How to Stay Motivated All Day

As the days get shorter and the nights get longer, you may be finding it difficult to concentrate or stay motivated all day long. Luckily, we’ve gathered some tips to help you keep your drive and achieve your goals!

Plan Your Day the Night Before

If you plan your day the night before, you can take advantage of any early morning energy spikes to get some work done. If you don’t know what you need to accomplish that day or what order you need to complete your tasks, you’ll have to waste time figuring it out. Simply getting started can be one of the hardest tasks to accomplish. However, if you made a plan of action the night before, you’ve already gotten over that first hurdle.

Get Plenty of Rest

Although it’s different for everyone, you should be aiming to get anywhere from 7 to 9 hours of sleep a night. Additionally, you want to make sure you’re not building up a sleep debt. A sleep debt is when you don’t get enough sleep during the week and then try to make up for it by sleeping late on the weekends. If you get the recommended amount of sleep throughout the week, then you will be more productive during the day without losing your motivation in a haze of tiredness.

Eat Breakfast

Once you’ve gotten enough sleep, you’ll also want to fuel up to keep your energy high. Eating breakfast will also ensure that you are focused on your work and not on your empty stomach. You should also be eating things that are high in carbohydrates so you can stay full for longer, allowing you stay focused on your tasks longer. If you’re eating sugary things in the morning, you may feel energized and motivated at first, but then you’ll crash as the sugar wears off.

Stay Hydrated

Not only should you be eating well, but you should also be staying hydrated. Even if you don’t drink the recommended 2 liters of water a day to stay hydrated, simply having a bottle or glass of water nearby can help your focus. Instead of needing to get up for a drink whenever you get thirsty, having water in reach can help keep your head clear and maintain your motivation.

Clear Your Space of Distractions

Keeping your workspace clean and organized can help focus your mind. Clutter can distract you in your physical workspace, but games and apps can distract you in your digital workspace as well. You want to make sure that the most interesting thing your mind can focus on is the task at hand, not how many pens you have or photographs from your friend’s most recent vacation.

Take Regular Breaks

We’ve all heard of burn out. This can happen when you overwork yourself and try to tackle too much all at once. To avoid this, you should be taking short, regular breaks. These breaks should be about 5-10 minutes about every hour. This gives your mind time to process the information it’s been taking in instead of being overwhelmed. These don’t have to be exact times- you don’t want to interrupt yourself in the middle of an idea and then lose it. If you’ve spent your hour of work staring at a screen, consider looking outside or even going on a short walk- even if it’s just to the bathroom.