3 Simple Steps To Get Out Of A Rut - Even When You're Not Motivated

Table of Contents

• Credits
• Introduction
• The 3 steps
• Too Long; Didn't Read

Credits: This video by Better Ideas inspired this post. I wanted to expand on his video and share some of my own thoughts. However, all credit goes to him, below are the ideas I have learned from this video and applied to myself. I recommed watching!

I often find myself being unmotivated to do things. Usually, after being sedentary for long periods of time, I feel down and in a rut. Simple tasks like doing the dishes, cleaning up after myself, and throwing clothes in the laundry seem monumental. It's not a depression, feels more like melancholy.  I just pass time filled with the instant gratification of youtube videos, and re-binging tv shows I’ve seen enough times that I can quote them in my sleep.

It’s a brutal cycle, that seemingly begins without a cause. Maybe you wake up on the wrong side of the bed, perhaps it was one lazy day that got out of hand and has now turned into 5. This leads you to feel unmotivated which makes you feel worse, so you buckle down and continue doing nothing. Which makes you feel even worse, so you just wallow in it more.

The question has to be asked, how do you get out of this cycle (diagram). Especially when you don’t even feel motivated enough to do simple tasks. Through watching videos by better ideas, and reading Mark Manson, it's down to 3 simple steps.

1) Do Something

2) KISS → Keep it simple stupid

3) Reward yourself for the small wins

#1 - Do Something

When small tasks feel out of reach, and large goals seem impossible. You are doing yourself a favor by just trying to do something. We often assume that to gain momentum towards action, we first need motivation. I know that is why I watch cheesy motivational videos. After watching them, however, I often just move on to whatever is on my youtube recommended. Why is that? Shouldn’t I be motivated and psyched to go out and “achieve”?

In reality, actions lead to motivation and inspiration, not the other way around. Sometimes you can’t wait to be motivated to run that marathon, you will just have to start walking and the momentum will come. This is where the do something idea is amazing.

It's really simple, to gain some momentum, just do some action (anything). It could be as simple as taking a shower. Make your bed. Brushing your teeth. Cooking yourself some food. Once the spark starts to come alive, go for a walk and get some fresh air. Rather than sitting and thinking about how you need to do all this work, send all those emails, message all those people, just get up and do something.

The momentum will come.

#2 - K.I.S.S

Tying into #1, the KISS principle helps you adjust your expectations to reality. Imagine you are in a rut, and getting out of bad feels tough. Thinking you can get up and knock out a tough creative project just like that isn't realistic. You need to start simple, my go-to favorite is making my bed and taking a shower.

The simpler your tasks become, the easier it is to pick up momentum and build off of it.

#3 - Reward yourself for the small wins

When you are down, people love to keep themselves down. Inflicted by self-pity, and the victim mentality, it becomes hard to recognize the wins and focus more on what is missing. What you haven’t achieved. This is a mindset that will always prevent progress.

Rather, reward yourself for the small wins on your path to gaining momentum and getting motivated.

If you can’t get out of bed, getting up and showering is big. Reward yourself. If you haven’t been outside of the apartment in 2 days, going for a walk is fantastic. Reward yourself. If you have made no progress on that paper, but today you got down a paragraph, reward yourself. We often get too caught up in thinking about what we have yet to achieve. Much better to spend your mental energy on being present, and seeing the wins in the small things.

Now, while this idea is fantastic, it can get away from you. You could find yourself back in a rut. To ensure success and consistency, need to keep in mind two principles of progressive overload and spaced repetition.

Progressive overload - it's a method of weight training. The idea is to, little by little, increase the amount of stress you put on your system. So that over time, you got stronger and can lift heavier and heavier weights.

Spaced repetition - Is a learning technique. As soon as you learn new concepts your brain retains this information for a short period of time until it forgets. Therefore, you re-learn the over and over again to instill it into memory. At the beginning of the learning process, the re-learning

Now how is this relevant to rewarding yourself? As you build up some momentum by doing something, keeping it simple, and rewarding yourself, you now need to push yourself a bit more.

Once you have a few notches in the win column by committing to some simple actions, and gaining a reward, progressively overload yourself by adding more resistance. AKA, do something harder to gain the next reward. For example, if you gained your last reward by taking a shower, push yourself to cook a meal and then reward yourself. This increases your strength in the face of tougher challenges.

Alongside this use the concept of spaced repetition. When you first begin rewarding yourself, keep the treats coming and reward often. As you gain some momentum, start spacing the rewards out. For example, if you have rewarded yourself for getting out of bed, then again for taking a shower, and again for making your bed. Now space out the rewards, and make it so that you have to complete multiple tasks (rather than just one) before you get a reward.

Essentially, as you gain some momentum, you want to make it so that you have to work a little bit harder and for a little bit longer to gain that reward. This prevents stagnation and keeps you working towards something.

The reward needs to be “just out of your reach”

We all get stuck sometimes. In these moments it is hard to have the belief that we can push toward our goals. We wait for motivation to get ourselves inspired to do some work. However, the reality is another way around. The action comes first, motivation and inspiration are what follow. So keep in mind these three steps the next time you find yourself down, and need to pick yourself up. Thanks for reading, appreciate you.

TL; DR

We all often get stuck in a rut. Could be anything from family troubles, to something unexplainable. To get unstuck, follow these three steps to do the work,  even when you aren’t motivated.

1) Do Something: Anything, just moving and getting up can start to get the ball rolling

2) K.I.S.S principle: “Keep it simple stupid”. During a rut, it is unrealistic to go from a lazy few days to think you can get up and do finish all your work. Keep your tasks simple and achievable.

3) Reward yourself for the small wins: Recognize that to get out of a rut, you have to ease up on yourself and show yourself kindness and compassion. Cleaning your room, or cooking yourself a meal after living in a mess and ordering in food, is a big deal. Reward yourself.

Keep in mind to progressively overload and use spaced repetition. As you complete tasks and gain some momentum, increase the amount of work needed to get a reward, and slowly increase the number of tasks that needed to be done before getting a reward.