How To Stay Motivated At Work

I’ve shared a few ways that I stay motivated at home. Now I would like to share a few ways to stay motivated at work.

Morning Me Time

That’s right. I try to wake up at least 30 minutes before I need to start prepping for work. During this time I do the following:

• Take my vitamins and allergy pills: There is nothing worse than missing your allergy pill. 
• Drink 16 ounces of water: This helps boost your metabolism and flushes your system while rehydrating you after waking from your slumber. I have certainly noticed a difference when I do and don’t perform this step.
• Morning stretches: Truthfully, it’s a quick morning yoga routine. I’ve followed ManFlowYoga since I somehow injured my lower back last year. Doing this has helped strengthen my lower back a lot in addition to waking me up.
• Review my day: I check my calendar to see what I have going on after work and I plan a to-do, whether it is a load of laundry or kicking back with the dog to read a book.
• Eat a quick small breakfast. Since I prep my breakfast ahead of time, I can simply grab a jar and chow down. Sometimes it is just a banana or a breakfast shake.

Having the “me time” allows me to settle into my morning and not start it off stressed that I overslept. I also don’t find myself rushing around stressing myself to get ready. This gets me into the perfect mood for work!

The Power Hour

I’ve shared my power hour with you in my “Be Successful At Work By Planning” post. Doing this will get you an easy check mark crossed off your to-do list as you would have completed your most important or most challenging tasks for the day. You’ll find that nothing is more satisfying than completing something you set out to do. By establishing a power hour, you are setting yourself up for success at the start of your day. You’ll then find yourself asking for the next work challenge!

Take A Break

Many of us just chip away at our work and when we hit a tough spot, we double down and try to push ourselves through it and find hours later that we aren’t making any progress. We more than likely exhaust ourselves mentally, or at least I do. 

When I find myself becoming stressed out or frustrated that I can’t figure something out, then it’s time for a break. 

Go to the break room and make a cup of tea or grab another cup of coffee and relax for the next few minutes. If it is beautiful out, take a walk around the block and get some fresh air and fresh ideas. The goal here is to remove yourself from your stressful area and change your thoughts to something more positive. I find doing so, relaxes me and takes my focus away from the problem.  Soon I’ll find the resolution to the issue since I am now able to think more clearly.  

Work Remotely

Speaking of changing your environment, you can try your hand at working remotely.  What is this you ask?  It simply means working from somewhere that isn’t your primary location.  This could be at a desk on the other side of the floor, a coffee shop, or at home!

I don’t work from home often, but when I do, it’s great! Working from home eliminates distractions caused by team mates stopping over to my desk and I am able to stay in the “zone” much longer.  I am also certainly guilty of causing my own interruptions to team mates. Working remotely can significantly reduce this or even eliminate it. FastCompany had written an article regarding the hidden costs of interruptions. 

Think about the last time you were interrupted when working? How long did it take you to get back on task? How many times a day does this happen?  How do you feel after that interruption?

As mentioned, you don’t have to work from home.  Some people I’ve talked to find working from home to be too distracting. For others, like me, I am my most productive.  If you don’t want to work from home, or choose not to, try booking a meeting room to work from there or go sit outside with a mobile hotspot and enjoy the day!

Ask For Forgiveness

This one is a little risky, so employ at your own risk. 

Sometimes we don’t always get the glamourous work assignments. There can be times where all we work on are profit driven products or services while other items that we would like to work on sit by the wayside. That isn’t to say that the profit driven projects aren’t good, they are! They are what keeps us employed!

The wayside projects are the non-glamorous ones to management. These are projects that you can’t easily put a dollar sign on. These can also be maintenance projects.  We all can certainly fall in love with the new and shiny, but not the old and dusty. 

A personal example of mine is the revamp of my team’s documentation. For the longest time I heard users complain that they could not find anything and that they would rather call my teams support line. I agreed! And I wanted nothing more than to fix that. So I did!

As part of a separate project to roll out new user features, I secretly padded my time with the thought of revamping the documentation, while I wrote new documentation. Once done, I had new documentation templates, easier navigation for users, and built in “guides” that walked users from A to Z. It was the bees knees! 

Did I get in trouble? You bet!

Did they love the revamp? You bet!

Did user’s call and email, to give us their praise on the revamp? You bet!

Did other teams start to copy my design for their documentation? You bet!

The revamp was a huge success and in the end our support call and email volume was reduced because users could now find content easier. In the end, it saved us money and made us more efficient.

Should you do the same thing? No, at least not like I did it. You can approach it with a small proof of concept. You would likely work on this during your lunch hour or a little after work. If your solution shows that it is solving a problem while producing efficiency, then it can be turned into a project that you are leading, find fun, and where you get to be creative!

Better yet…

Take Control Of Your Career

If you find yourself in a funk and not even sneaking in side projects can get you motivated, then it may be time that you take control of your career.

As mentioned, assignments can be passed down a lot and you will soon find yourself doing work that you find boring. If that is the case, speak up!

I try to ask my team if they like what they are doing, or what type of assignments they would like to see more of. I ask them this, because I share this with my boss. I let my boss know that I enjoy a certain type of work, and would like to do more of “X”.  When you have someone that is good at a particular thing, then you want them to do just that, else you are wasting their talent and you aren’t having the best work on what you need to have them work on. Doing what you love is the best motivation you can have to continue doing what you love. If you find that is not the case for you, speak up and take control of your career.

Are You Motivated?

I know that some of these tips can help reduce your office stress, keep you relaxed, and allow you to exercise your creativity.  Do you have some of your own methods to stay motivated?  Let me know!