“Motivation such an aggravation…inspiration’s getting hard to fake it, concentration never hard to break it!” Oh the wise words of Sum 41, a band I look fondly on from my youth. If you are struggling with your motivation, you’re not alone. Many people come into therapy sessions with me and indicate that one of the primary struggles they are dealing with is low motivation.
Struggling with motivation often shows up as having a hard time getting started on as well as seeing through goal directed activities. Sometimes this is in areas that are more boring or less interesting. However it can also include things that we find important or interesting in some way but still struggle to gain momentum with.
It is not uncommon for people to assume if they are experiencing low motivation, they must be depressed or something must be wrong with them. While low motivation may be a symptom of depression, it is not always the case that somone is depressed if they are experiencing it.
In fact, sometimes lifestyle factors are more to blame. Let’s explore some of the factors that may be causing low motivation, and most importantly, what we can do to fix them.
What leads to lowered motivation?
1) Your sleep is messed up
There is a reason sleep is number one on this list. Sleep is SO, SO, important for our mental health and overall wellbeing. Mental health therapists assess sleep as part of our very first visit with new clients. We take sleep into consideration not only as a possible symptom, but also as a possible CAUSE of mental health symptoms such as depression, anxiety, and of course low motivation.
You may think you are getting enough sleep but if your sleep schedule is irregular (you go to sleep and wake up at different times each night), you don’t have quality sleep, or are just not getting the recommended amount per night, this is likely impacting your day to day motivation to get tasks done.
When someone is chronically sleep deprived, they will perform worse on certain cognitive tasks than someone who is intoxicated from alcohol. Research has indicated that someone driving while sleepy/sleep deprived will perform similarly to someone who has a .08% blood alcohol level- which in certain states is over the legal limit for driving. Yikes!
Sleepiness leads to decreased focus and concentration, and we often just don’t feel like doing much when our sleep is impaired. Because it often happens over time for us, we might not recognize we are sleep deprived and instead assume we are just depressed or moody.
Your sleep is the first thing you should assess for when you start to notice chronic struggles with low motivation. If you are having occasional nights of bad sleep- no big deal, we are more concerned about ongoing patterns. We should be aiming for good sleep about 80% of the time.
2) You’re not getting enough time for rest
Ok so you might be thinking- “didn’t we just cover sleep?!”
Why yes, we did. However, rest and sleep are two distinct concepts. Certainly sleep is one form of rest, BUT, most people think it is the only form of rest. I looked up various definitions of rest, and found one of them as follows: “to cease work or movement in order to relax, refresh oneself, or recover strength.”
Not working. Truly relaxing and refreshing ourself. Recovering our strength to keep going (and keep having motivation!). This is what rest means.
The problem is, lots of people do not get enough of it. Our lives are busy and often filled with lots of things we have to do, or feel like we have to do. We don’t take enough time to slow down and refresh.
So what’s the connection between rest and motivation? Humans are not meant to solely grind until we die. We do best when we have a balance of working time (job, school, sports, etc.) as well as time for rest. If you are grinding on a daily basis but your schedule does not allow for rest, you are likely going to get to a point where you don’t feel motivated anymore and start to just go through the motions.
Our time for rest is actually a very important part of our ability to be productive. Thinking about it from a brain science perspective- deep states of rest allow our brain to learn and retain so much more information. So, why do we keep telling ourselves it’s not productive to rest?! I’m giving you permission to let go of that old school mentality.
3) You’re doing too much of the wrong activities
Adding to the previous point, sometimes we believe that we are getting rest when we are really doing things that do not recharge us. This does not mean these activities are “bad” or that we shouldn’t do them, but that we should likely think about how much we want to do them and understand that they are not part of our rest/recharge time.
Watching tv, playing video games, or being on our phone/tablets are not truly restful. These are not negative things and certainly can have a place in our schedule. However, we should include them in addition to more intentional rest practices. And, intentional rest is likely even more important to include in our schedule when it comes to rebuilding motivation.
4) You’re burned out
Getting to the point of burn out means that we have experienced prolonged periods of emotional stress caused by feeling unable to meet ongoing unreasonable demands. Basically, it happens when we get stressed out by not being able to meet our own or others expectations on an ongoing basis. Lack of sleep and rest would obviously contribute to burn out.
When we get to the burn out phase, we often experience it as a lack of caring, or apathy. Sounds a lot like low motivation right? If we are not careful enough about managing our stress levels, are taking on too much, not setting healthy boundaries for ourself, etc. these are all contributors to burn out.
If we are burnt out everything can feel exhausting and we might consistently put off tasks or have a hard time getting started on them to the point of piling up.
5) You’re over-stimulated
Sometimes, we are actually having a problem of having too many “good things” going on at once. This leads to short term high levels of dopamine, but then an eventual crash causing low motivation. Dopamine is the brain chemical that controls motivation, craving and drive.
For example, if we are pounding caffiene, listening to upbeat/intense music, getting a lot of social time in, and being in very busy environments- this is a lot of stimulation for our brain. While we may experience short term increased dopamine from these things, there becomes a point where we overdo it and eventually crash leading to de-motivation.
These days it is easy for us to layer in multiple pleasurable things at once- for example, listening to a podcast while texting friends and scrolling on instagram while drinking a sugary beverage.
What becomes problematic is that if we overdo it on pleasurable activities, eventually we won’t expereince the same level of pleasure from those behaviors. This does not mean we shouldn’t pursue activities that we enjoy but rather we need to be smart about it.
When we don’t experience as much pleasure from our behaviors, we become demotivated and can even feel depressed.
Certainly behaviors such as smoking, drinking, and using recreational drugs are also high dopamine releasing behaviors, on an even more intense level. So if you are engaging in any of those behaviors, take this into consideration as well.
What you can do to IMPROVE your motivation
So now that we’ve covered what’s not working for your motivation, let’s think about five main areas you can focus on in order to improve motivation.
1) Fix your sleep schedule and routine
If sleep is so important for our motivation, mental health, and overall well-being, it makes sense for us to spend time on fixing it if we have run off course. First, track your sleep to see where your baseline is that. You can do this through a simple paper tracking system (list when you went to bed, what time you got up in the morning, how many times you woke up and for how long, etc.) or you can use a smart watch to track it for you.
Over a week period of time, find out what the average amount of sleep you are getting per night. If it is below what is recommended, think about what you would be willing to do to slowly increase/improve the amount you are getting.
Here’s some sleep hygiene tips to follow:
- Wake up at the same time each morning
- Go to sleep when you first start feeling tired in the evening if you can- don’t push through tired feelings
- Stop your caffeine consumption within 8-10 hours of bedtime
- Limit daytime naps to less than 90 minutes or do not nap at all
- Keep your sleeping environment cool and dark; layer blankets as needed
- Significantly limit your exposure to light after 10pm; light significantly impacts your circadian rhythym
- Find a relaxing activity to do as your last thing before you actively try to sleep (see number 2 below for lots of ideas!)
- Stop screen time at least 30 minutes before bed but preferably 60 minutes
2) Incorporate daily time for rest
If you are noticing that a lot of your day is spent on obligations, or when you are not busy that you are doing a lot of non-restful activities, see what part of your day you might be able to free up in order for some recharging time. In order to do this, you might have to think about what you’d be willing to give up.
One of the things that I decided to give up for myself, that in the past I never would have thought I would do, is daily television time. Although I generally enjoyed watching a short amount of television each day, I realized I would not be able to fit in rest/relaxation practices if I did not decide to give it up.
What I’ve noticed since I gave up television on a daily basis (I still watch on the weekends and occasionally other times), is that I really do not miss it. By no means do I believe watching a small amount of television daily is bad, however I just recognized for myself that it was the easiest thing for me to do without.
Now this time is spent reading, using my sauna, doing mindfulness/meditation practices, doing my at home “spa” practices, or listening to ASMR. I find I am much more ready for bed after these practices, but in addition they truly help me to manage my overall stress level leading to less burnout (and more motivation!).
Your daily rest practices do not have to look exactly like mine, but here are some potential ideas:
- Practice Yoga Nidra or Non Sleep Deep Rest
- Guided Meditation (Two favorites channels to try: Calm and Great Meditation)
- Reiki
- ASMR Guided Visualization
- Breathwork
- Sauna
- Reading
- Massage
- Progressive Muscle Relaxation
- Yoga or other stretching practices
- Floatation Therapy
If it is hard to find time (I get it!!) it is perfectly ok to start small. Even 5-10 minutes can be meaningful if we can dedicate this time on a daily basis.
3)Balance/limit activities that will deplete dopamine
It may be surprising that there is actually such a thing as too much dopamine, but it is true. As previously stated that dopamine is the brain chemical that controls motivation, craving, and drive. This is a little different than just being a “pleasure” chemical as has been previously thought.
This being said, there are activities that we engage in that may actually cause an unnatural level of dopamine in our system, leading to an eventual crash or depletion in our dopamine levels:
- Caffeine
- Alchol
- Nicotine
- Stimulants
- Sugar
- Shopping
- Video Games
- Cell Phone Use
- Online Porn
- Gambling
- Thrill seeking activities
When we engage in these behaviors repetively, our body adapts over time and eventually we need more and more of them in order to get the same level of pleasure. We may even get to the point of experiencing dopamine burnout or dopamine deficiency. One of the symptoms of this low motivation.
It can be important to be mindful of how much of the above activities we are getting in. Some of them we might want to eliminate completely from our life, and others we will want to find a balance with. Think for yourself whether any of these activities feel out of balance for you currently. If they are feeling out of balance, what might you be able to do to limit your exposure? Could you slowly reduce over time or would it be better to go “cold turkey”?
4) Limit your “work” time
There is only so much real work that we can complete in a day. Sometimes it is a lot less productive to spend hours at a time trying to do work but not getting much done, rather than spending a shorter “burst” of time being productive.
Figure out for yourself how many hours a day you can do real work consistently.
There is some evidence that doing 90 minutes or less of intense focus, or learning at a time is most beneficial for our productivity. It’s recommended to take a break for 2-3 hours after this before doing another intense bout of learning.
Think about what your limit is for the day overall, and try not to push yourself to the point of exhaustion or irritability. You may want to keep going in the moment (especially ADHD’ers who hyperfocus!) but see if you can set a reminder for yourself to stop, take a break, or rest.
Also, keep in mind what you can keep going with on a daily basis. If you push yourself too far today, could it affect your ability to get other things done or to be able to get work done tomorrow? Choose consistency over intensity.
5) Reduce Stimulation
This will go hand in hand with recommendation number three, but I believe that we all have a daily “threshold” for our stimulation levels that varies greatly for each person. For those that are highly sensitive/receptive individuals, their stimulation threshold is generally smaller, while others will have a higher stimulation tolerance.
Because stimulation can take up energy for more receptive types, it should be considered when trying to improve our motivation. If we are over-stimulated, we will not have energy or motivation for tasks that we want to engage in.
If you’ve ever heard of a “dopamine fast” this might be one way to reduce our overall amount of stimulation. Dopamine fasting is essentially reducing or limiting our exposure to unhelpful or excessive habits. It is a bit of a misnomer, because it doesn’t actually directly reduce dopamine. But, it still can be a helpful practice and can help us not expose ourself to too much dopamine, rather than directly reducing it.
There are more extreme ways to do a dopamine fast, but more realistically, it can just be about taking off time from electronic devices, social media, or other technology and drugs, caffeine, sugary foods/drinks, or other stimulants. Basically, something that we’ve fallen into addictive or unhealthy patterns with. The person who originally popularized this concept, Dr. Cameron Sepah, recommended the following:
- 1 to 4 hours at the end of each day
- 1 weekend day per week
- 1 weekend per quarter (take a short trip)
- 1 week per year (take a vacation)
One hour per night of not being on social media/electronics sounds pretty doable, right? I personally don’t count listening to something that is playing on your phone (such as a guided meditation) the same as being on your phone watching a video or using social media.
Reducing overstimulation can also look like being alone without too much unnatural lighting or noise, or just being in nature. Being outside to watch the sun rise/set, or taking a walk outside while just listening to the noises around you, would also be wonderful ways to reduce unhelpful stimulation.
Go forth and prosper…
Well, there we have it! If you have been contributing your low motivation to factors that are outside of your control, or having a hard time knowing where to start to improve it, I hope this post gave you some ideas of what to assess for yourself as well as steps that you can realistically start taking. As always, you don’t have to change everything at once, nor are you likely to. However, if there is one thing to start with, I would highly recommend improving your sleep. If you are already feeling good about your sleep, picking one small restful activity to incorporate into your day to day schedule can also be a great place to start. Best wishes in your quest to improve your motivation!
Keep Growing,
