The holidays are over. It's time to go to work, but I don't even want to think about it. There are a lot of things to do, but there is no desire to take on them. Familiar situation? How to get yourself to work right now and love your job? In this difficult matter, advice from professional psychologists will help.
Why motivate yourself? Isn't this the business of the boss or the HR? “In my opinion, for a psychologically mature person, self-motivation to work is more effective than external stimuli,” says Ilya Shabshin, consultant psychologist, leading specialist at the Psychological Center on Volkhonka. In addition, the boss will not like the motivation methods that the boss will apply to the lazy employee. Hence, it is better to force yourself than if others do it.
Popular wisdom advises to do this in case of bouts of laziness: open the Forbes list and look for your name there. If you are not there - run to work! However, there are other techniques as well.
Prompt self-motivation
As luck would have it, the desire to relax most often comes at the height of the working day. However, there are several techniques to help you get started in the here and now:
1. "Swim across the English Channel". Why is it difficult for us to get down to important business? “The work that you don’t want to do is usually very cumbersome and large-scale,” explains Dmitry Seinov, psychologist, president of the 5 Da! Psychological center. - After all, someone who plays Tetris on a computer half of his working time is hardly bothered by his work. Difficult tasks can be broken down into stages and done first something easy, then something else easy, etc. This is the so-called effect of crushing. "
The psychologist draws an interesting analogy: “For example, if you are asked to swim across the English Channel, you will answer:“ Are you out of your mind? ”. But if you are immersed in the pool and offered to swim the same distance, then you will do it calmly, albeit with respite. Why? You know that you can leave the pool at any time and you certainly won't drown. It's the same with hard work.
If the work is multi-stage, like the editors of Rabota.ru, then you can say to yourself: "Today I will draw up a plan and I will not do anything else." If you have the time and energy left, tell yourself, "Now I'll call the experts and don't do anything else." So, step by step, you will complete the task. "
In addition, small victories give us confidence and return us to the mainstream of the "flow" - a state where work is both interesting and easy. In any situation, it is best to break down a complex task into its component parts.
Other ways of self-motivation are even easier.
2. Chair trick. Sit upright in your chair. If it is possible to put it in the middle of the room, so much the better. Tell yourself, “Either I’m getting to work, or I’m just sitting here.” After a few minutes of inactivity, the desire to do at least something will take its toll.
3. Priceless coins. Dmitry Seinov advises: “A very simple motivation: take several coins, preferably of the same denomination. Then take one coin in your hand and pretend that this is something important to you. Let's say family, friends, some hobby. "
“Having collected all the coins in your hand, you need to hold them for a while and imagine that if you don’t do what you need to do now, you will lose these coins, and you will have nothing left.
It actually spurs on. It is clear that even if you do not do this work, the world will not collapse, and your friends and hobbies will not disappear from you. Nevertheless, such exaggeration works perfectly. "
4. Himself a carrot and stick. Reception is designed for people with a strong will. Promise yourself a little reward for completing the assignment on time. For failure to do so, give yourself a small but sensitive punishment. For example, not listening to music on the way home.
5. "Having given your word - hold on." Make a promise to the person whose opinion of yourself you value that you will finish something today. The result will exceed all expectations!
6. Postpone until tomorrow what you want to do today. Suppose you succeed today. But tomorrow morning you will have to fight laziness again. How to be?
If you feel you can handle the rest of your current job easily, stop. If time is running out, postpone the easy and understandable part of the work until tomorrow morning - this way you will quickly get involved in the next working day. And in the rest of the time, you better do something new and more difficult.
Everyone is motivated
But how to train yourself not to be lazy and to work with pleasure day in and day out?
It is necessary to answer the question: why can there be indifference or aversion to work at all? Sometimes we just don’t see any sense for ourselves in what we are doing. Here is what Ilya Shabshin says to this: “There is a general answer to the questions of how to self-motivate yourself and fall in love with an uninteresting job: you need to find meaning in it that is really meaningful for you personally, that is, answer the question:“ Why am I doing this business? "".
Ilya Shabshin and Dmitry Seinov independently used the following parable as an example: “One traveler passed by a grandiose construction site. He approached one of the builders and asked: "What are you doing?" He replied: "I am putting stones." A traveler asked the same question to another builder. He replied: "I earn my living." The traveler asked another builder about the same. He said: "I am building the most beautiful cathedral in the world." From an external point of view, all builders did the same thing, but for each his activity had a different meaning and, therefore, different self-motivation. "
Each of these attitudes has the right to life, except, of course, the answer "I am putting stones." If you perceive your work as a pointless activity (“writing words”, “sorting pieces of paper”, “adding and multiplying numbers”) work will soon get bored.
The goal for each employee may be different: to earn bread and butter (then - with caviar, and in the future get on the Forbes list), become a big boss (in the long term - the biggest), realize himself in what he loves. The main thing is that it exists.
Dmitry Seinov identifies three principles of self-motivation. Ilya Shabshin added one more item to the list. Here's what psychologists say makes us work:
1. Interest.
2. Team.
3. Money.
4. Striving for self-development.
Let's consider each of the points in more detail.
Work for interest
If you work with passion, the working time flies by. How to make your work interesting? There are two approaches.
Find your mission. This is what Dmitry Seinov advises to do. The builder of "the most beautiful cathedral in the world" succeeded. But not everyone can discern the mission in their work, therefore history knows many examples of how employers instilled a high goal in employees. The most striking example is the building of communism.
A little imagination. If work turns into a routine, you can look at your business from a different angle. Do the same as always, but in a slightly different way.
Ilya Shabshin gives an example from life: “The young man worked as a manager in a company that sold jewelry. One day a consignment of goods was brought - more than fifty gold rings, and he had to weigh and measure each ring and record the data on the tags. Tedious, mechanical, uninteresting, but necessary and inevitable work.
What did he do? Before weighing and measuring with instruments, the manager began to try to determine the size of the ring visually, "by eye", and the weight in the palm of his hand. It turned out to be funny. Gradually, the accuracy grew: by the end of the batch, he determined the size of the ring by eye with an accuracy of half a millimeter, and the weight - with an accuracy of a tenth of a gram. The assignment was completed without boredom and even with interest - because of finding a way to carry yourself with this work. "
Young employees find different ways to abstract themselves from everyday life and for a while present their work in a romantic setting. For example, a PR manager can imagine himself as a herald, and a copywriter as a medieval monk who argues with heretics.
Colleagues and wallet
“The second strong motivation factor is the team,” says Dmitry Seinov. - If the team has friends, acquaintances, like-minded people, then you can focus not on work, but on the presence in the team. " Pleasant company - why not go to work in the morning with joy?
“If the team does not work out and the work is not interesting, then money is the simplest motivation. Let people dream and plan how they will spend the money they earn, ”says Dmitry Seinov. The main thing is not to forget why you get them.
Work on yourself
“Self-motivation is often based on self-development,” emphasizes Ilya Shabshin. If you consider any work as work for your future, you can do it with great zeal.
“Even in uninteresting work, you need to look for an opportunity for your development, set yourself individual tasks,” the psychologist advises. - They can be directly related to the work itself (improvement of certain criteria for its performance) or be psychological in nature. For example, can I, an employee of the hotline, talk to an angry client calmly, not succumb to his aggression and even try to calm him down? "
It's a good idea to visually celebrate your accomplishments. Write down your assignments, and when done, put a bold checkmark in front of them. The collection of completed cases is not only pleasing to the eye. She seems to say: "You are doing everything" and motivates for further achievements.
1 -1
You, too, woke up yesterday from the sound of an alarm clock, not understanding why he was calling? The New Years are over, and as much as we complain that they are too long, this first week of work is very difficult for all of us to enjoy life. Gazeta.Ru has made a set of rules, following which it will be much easier to return to your normal work life.
Photo: iStockPhoto
1. Don't be too hard on yourself.
You don't have to think that after two weeks of holidays you will be able to get into working mode on the fly. This is impossible, which means you do not need to reproach yourself that you cannot do this.
First, remember that the holidays are stressful as well as relaxation. You've had to do things that you usually don't: cook holiday meals and worry about whether they worked out; choose gifts and worry if those who are intended will like them; communicate with not always beloved distant relatives and worry, worry, worry.
Secondly, in two weeks your body has rebuilt and got used to the new regime - you probably slept longer, ate more often and walked more.
So expecting to be able to return to work in the first week is pointless. Don't exacerbate stress with self-criticism. Give yourself time to come to your senses and gradually get into a work rhythm.
Try to keep the first working week as unloaded as possible. Any business meetings that can be postponed until a second week are best postponed. Also, try not to stay late at work for at least the first few days.
2. Find the positives about the end of the holidays
It may be difficult to notice, but there are a lot of positive things. Remember, you were going to start a new life this year, just as soon as the holidays are over? So they ended.
And since you have not yet had time to get tired back, you have a real chance to at least slightly improve your life. Remember what you promised yourself there on New Year's Eve? Gym? English courses? Dancing?
Whatever it is, now is the time to start before the enthusiasm has died away. The same goes for your career plans. Have you wanted to start a new project for a long time, but everyone put it off? Get started now!
3. But dispense with guilt.
Keep in mind that the most common cause of post-New Year depression is point 2. You promised yourself to start a new life next year. And at the moment when you promised yourself this, you really believed very much that this time you will succeed. And now the new year has come, and you, it turns out, have not changed much. And everything that was hard for you to do last year, is just as hard this year.
You begin to feel guilty that the year has just begun, and you are already breaking promises. At the same time, you forget the main thing: the year has just begun! And he is entirely at your disposal.
Whatever you think about yourself on New Year's Eve, you will not be able to change abruptly and immediately, no matter how much you want it. So what? Do everything gradually. Choose from the mountain of promises made to yourself one and at the same time as simple as possible. Things will start to move, and it will happen more slowly than you would like. But nevertheless, you will see progress and you will feel much better.
4. Focus on pleasure
In less than a week, you will be swallowed up by routine again. Work, household chores and the exchange rate of the ruble will again begin to occupy all your thoughts. So before that happens, set aside one hour, sit down and write yourself a list of one hundred pleasures. What do you like? Have ice cream? Reading books about the ancient Greeks? Run? Watch cartoons? Lying in the park? Learning new things? Go to the theater? Never mind. The main thing is that it should be something that brings you joy.
And mind you, we are not making a list of useful things. We make a list of the pleasant. So it may well contain items such as "roll on the couch" and "eat fried."
After the list is ready, post it in a prominent place. Now, throughout the year, you will remember that sometimes you need to break out of your usual routine and do something that is pleasant, and not “useful” and “necessary”. You have 100 "treats." This means that if you do something from this list every three days, it will be enough for a whole year. And when, on the next New Year's holidays, you sum up the results of the year, you will find that you have accumulated a lot of pleasant memories.
5. Assemble the tree
The Christmas tree and all other New Year's decorations made your home especially cozy and brought you joy. But now that it's time to get back to work, the tree in the apartment is a source of sadness. Looking at it, every time you think that the holidays are over.
Why are you torturing yourself? Collect the tree and generally tidy up the apartment. There is no need to be sad that the holidays are over. You need to rejoice - the new year has begun, and you have made a prediction that it will be better than the past?
So, the New Year holidays are over and it's time to start working. But how? 10 tips and tricks to get started after the long New Year holidays.
Is there life in the office after the holidays or not?
- Think about those who at all did not rest on New Year's holidays and sympathize with them.
- Remove everything from the office and workplace which reminds of the past holidays, booze and partying. This will help you focus on your work.
- Arrange pauses... You cannot quickly get involved in work - this can be fraught with your mental state.
- Get enough sleep... During the 10-day festivities, you have absolutely lost your working rhythm of life and you will need to restore it. Go to bed early and get up on time. Do not oversleep - a lot of sleep is also harmful.
- Follow your diet... During the New Year's feasts and after, your stomach has lost all shame and conscience, and significant portions of alcohol only aggravated this condition. Calm him down and try to eat less and give up alcohol for a while.
- Take a shower before work - it invigorates very well
- Do your exercises- along with a shower, it will give you an impulse to work.
- Do not tackle hard work and problematic tasks- after the holidays, not only you, but also your colleagues, who also have no desire to work, are "out".
- Make up work plan, as this will help partially relieve the brain.
- Finally, think about future holidays and the upcoming vacation.
Our psychologist Natalya Morgunova has prepared for you 10 ways to make yourself work after the holidays. While Russians are resting on New Year's holidays, Belarusians and many others have already gone to work. What to do to force yourself to work if there is no strength.
- Get a good night's sleep the night before. During the holidays, we are used to going to bed well after midnight, and then waking up no earlier than noon. To make it easier to force yourself to work, a day or two before the start of working days, start going to bed and waking up early.
- Come up with a ritual for the morning. Let it start in a special way, not the way it used to. Take a contrast shower, do some exercises, prepare a new tasty dish, listen to pleasant music, turn on an aroma lamp or scented candles with a citrus scent. All this will invigorate and help to force yourself to work.
- Change your image. There is no need for global changes like a shaved head. It is enough just to change the usual styling or makeup. Put on a new suit, get a new purse, put a new diary in it. A new pen, stapler, or stickers - a novelty effect is a good way to get yourself to work after the holidays.
- Take a new route to or from work. Let it take you more time, but it will distract you from the usual annoying views. You will see and learn something new, it will invigorate and cheer you up.
- Clean up the workplace. Send all the Christmas trees, balls, lights, tinsel to the box until next year. Arrange new stationery, vases with flowers, stylish accessories - for sure, you have been given a lot of nice little things for the holidays. Let them delight your eyes in the workplace and help you get yourself to work.
- Start your day pleasantly. No need to rush out of the door for complex projects. Have a cup of coffee or tea with your colleagues, treat them with homemade cakes or sweets from New Year's gifts, remember how fun the corporate party was, give everyone a trifle like stickers or pens. Surprises and a good mood are a win-win way to make yourself work.
- Write a to-do list. Don't start with the hardest part, plan everything wisely, gradually increasing the load. At the same time, do not just write a to-do list, but set specific deadlines. This will help keep yourself in line and make yourself work.
- Pause. After completing a small task, reward yourself with a candy or tangerine, take a walk around the office, drink a glass of water, drop in to your colleagues. Let the first day be relaxed. You may be doing less, but the joy of achieving your goals is an effective motivator for making yourself work.
- Come up with an office redevelopment. For a year, or even more, for sure, you are already tired of a lot and depressing. Removing the wall and making another window is unlikely to work, but rearranging the tables and shelves is for sure. So it will turn out to change the situation and organize the workspace more rationally. This is a good way to make yourself work.
- Make plans for the coming holidays. During your lunch break, think about new festive events: a colleague's birthday, company jubilee, March 8, etc. Pleasant thoughts will distract from everyday routine, raise your spirits and desire to work.
These are 10 easy ways to get yourself to work after the holidays. In general, if you absolutely do not want to go to work, and it seems to you a place of torment and torture, then you should think about it. It may be time to change your activity. After all, when you do what you love, you don't have to force yourself to work, everything turns out easily and simply by itself.
From the unimaginable laziness that enslaved everyone and everything after the New Year holidays, there is nowhere to go. The most difficult thing on the first day after the holidays is to get out of bed, push yourself out into the street and start functioning somehow: after all, it was so good to rest, and during these few days we got so used to it. In general, we are in exactly the same situation as everyone else, so we decided to make a small list of ways that really help to concentrate on work or study on the first day after such a long and wonderful rest.
Log out of social networks
When you are already reluctant to do anything, social networks are a huge temptation to shirk your responsibilities (even more than during normal times). Therefore, in the first days after the vacation, just get out of them and do not get involved in any discussions, especially those related to relaxation. You can check social networks in the evening and answer everyone, but during the day it's better to forget about them.
Turn off all gadgets
The same story as with social networks. Surely your friends and acquaintances managed to miss you during the holidays (if you, of course, have not seen each other) and will start calling you. Turn off your phone or mute the sound on it, otherwise it will greatly distract you from work / study. Make an effort on yourself, please.
Think only good
Well, do not whine that it is impossible to force yourself to do something, and that these people who are waiting for you at work / school, you have not seen for another eternity. Think good things: work, university and school are places that give you at least some positive emotions. Rummage through the memory of which ones, and you will immediately cheer up.
Finally start
At least to do something. Gather your strength and take the first step. This is the hardest part. Do it and everything will work out somehow. Barely, slowly, but you can tune in to the right wave.
We believe in you! And into myself too.