Lost your mojo and can't get motivated working remotely? 

Many of us have switched fully to remote work or are freelancing and have been working remotely for quite a while. This working lifestyle has its natural cycle that correlates a lot with the seasons. Hitting the fall when the day is getting shorter, light disappears after 4 pm and we wake up and finish work in the darkness is a motivation killer by itself. Not to mention the most obvious fact you´ve been sitting in the same space mostly alone for the last year and you know every single item on your work desk. So, the question stands: How to reboot your motivation and find the energy to keep going and get excited again about current and new projects? Let's break it down. 

1. Wake up early

We all know it's tempting to have that well-deserved lie-in on most days when you work from home. Surely those 45 minutes saved getting up, dressed and going to work every morning can be used to ease up our start of the day. On the contrary,though, studies have shown that waking up early - between 7 and 8 am every day during the whole week - increases productivity and you feel more energised, innovative and optimistic about your work tasks.   

2. Throw in a 15 minute HIIT workout or power yoga session

The science shows that you will boost your serotonin levels and alertness in the morning when you allocate a 15 minutes slot for exercise. HIIT is an excellent option as it gets you going fast and you will have those sixpacks in no time! Power yoga is another great choice (for body and soul), or if you are an outdoorsy person, go for the short jog around the neighbourhood. Regular waking times, boosted by a short workout session are guaranteed success for the start of your day.  

3. Start with the hardest task 

This one works. We´ve seen many times that we prefer to get smaller jobs done first, leaving the more complex ones till the end of the day. We´re as guilty of procrastinating as any of you. However, many life coaches recommend focusing on the big tasks first (Eating the frog exercise) So, our advice: Pick the most difficult task of your day. Sit down, go into your tunnel vision and try to break it down. To help you along the way, you can combine it with another great approach - the 10-minute rule. Dedicate 10 minutes of your time to this task and after 10 minutes you can decide if you would like to continue or not. Most likely you will. And it feels satisfying for sure.  

Lost your mojo and can't get motivated working remotely? - Infographic [PDF]

4. Rewards, rewards, rewards 

Once you´ve successfully cracked your hardest task, don´t forget to reward yourself . It can be something small as a nice cup of coffee or tea, or some delicious snack, or a few minutes of playing or reading your favourite book. This mechanism of Work Hard, Play Hard has been well tested and it optimizes our motivation mechanism. 

5. Limit distractions and interactions 

Easier said than done, we know. That flashing light of your latest notification on your phone is too intriguing to miss. So what can you do about it? Why not mute your phone notifications and only check your email once an hour. Alternatively, place your phone on “Do Not Disturb” until you complete a specific task.

6. Challenge yourself and schedule a time to brainstorm 

Motivation slump is often regarded as the ´ugly sister´ of a stereotype. Your days start to blur together, your work enthusiasm plummeted, and you just pray that Friday afternoon comes as fast as possible. The best plan of action ,in this case, is actually to take action. Not a standard one, but out of your comfort zone. Allocate an hour every week to yourself where you pick one bold topic/project you would like to make a personal impact. Brainstorm freely about this for an hour somewhere outside your normal space. Use the famous brainstorming techniques such as mind mapping, brainwriting, brainwalking etc... Our favourite is Personal Idea Pad Quadrant. By regularly allocating time to think strategically about new exciting projects and subsequently acting on them, you automatically increase your motivation, resulting in better performance and productivity. 

We should strive for kalokagathia in our daily lives. Only then we will feel complete with a sense of purpose. And the driver in this case is motivation. Got any useful tips? Let us know. We'd love to hear from you.