How have you found lock-down? Have you managed to stay motivated throughout? Have you found working from home a cinch, or really difficult? Has it been challenging to keep on top of things? Have you put off doing those jobs you promised you would finish when all this started back in March?

Speaking for myself, I have had good days and bad days. Launching a new business is pretty daunting at any time, but launching in the middle of a pandemic has been quite something else!

So, are there any tricks you can use to improve motivation? I employ a couple of techniques that I find useful, and thought I would share with you.

Notepad/Lists

As you know from a previous blog, I love a notepad and often have several on the go at once! I find it really helpful to write a list of tasks for the next day before I go to bed. It frees a lot of space in my mind that would otherwise be filled with tasks resulting in an inability to act! LOL I find that a list helps me to:

  • Prioritise
  • Remember
  • Focus
  • Stay motivated

I don’t always finish the list in a day, but that isn’t really the point. The point is to motivate myself and to cut out distractions and focus on getting the job done. I break more time-consuming jobs into smaller components, so they aren’t as daunting. The lists incorporate lots of different things, from work, to household chores, to going to the supermarket! To read more about my obsession with notepads, please click here.

Hobbies

Of course, all work and no play can have a detrimental impact on your mental health. Building something you enjoy into your day is wholly necessary for your mental well-being. For instance, it is very important to me to have creative hobbies. Pleasurable things that take me out of myself and help me to relax. For example:

  • Recently, I started to recap/revise Italian
  • Most days, I bake or cook
  • I have just started a brand new crochet project
  • So I remember the basics, I am doing a video dance class
  • Along with a couple of my neighbours, I have started spinning ‘poi‘. (Socially distanced outside in the street, of course.)

Making sure that I find time for one or two of my hobbies every day reduces my stress levels and ensures every day is fresh and interesting, no two are alike. I achieve what I need to during the day but not to the exclusion of everything else.

Staying in touch

Although we are socially distancing, this does not have to result in complete isolation. I stay in touch with family and friends regularly, whether via email, Messenger, LinkedIn, Zoom, Facebook, phone or video phone.

We are lucky in that we have many ways to make sure we talk to someone every day (Whatsapp, Zoom, Skype emails, direct messaging or even a phone call!), although it may not be in person.

Have you managed to stay motivated?

For more tips and techniques on motivation, here is an interesting article from Nina Zipkin at entrepreneur.com. What about you? Have you managed to stay motivated? Are there any tricks or techniques you have learned during lock-down that have benefited your mental well-being? Do you practise mindfulness? Or yoga? Do you run or cycle? If you have been working from home, how have you avoided distractions? Maybe you have a weekly Zoom meeting with colleagues?

There is no ‘one size fits all’. We are all individuals and what provides motivation for one, may not work for another. This pandemic has maybe given you the chance to figure out what works for you.