How to get your motivation back during lockdown

The UK has now been in official lockdown for three weeks, with at least a further three still to go. After the initial excitement of working from home in our pajamas, how can we keep our motivation up?

The nation seems to have collectively gone through this period of change and transformation together; online workouts, live cook-along and TikTok challenges cementing our collective spirit of being ‘in it together’, as we continue to #stayhome while working from home. But as we face the reality that this is our new normal for the foreseeable future, lackluster feelings of despair can lead to a complete lack of motivation, productivity, and energy.

As someone who’s happily worked from home for at least one day a week for the past few years, I welcomed the move to work from home with open arms. The joy of reclaiming my time during the day to catch up on life admin, sleep in, and go for lunchtime walks was something I was secretly looking forward to. It’s now my sixth week of working from home and it’s safe to say the novelty’s officially worn off.

The delight of hopping downstairs to my kitchen table in the mornings now feels just as tiresome a journey as my former commute, and despite having so much more free time throughout the day than I did before, I’ve never felt so tired. An inevitable side effect of lockdown life, according to Ann Heathcote, Psychotherapist & Counsellor at The Worsley Centre.

‘We are all going through a lot of changes at the moment and many of us will be experiencing decision fatigue,’ explains Heathcote. ‘When we are in our regular routine, we naturally have fewer decisions to make.’

From settling into our new home working environment to trying to decide how best to utilize our free time (bake another batch of banana bread or declutter the entire house?) and keeping updated with the changing world around us, there’s an awful lot going on in our brains. ‘Many of us just aren’t used to this amount of psychological stress’, Heathcote notes. Our nervous systems can only work in ‘fight or flight’ mode for so long before the inevitable ‘lull’ many of us are currently experiencing kicks in; our energy sapped and motivation practically non-existent.

So, how do we snap out of it and get our motivation back? By practicing some simple self-care, says Heathcote.

How to get your motivation back

Remember to take breaks

If you’re struggling with productivity during work, make sure you take breaks away from your work area, including lunch. Having a new routine will help you manage your time at work, as well as your work-life balance. It can be easy to get distracted by your phone or other members of the household during breaks, but staying strict on your break allowance will enable you to reel yourself back in.

Practise self-care

A lot of the motivation for productivity may also be impacted by your time out of work. Ensure you’re still doing things for yourself in your spare time and practice self-care, whatever self-care is for you; be that exercise or not. If you’re struggling with adapting to your new working environment, try reaching out to your employer, HR, or co-workers for support.

Don’t cave into peer pressure

There is a lot of pressure at the moment to use your free time effectively, and do everything you’ve been meaning to do. While this may work for some people, others may just need this time to directly invest in their mental health and simply do less. Instead of focusing on what you ‘should’ be doing in your free time, focus on what you ‘want’ to do.

Entrepreneur and business coach Irene Moore knows a thing or two about creating a productive work environment at home. Since setting up a mentoring platform Savvy Startup Club, she spends her time helping female founders to successfully build an online business that they can run from anywhere.

Here are just a few of the tips she recommends when working remotely:

Set boundaries at home

Share your ‘office hours’ with any loved ones using the space, along with what level of interaction is acceptable during those hours. You may also want to create some fun new rituals like mid-morning coffee or lunch with the family, so they have a stress-free space held to connect with you throughout the day without feel like they are getting in the way

Have a wind-up and wind-down routine

Kicking off the day with a ten minute HIIT class or yoga workout on Youtube, whilst mentally listing all the things you’re grateful for, is a great way to start.

At night, you may find that quickly jotting down everything you need to do the next day helps clear the head and aids better sleep. Followed by a simple guided meditation – there are loads of free apps that offer nighttime mediations, which can work wonders for waking up feeling more motivated for the day ahead.

Listen to your body

Sometimes lack of motivation isn’t down to lack of drive, but exhaustion and poor self-care. Ask yourself if you are doing all you can to keep your energy levels high; like eating breakfast, staying hydrated, and getting as many doses of vitamin D as possible.

If your feeling sluggish and unmotivated, then going for a brisk work or dancing to your favorite song can be a great pattern interruption giving you that hit of endorphins your body needs to get back on track.

Source: https://www.redonline.co.uk/red-women/careers/a32221787/lockdown-motivation-productivity-tips/