regain momentum when you feel unmotivated and intimidated by larger tasks.
5. Reward Yourself
Accomplishing something is quite rewarding in itself but you could take it up a notch by scheduling ‘rewards’ for yourself every few hours throughout the day.
It could be as small as chocolate that you like or a break from work or even a cozy little nap.
Not only does rewarding yourself refresh your mind, giving you a sense of purpose to complete your pending tasks, it also helps you regain lost motivation.
6. Take it Slow
Often, when you’re feeling unproductive and have to force yourself to work, you end up muddling things up.
When your mind isn’t in a calm place, all it makes you do is mess things up even more. As a result, you end up even more puzzled than you were before.
In such a case, resorting to taking small steps is the key. It’ll take a while for you to finish with your tasks as you build momentum gradually, but at least your mind will be in a calm place while doing it.
7. Think About the Benefits
When you’re at a point where you just can’t figure out how to regain your lost motivation, your mind begins racing with all the things that you could lose if you don’t get up and do something about it.
At the same time though, you can’t muster up the strength to do just that. When you find yourself in such a situation, take a moment to think of the benefits of completing those tasks that you’ve been putting off for so long.
Maybe visualizing the nap that you can take afterward can enthuse you enough to push you out of your slump. Or maybe thinking of the promotion promised to you at work will get you excited to finish your tasks.
In short, cut out the negative thoughts and let the positive vibes consume you until you’re off your butt and back on your feet.
Next time you find yourself in a slump, wondering just how to regain lost motivation, make sure to follow these amazing yet easy tips to rebuild momentum. Trust me, these tips will make your life so much easier!