How to Stay Motivated and Avoid Burnout (in your career)

02/07/17

How to Stay Motivated and Avoid Burnout (in your career)

I don’t know about y’all, but one of my main pain points in life is staying motivated – on the daily and in the big picture sense too. Basically, I struggle with staying motivated in all the areas (ha!) and am always looking for new ways to keep things feeling urgent and exciting.

Don’t get me wrong, this blog and my job are two of my favorite things in life, but I’m human and burnouts happen. I’m sure ya’ll can relate though, right? Work is work and burnouts are a REAL thing – no matter how much you may love your job.

How to Stay Motivated and Avoid Burnout

One of my biggest goals for 2017 is to have more structure but to also be kinder to myself, and I feel like setting myself up to not have a burnout fits in with that intention. Because of that, I’ve been thinking of ways to stay motivated without completely giving up on things.

Since I’m assuming some of y’all are in the same boat, I wanted to share the list that I’ve been focusing on things that are helping to keep me on track and motivated.

Get Yourself a Designated work area

I try to do the whole sit-on-the-couch-and-wathc-Netflix-while-working thing and I have literally the worst experience. I mean, it sounds nice in “theory”, but in reality it’s a sh*t show. Am I right?!

My productivity level dips a stupid amount when I’m attempting to multitask and get actual legit work done. Let’s be real, it’s not the smartest. And I realized that even though I feel like a task is taking me 5 hours (aka on the road to task burnout), the truth is that about half of that time is me being distracted.

Now that I’m in my new house, I’ve been adamant about spending most of my working hours at an actual desk, distraction free. I’ve been taking breaks from my phone and actually putting it on DND (do not disturb) and it’s been a tremendous help!

Embrace The Pomodoro technique

I’ve mentioned this before, but I’m obsessed with this system so I think it’s worth repeating. You basically work for X amount of minutes, then break for X amount of minutes, over and over until all tasks are complete. Y’all, it’s pretty shocking what you can get done in truly focused times (I’m talking phone in other room, no podcast blaring, no Internet browsing). I personally work for 30 (hard core) minutes and then take a 5 minute break, but you can tweak the variables. This makes real good use of my time and it’s kinda fun lulz.

Getchya Self Some Cute office supplies

This is the work version of buying new workout clothes to get your booty moving. I invested in a few things for my desk – like a pretty pen holder, cheeky notepad (or 5), and a fun calendar, and it basically (slash literally) makes me actually want to work. Spruce up your desk if it’s not a place you currently want to be at – that always helps me too!

Decide on 3 MITs (Most Important Things)

Y’all may have heard of this, but there’s something called the ‘3 MIT system.’ Basically, instead of having a to-do list the size of a house each day, you focus on 3 really, really important tasks. The ones that if you got those done today, you’d be feeling majorly accomplished. Each day you find those 3 things and do them first (starting with the hardest one), without looking at the rest of your to-do list or getting overwhelmed.

Stay organized

The bane of my existence, y’all. But if there’s one thing I notice that leads me to a personal burnout it’s a lack of organization. When your life or calendar is a #hotmess, it’s much easier to give up…aka get burned out.

This year, I’m trying to be good about sticking to an editorial calendar, marking ALL events in my Google calendar, writing down random notes in my phone and then going through them each week, etc. Staying on top of my stuff makes everything way easier to digest.

Visualize

Do research on higher/senior positions in your field OR your dream job if you aren’t in a career you love yet to maintain an up-to-date visualization of what you’re working towards. This is especially helpful when you’re lacking career motivation. Or take some time to ask yourself WHY you’re at the job you’re at and how it’s helping you get to where you’re trying to go.

And if that overwhelms you (totally get that if it does), then figure out what you truly love about what you do and what you’d like to learn more about. And then continue to ask yourself these hard, yet challenging and insightful questions that push you to discover your next move in your big picture career plan. I know it’s uncomfortable, but you owe it to yourself to figure these things out and dig in a little bit. You can thank me later

Update your resume

Ugh, I know. I hate this one. But I’m only bringing it up because it’s true y’all. Similar to the step to visualize, a fresh resume is a great way to stay motivated. And forcing yourself to take another look at yours will help you get in the right mindset to realize what needs to happen ignorer to get to where you’re trying to go.

Resumes can be reworked every few months – even if you’re in the same gig – as you tackle new projects. There’s nothing like looking at where you started from to inspire you with new goals for the future, and to see where you might want to spruce up your skill set.

Plan a vacation

I once read that the anticipation of a trip is actually more rewarding than the actual vacation. Might not be true but interesting to think about, right?? Do yourself a favor and plan a trip a couple times a year. It doesn’t need to be extravagant or to some place around the world, but make sure you have something to look forward to. And, stepping away from work is the easiest way to get refreshed!

I hope those ideas help – they have really improved my overall productivity and burnout mentality. I’d love to hear what helps y’all so please share!