I Learned A Productivity System To Work Without Motivation
Steal These 3 Simple Steps And Never Rely on Motivation Again
Here’s why your brain is wired against you.
It’s 1 o'clock in the night. You have a test tomorrow at 8 A.M. You debate whether to go to sleep or watch another episode of Breaking Bad to finish off the season. After 10 seconds of heated back and forth, the show ends up winning of course.
Even though, you know better — the much-needed sleep will help you take the exam tomorrow without tiredness bogging you down — your brain still votes against it in pursuit of a quick dopamine hit in the present.
Being productive is hard in an age where we’re constantly overstimulated with every other thing fighting for our attention.
- Sophie tagged you in their story,
- NASA just discovered something that proves extraterrestrial life,
- He used this simple trick to lose 50 pounds in 50 days. Doctors hate him.
…and on and on the list goes. Focus is a priceless resource nowadays that feels ever distant and motivation — a fickle fuel.
But what if I told you, you don’t need to rely on motivation?
Motivation is Only The Byproduct
Motivation is not the prerequisite for hard work. It is the byproduct.
You feel motivated only after you accomplish something. Any step, no matter how little, will be counted as progress and increase your motivation levels.
In other words, motivation is the byproduct of action, not the other way around. Take what little action you can, and with time, you’ll see how easy it is to muster up motivation.
Don’t wait around for motivation to hit to change your life. You can have the life of your dreams starting now. It will be hard, but whoever said it wouldn’t?
Here’s the 3-step productivity system that helped me remove motivation from the picture and take back control of my focus:
#1 Tick tock… Tick tock…
Getting yourself to start working seems to be about the hardest thing to do.
To take your brain out of a state of mental fog and force it to do something hard is like moving a boulder up a cliff. But you can trick your brain into making the barrier of entry so low that there’s no reason not to do it.
Set a timer for 10 minutes. That’s all. In those 10 minutes, give your best, least distracted effort to your work. Then stop.
By the end, if you feel like continuing, that’s amazing. If not, that’s alright too. Showing up, no matter how long, will make your brain think the activity is important and help build a routine where you don’t have to rely on motivation anymore.
#2 Don’t Overdo It. In Fact, Underdo It…
When looking at the mountain of work ahead of us, who wouldn’t get overwhelmed?
That’s why it’s important to break down the mountain into smaller, more manageable steps to be executed daily. Taking some action, no matter how little, every single day, will get you much farther than a genius with bursts of motivation here and there.
“Compound interest is the eighth wonder of the world. ”
— Albert Einstein
Even small actions compounded over long periods of time will amount to giant changes. Keep taking action and chipping away at the mountain day by day and let compounding work its magic.
#3 Why Do You Want It?
99% of people quit because they don’t have a clear reason before they begin.
Your purpose will be there to drive you forward when all other sources of motivation fail. Figure out deeper reasons for why you want it. For example,
- I work out because I want to be physically fit when I’m old, enough to be able to play and run around with my kids and grandkids.
- I am building an online audience because I want to share with people the lessons I learn in life and build financial freedom in the process.
- I meditate and journal because I want my brain to be decluttered and free from mental fog.
“He who has a why to live for; can bear almost any how.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche
Find reasons that are bigger than just yourself.
And remember willpower and discipline are also muscles that can be trained with practice. It gets easier the more you practice showing up. It might take time to build, but every second of it is worth it.
#Bonus: Level Up Your Thinking
In this age of digital noise, never have there been more people telling us who we should be.
But it’s never been easier to become who you want to become.
And it all starts with honing your mind. A mind that is able to solve problems is necessary to reimagine your life and reinvent it any way you want.
If you want to level up your thinking and learn to use mental models to evolve into an independent thinker, grab a of my ebook and never look back.
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