Uticopa Blog

Most people will probably admit to certain times in their working lives when they lack the motivation to do honest hard work.

If this relates to you, ask yourself honestly whether you're the type who has constantly cut corners, doing the minimum amount of work necessary for a certain project, and making excuses for handing-in papers late.

For many young people just starting out at work, there is the assumption that this tendency would end when they started doing a regular, paying job. However, in practice, this often proves extremely difficult - especially in a large, open-plan office where there may not be an obvious supervisor standing overseeing the job. In this sort of working environment, there are many employees who spend the majority of their time messing around on the internet, writing or even doing anything to waste time and not do the work for which they are being paid.

To many, it's a bizarre situation even to themselves, because they know they have work which they should enjoy doing. However, the instant something is a mandated task, it somehow becomes a burden and nearly impossible to complete. It's almost as if such people would rather do anything at all to escape working on what they're supposed to be doing.

It's amazing how so many ‘get away with' this working attitude most of the time. As with some ‘criminals', they become extremely talented at doing what they shouldn't. Job-shirkers become masters at looking productive without actually producing results. It is particularly prevalent amongst office-workers who sit at their computers all day long. The inducement to zip around the internet is simply too-addictive to be ignored.

However, there is evidence that the ‘perpetrators' are not inwardly-happy. They know they are doing wrong and are tired of their own working attitudes. They want to be good at their job, want to feel productive and useful, want to feel they've accomplished something worthwhile for their employer. But somehow they feel so stuck in this rut of procrastination and unproductiveness that they have no idea how to clamber out.

Ideas to improve motivation

Getting Things Done (GTD) is an action management method created by David Allen and described in a book of the same name. GTD rests on the principle that a person needs to move tasks out of the mind by recording them externally. That way, the mind is freed from the job of remembering everything that needs to be done and can concentrate on actually performing those tasks. It helps you gain control over all the tasks and commitments which you need or want to get done. You need to collect, process, organise, review and then do. 

• Identify your individual area of responsibility.
• Make a to-do list.
• Make a weekly written review.
• Start at the top and deal with one item at a time.
• If an item requires action, either: do it (if it takes less than 2 minutes), delegate it, or defer it (but write this down so that it doesn't get forgotten about for ever!).
• If an item does not require action, either: file it for reference, or throw it away, or write it down for possible action later.
• If your job is boring, change your mental attitude to it.
• Tell yourself: JUST this one morning, I'll check my email after I do an hour of work first. JUST today, I'll save reading blogs as a treat for the afternoon. Sit down and set concrete goals each week with your supervisor. You may still put the work off until Thursday or Friday, but when you're forced to get it done or get fired, you'll find your motivation.
• Do you like working with other people? If you do, and if your job is amenable to it, see how collaborative you can make your work. It's easier to stay on task when you aren't the only one contributing and you have someone else to remind you what needs to be done.
• Set measurable goals and tell people about them (important people, like your co-workers and boss).
• Give yourself deadlines, and make sure that if you miss them people will find out. Basically make it impossible for yourself to both slack off and get away with it.
• If all else fails, get a more challenging job where you're proud of what you're doing and where you feel your contributions are important.
• Do something amazing: tame wild horses.....drive racing cars!

Well, can you do it? - Yes you can!