How To Start The Day With Energy And Motivation.

Last week, I received an interesting question about motivation and why a person would start the day with dread and a lack of enthusiasm. I remember many moons ago; I also had those feelings. It was a strange place to be, and I realised a lot was down to me and how I looked at the work I was doing.

If you think about it, the way the media (and social media in particular) portrays work is as a necessary evil. It stops us from doing what we want and can destroy relationships. Yet, we never think of formal education in this way. We encourage our kids to work hard at school, study hard in the evening, pass exams, and go off to university, building up giant debts before they even begin their professional lives.

Yet, what is work? The work you do is an extension of your education. If you think about it, you have likely learned more from your career than you ever learned at school or university. School and university teach you the theory; your work teaches you practical skills.

School does not teach you how to sell, negotiate, manage your time and finances or write a proposal. Yet, you will learn that when you join the workforce. Strangely, school doesn’t even teach you how to take notes or build relationships, two critical skills in life.

Now, when you stop thinking of your work as a necessary evil and instead see it as an education, your mind changes, and you start to see the possibilities ahead of you. Each day you get to learn; you have opportunities to fail, make mistakes and learn from them. You gain experience, and that experience will stay with you forever.

My first job was cleaning the changing rooms in a health club; that experience taught me the importance of processes and workflows. I learned how to clean toilets and showers to five-star hotel standards. My second job was in hotel management, and there I learned about anticipating problems before they arose, how to maintain exceptionally high standards, and how to open and decant wine and pour the perfect pint of Guinness.

As I look back at my various jobs, there is nothing I would change. Each position has taught me something; no matter how hard or mundane the job was, I am deeply grateful.

Some other areas will guarantee you have an energetic day, and that is to ensure you get enough sleep. I know how tempting it is to sit up late at night watching TV or scrolling through social media. It feels restful and relaxing, yet it is destroying your sleep time. Certainly, watch TV and scroll your social feeds, but give yourself a cut-off time.

How many hours of sleep do you need?

Do you know? If not, you can do a little experiment over the next seven days. Sleep with no alarm and track your sleep. If you have a smartwatch, you can already do this; if not, track how long you take to fall asleep and notice the time you wake up. Log the time. After seven days, total up the hours and divide it by seven. That will give you your sleep requirement.

If your number is seven hours twenty minutes, round it up to seven-and-a-half hours. Then begin when you want to wake up. If you aim to wake up at seven each morning, then your going to bedtime will be eleven. Your cut-off time should be ten-thirty. After two or three weeks, your energy levels improve dramatically.

What are you eating?

If you eat too many carbohydrates at lunchtime, your afternoons will be disastrous. Carbohydrates are sugars that cause spikes in your insulin levels; that makes you feel drowsy. Avoid these at lunch, and you’ll have far more productive afternoons.

How much are you moving in the day?

You are human and were designed to move. You were not designed to sit at a desk all day. Movement does not mean you have to go out running or lift weights every day; all it means is you move. Go for a walk after lunch for thirty minutes, and take an evening stroll with your partner. Just adding these to your life will elevate your energy levels.

I would also suggest, after you finish a session of work or a meeting, do some activity for ten minutes or so. Go to the bathroom, walk up a few flights of stairs, or, if you work from home, do some chores such as taking the laundry to your washing machine or washing the dishes. Anything involving movement gets you away from a screen for a few minutes.

And finally, what about your motivation for the day? This is where you can adopt a simple psychological technique called “implementation intention”. This is where before the day starts (preferably the evening before), you externalise in some way the one or two things you must do the next day. These need to be big, important things. For example, if you have a presentation to do next week, you could decide to make a start on your presentation. Or, if it is the weekend, you may choose to spend all day with your kids.

Whatever you decide must be done the next day, write it down or flag it in your task manager or calendar. If you want to make a significant impact, the thing you decide to do is most likely the thing on your mind. It could be you have an issue you need to speak with a colleague about, or you need to call a demanding customer. Make a conscious decision you will do that tomorrow.

Implementation intention may appear too simple to work; it is simple, but it does work. Try it tomorrow. As you read this, decide what two things you will do tomorrow, and write them down. Then, tomorrow morning, remind yourself what those two things are and get on and do them. See what happens.

One of the reasons we feel demotivated is because we need a sense of purpose for the day. Using the implementation intention technique changes that. It gives you a purpose, and that changes the chemistry in your head.

Looking back at my previous jobs, I remember when I worked as a bartender, pouring pints of beer all night could be considered a tedious, monotonous job, yet I saw it as an opportunity to expand my communication skills, learn about people and cheer people up and make them smile. I gained valuable lessons and experience, and, I hope, my customers got to smile for the first time that day.

You don’t need to go looking for big, important things to motivate you. All the motivation you need is already inside you. You just need to decide your purpose each day and be open to learning new things.

All of what I have shared with you here is easy. It does involve changing your thinking about your work; it may mean you need to change a few habits, eat fewer carbohydrates, move a little more and get yourself into bed so you can get enough sleep. It’s not impossible. You can change some or all of these things right now if you decide to. It’s up to you.

Thank you for reading my stories! 😊

If you would like to receive all the productivity and time management content I create each week in one convenient email, you can subscribe to my weekly newsletter here

You can also learn more about what I do here on my website