(Editorial note: You and your company need to get things done – lots of things, and the right things. Are you maximizing your output? Are you getting critical things done with the least amount of effort and stress? Do you have a sustainable work style that supports your commitment to the organization and yourself? Are your activities, moment to moment, lined up with the strategic focus for viable expansion? In this series of questions, we ask David Allen to talk about the strategic value of personal productivity and supply to answers to a few things on our minds.)
Q: How do you get motivated to do things you don’t want to do? Yes, I can put pressure on myself. Yes, I know that I SHOULD do them, but the pain and suffering takes away my motivation to “do” them?
A: I have been in the state you describe, and I think I know the feeling that nothing seems worthwhile to do. It is just a feeling, however, and feelings can change. The problem is, when you’re in that feeling, you see the world through that lens, and nothing is attractive.
I’ve found the best way to change that filter for me is physical movement. To get my butt in gear about something, even the littlest thing, like walk around the block. Sometimes I just find things to do that don’t require much mental or emotional energy, like clean a drawer or closet, or weed a garden bed. It tends to force me into the driver’s seat of my own energy, and I start directing it in some positive way, as mundane as the activity may be. Interacting with other people who have my best interests at heart and who hold a positive focus for and with me (instead of letting themselves be brought down with me – “misery loves company”, you know) is a real key for me too. Sometimes writing in my journal helps.
The fact that you’re reading the website is a great sign. Trust that there’s a part of you (though it might not be perceivable from your viewing point) that is connected to motivated energy. And imagine what you’d be like if you were, and what you’d likely be doing.
David Allen is an international author, lecturer, and founder and Chairman of the David Allen Company, a management consulting, coaching and training company. He is the author of three books, including, the international best-selling book, Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity (2001), Ready for Anything: 52 Productivity Principles for Getting Things Done (2003), and Making It All Work: Winning at the Game of Work and the Business of Life (2008). In the past 20 years, David has developed and implemented revolutionary productivity improvement programs for over a million professionals in hundreds of organizations worldwide.
