We’ve all been there. You need to do something, but you have no motivation to do it. You just don’t feel like it. So you put it off until later when you’ll “feel more motivated”. But secretly you know that you’ll never actually be motivated. What’s a poor unmotivated person to do?

The obvious answer is the right one – do it even though you don’t feel like it.

It doesn’t matter what “it” is, just that it’s something you need to do.

The problem with waiting until we’re “inspired”, or “in the mood” is that it’s a sure-fire way to getting nothing done. Sometimes, “in the mood” is due to panic when you realize that you have to get something done and there’s no more time to procrastinate. Don’t do that either. I’ve been there far too many times, and it sucks. It will also make you hate doing whatever it is you waited too long to do making it that much harder to motivate yourself to do it the next time you need to.

There’s another benefit to taking action even when you don’t feel like it. Once you’ve started, you may enjoy it. And even if you don’t enjoy it while you’re doing it (whatever “it” is), once you’re done you’ll feel good for having gotten that thing done and off your list of things to do.

Even that may not be enough to get you motivated. You’re stubborn. You’ll do what you like when you like, not because something on your schedule said “thou shalt do this task right now.” If you know that about yourself, then you’ll need to find your own way to get things done.

However, I may be able to help since I often do that myself. Because I do what I like when I like, I’ll tell myself that I need to “do this task right now because I said so.” Seriously, if you have the attitude that you’ll do things when you like then you can make yourself do things by telling yourself that you would “like” to do it right now.

Just writing this blog entry was an exercise in “do the task now even though you don’t feel like it.” I had to break it into micro-tasks to make it happen, but it happened.

The first thing was to create a new entry in Scrivener for the post. That takes all of 5 seconds, but it’s an action that moves things forward.

Next was the title. I didn’t stress over it. I just picked something relevant at the moment in time. The original title was “Take Action Whether You’re in the Mood or Not”. It wasn’t very compelling, so the next action was to revise that. I ended up looking through a list of headline styles and ended up with “How to Get S**t Done (Even if You Don’t Feel Like It)”

Then it was just letting words spill onto the page that I know I can clean up later. It’s easier to change something that already exists than to create something completely new. Now I have just over 400 words written and am still going fairly strong.

You could argue that it’s easy for me because I enjoy writing and I’m not all self-conscious about what I say/type. Fair enough. But I still have times where I just don’t feel like writing until after I start writing. It’s the starting that’s the hard part. Once I get started, momentum takes over. Sort of like pushing a boulder down a hill. It takes some effort to get it moving initially, but once it’s moving, look out below!

For other things in your life, maybe something mundane like doing laundry, you can still break into micro-tasks. Set yourself up for success with each step. Collect the clothes. (success!) Take to the washing machine. (success!) Put clothes in the machine. (success!) Add detergent. (success!) Start the machine. (success!) Wait for cycle to complete. Yada yada yada.

A completely different barrier to taking action is being overwhelmed. When you have a hundred things to do and don’t have a clear priority, your brain freezes and you don’t do anything. To get unstuck, just pick one. It doesn’t matter what, although if there is some sense of priority then take that into account as well. But pick one. By picking one and telling yourself that’s what you’re going to do, you free your brain up to focus on that one thing.

I’m a big fan of lists that have exactly what I need to do on them. That way I don’t have to remember everything. I can just look at the list and say “I’ll do this thing right now.” Then off I go. No conflicts. No brain freeze (unless the thing is “eat ice cream really fast”). No feeling guilty for not doing the 99 other things. I get it done and take it off the list. Now my list is shorter and my mood is happier.

Even if you have 100 things on your list and you knock off just one each day, you’ll get through them all in just over 3 months. Over time, you’ll find that you knock more than that. If you do 3 things per day every single day, that’s over 1,000 things done each year. That’s 1,000 steps toward a happier life.

The journey of 1,000 miles begins with a single step. And each step you take brings you closer to your destination.