Lack of Motivation

Do you ever have those days where you just cannot seem to accomplish anything on your To Do list?  I seem to have them frequently, especially on weekends.  I get up in the morning, sit down with my planner, decide what I want to accomplish for the day, and then….nothing or next to nothing.  Then, I go to bed at night, feeling very disappointed in myself for not accomplishing what I wanted to accomplish.

It is not that I am totally lazy and actually doing nothing throughout the day.  I usually keep up with the day-to-day chores like dishes and the routine weekly items like laundry.  However, I have several projects that I want to complete.  I have a house to clean and organize after moving into it more than a year ago.  My kitchen is only half organized, I have no furniture in the living room, and there are unpacked boxes everywhere.  I also have some home improvement projects on the list.  The deck needs treated, the front landscaping needs cleaned up (or actually I want to tear it out and redo it completely), and a new heating and air conditioning system needs to be researched and contracted with a professional.  I have work projects that I bring home with hopes of making progress on them since they never get done in the office, including creating training programs for my staff and updating written procedures that are years out of date.  Then, there are the fun projects that I am supposed to be working on, like knitting an afghan that I started about three years ago and building a model pirate ship with my husband.  There are many things that I would like to know how to do (speak Spanish, rock-climb, ice skate, decorate cakes, know more history, etc.) but I would need to study, practice, and probably get actual instruction from someone else to make any progress.  Finally, there is the writing that I am supposed to be incorporating into my schedule.  I have kept up with the weekly blog so far (go me!), but I have yet to start writing the fiction that I want to create.

For example, today (Sunday) I got up and made this task list:  1) Prepare something to take to the work potluck tomorrow, 2) Clean upstairs hall bathroom, 3) Do one of my pending clothing repairs, 4) Write blog for next Wednesday, and 5) Work on initial direct cost reconciliation procedure for work.  It is now around nine o’clock at night.  I have done laundry, read half of a chapter in my current book Overwhelmed, watched the movie The Money Pit, took a nap, played on Facebook, and watched many Youtube videos.  Right now I am working on the blog obviously, so that is at least something.  I also have sent my husband to the grocery store to get what I need to make my tortilla rollups for the potluck.  Sadly, this counts as a decently productive day for me.

So why is it so hard for me to accomplish my tasks?  The reasons vary from day to day of course, but they dwindle down to a few different themes.  The first reason has nothing to do with lack of motivation and just consists of other things that get in the way, like family events, tickets to shows, and husbands that want to explain String Theory to me.  The rest of the reasons all have an effect on my motivation levels.  Often, I am just plain tired.  I intend to do some work, but I end up taking a nap instead.  Sometimes, I am overwhelmed by all the things I want to accomplish, and either start/stop too many things to actually get through any one of them or cannot decide what to start so I give up without picking anything in the first place.  This is why I started using the planner and making To Do lists to try to prioritize projects and focus on small accomplishable pieces of them.  Other times, I get depressed by the amount of things that need to be done and the knowledge that there will just be more to do tomorrow.  It seems pointless to try to work on anything.  Finally, I get frustrated that I never seem to have relaxing time because of all the other things that need to be done.  I feel defiant and think I deserve to read for half the day or I should be allowed to watch a couple hours of TV.  All these factors combined make me look at my To Do list and say nope not right now.

I have days where I get a burst of motivation and I will accomplish many tasks that I want to do.  I also have days where I just pick out only things that NEED to get done or there will be undesirable consequences.  Then, I have days where I think I will just deal with the consequences and do not even do the things that really need to be done.  Lately, I just seem to be in a cycle of only doing what really needs to be done.  Then the knowledge that I am not accomplishing anything depresses me, which makes it harder to find the motivation to do something.  It is a cycle I find it very hard to break.

What about you?  Do you have these kinds of days?  Rarely, occasionally, or frequently?  What do you do to kick yourself out of the funk?

See you next week!