Derek Sivers
from the book “Hell Yeah or No”:

When you’re extremely unmotivated

2016-08-02

Like everyone, I get those times when I’m unmotivated to do anything. Brain dead. No energy. Everything feels like, “Why bother? What’s the point?”

But I’ve finally figured out what to do with those times.

Like everyone, I have a list of boring chores that need to be done but that I’ve been putting off for years. I never do them because I’m always more excited about something else.

During my last unmotivated funk, I realized that because nothing is exciting me, that means nothing is exciting me more than this boring necessary stuff. And since I don’t want to waste my inspired times on brainless work, this is a perfect time to do those dull tasks.

So I made a list of these necessary things. I grumbled and complained, but I used some caffeine and got through them. It actually felt pretty good.

Conventional wisdom tells us to do the important and difficult thing first. But doing this boring work moves me from a state of doing nothing to doing something. It makes me feel like doing something important again.

So the next time you’re feeling extremely unmotivated, do those things you never want to do anyway.