Career Trends: 7 Ways to Increase Your Motivation at Work

Edition: February 15th, 2022
Curated by the Knowledge Team of ICS Career GPS

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• Excerpts from article by Ayush Jalan, published on Makeuseof.com

No matter which profession you are in or how much you love your job, there are days when you can barely get yourself to work. It’s okay to feel this way once in a while, but if it happens for a prolonged period, it can affect your productivity at work.

This is why it’s crucial to train yourself to break out of this rut and get back on track.

Here are some effective tips to keep your motivation high at work:

1. Introspect and write down what drives you.

• Most of the times, you tend to lose motivation because of getting lost in the daily hustle.
• It’s understandably difficult to find meaning and purpose in everyday, routine tasks.
• This is when you need to remind yourself what drives you and the reasons why you started in the first place. People are motivated by different things. It can be financial stability, social status, virtue, service of others, etc.
• A good way to gain perspective and focus is to make a list of the top five things that motivate you above all else.
• By doing so, you’re creating a mental toolbox for yourself to use when you feel down.

2. Understand your value in the company.

• Everyone feels insignificant from time to time.
• In a workplace, we feel that way because we’ve forgotten how our efforts are contributing, and to what purpose.
• This lack of clarity then demotivates us and makes it seem like our work is going in vain.
• To get rid of this feeling, you need to understand your value in the company. Here are a few ways in which you can do this:
  1. List down your top three skills and how often you use them at work.
  2. Ask the hiring manager why they hired you over other candidates.
  3. Note the nature of the projects your manager often asks you to do.
  4. Ask your co-workers what they think you are good at.

3. Take on more responsibilities.

• When you’ve peaked your potential in your current role at your company, things tend to get boring.
• While this is a reason to rejoice, it’s also a reminder that you need to take on more responsibilities and set new targets to challenge yourself at work.
• If that’s not something you can do immediately, you can leverage this opportunity to learn new skills to add to your resume.
• This will come in handy later when you decide to ask for a promotion or a pay raise.
• With these new skills, you might also be able to do your current job better.

4. Set small achievable goals.

• If you are surrounded by endless files and months-long projects, it can get overwhelming, and you might even dread starting.
• The best advice, in this case, is to divide your project into bite-sized tasks to gain clarity and increase your productivity.
• This will help you stop worrying about the entire project and focus on one thing at a time — reducing stress. And thanks to dopamine, you will feel motivated after completing each goal to complete another one.
• This way, you can stay focused and track your progress better.

5. Reward yourself for achieving a target.

• Everyone likes being appreciated for a job well done, but your manager might not always recognise your efforts.
• Waiting for someone else to reward you might result in you turning bitter if they don’t do so.
• Instead, it’s a good idea to learn how to reward yourself.
• Rewards can be as simple as watching a couple of episodes of your favourite show and as extravagant as buying yourself a fancy dinner.
• The bigger a project you complete, the bigger a reward you should give yourself.

6. Befriend a colleague.

• It’s no surprise that many friendships start at work.
• When you befriend a coworker, it gives you more of a reason to want to go to work just so you can meet them — fulfilling your need for belongingness and companionship.
• It also reduces the stress of asking for help or feedback and improves how you feel about your workplace.
• Plus, having a friendly relationship with your colleagues reduces the chances of conflicts. This makes it much easier to collaborate on projects, which in turn increases your productivity.

7. Take a moment to be grateful.

• Too often, we are so busy thinking of all the good things that can happen that we forget to think of all the good things that are already happening.
• It’s easy to lose sight of your accomplishments when you’re constantly and tirelessly aiming for the next goal.
• A great way to practise gratitude is via gratitude journal apps that can help you get started.

Learn the Skill of Self-Motivation

It’s quite common to feel demotivated once in a while, but what separates a disciplined professional from an undisciplined one is their ability to work despite a lack of external motivation.

You need to find ways to motivate yourself without depending on others to motivate you. Find the techniques that work best for you to learn the skill of self-motivation.

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Have you checked out yesterday’s blog yet?

Education & Career Trends: 7 Tips to Break the Vicious Procrastination Cycle

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(Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in the article mentioned above are those of the author(s). They do not purport to reflect the opinions or views of ICS Career GPS or its staff.)

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