Where does motivation go on an ‘off’ day?

Motivation isn’t some pill that you can take, or a switch that you can turn on and off. Some days it’s possible to control it, but others it’s as evasive as a leopard on safari.

There are days when its just plain tough to keeping going — so many factors play into how we feel and how effective we are. To some degree we’re responsible for our behaviours and emotions, but our environment also plays a very large part.

Is Tiredness An Excuse?

I worked until 2:30am this morning after a full day at work yesterday, had roughly 7 hours sleep, put in another full day at work and then tried to do some hustle work. I’m tired. Not physically tired, I actually think I got enough sleep, but my brain is sore. I’m struggling to concentrate and just not feeling it.

I find myself questioning whether it’s an excuse, an easy way for me to justify not doing the work I need to do. I counter that with an explanation that we do work hard, approximately 90% of my day (excluding sleep) is spent sitting at a desk working. It’s no surprise that some days I can really feel the effects of that. The questions is, what should I do about it? Do I push through, do I rest and feel guilty, or is there a better alternative?

I don’t think there’s one answer. Some days the energy, the motivation, the enthusiasm is just there. Other days its a struggle just to keep the lights on. There’s always so much to do — the entrepreneur task list is endless.

Keeping The Lights On

When I feel like collapsing into a big heap, pouring a large glass of wine, or scouring the cupboards for chocolate, I resort to keeping the lights on behaviour.

This generally involves, clearing the inbox, organising the Trello board, writing to-do lists for the upcoming days and weeks. While these activities might not result in a massive win or a rush of satisfaction, at least something necessary got done. It’s often these chores that we struggle to find time for, or they block being able to spend large chunks of time on strategic thinking.

I used to think this was quitter behaviour, that I was opting out. But I’ve found a way to rationalise this behaviour. Think of it like training for a marathon. When you’re having a super fit day, you train harder. When you feel a little lethargic or have a twinge in a muscle, then you rest up. I’m not sure what’s harder, the entrepreneur side hustle or training for a marathon (I suspect the mindset for both is similar).

It makes sense to treat motivation like marathon training. When you have lots of motivation, rush headlong into the big tasks, the tasks that needs lots of energy and take full concentration. On days where the opposite is true, take it easy, do the easier tasks and conserve the energy for a day when it’s able to be put to a better use.

Maybe this isn’t possible all the time, for everyone, but in most cases it works for me. There are some days when this isn’t an option of course. If I have a deadline then I push through. But as a backup plan, keeping the lights on works for me.

— — -

Note: my general lack of feeling it makes the above seem like a lot of dribble. I hope tomorrow it reads better :)