Have you ever experienced having the need to study for tomorrow’s exam, but didn’t feel like studying? Or needing to wash the dishes or do some chores, but your mind says you don’t want to?
Someone once said, the reason why these things happen to us is that our mind simply doesn’t want to. That is a mental issue; “Having reached our limit” and “having gone beyond our limit” can be considered as reasons as well.
For example, although we know in ourselves that we need to study, feeling that it’s way beyond our limit, or the subjects are too difficult for us, we’d start developing feelings of wanting to procrastinate.
Well, how can we get ourselves to do those things that our mind doesn’t want to do and how to make ourselves feel motivated again?
The simple answer is to try to do a quick task that can clear our mind. Maybe our mind is too preoccupied with so many things, so doing some small tasks can offload our mind and bring back the motivation we need to do the things we’re supposed to do.
It is really best to try to find ways to declutter our minds and organize our thoughts and workspaces.
Here, if in spite of the things we do to keep going; whether to do something to refresh ourselves or do something good for a quick sense of accomplishment, we still can’t regain our motivation, we may need to try another method.
The bottom-line is, that no matter how unmotivated we feel towards the tasks we need to complete, we have to start doing them little by little without entertaining our depressed feelings.
Always remind ourselves that “Many a little makes a mickle（Japanese: 塵も積もれば山となる）.” Many a little, makes a breakthrough.
Small things add up to a big difference.
One more thing, the method I consider to be effective in dealing with feeling depressed is: “Try to do only 5 minutes.”
If we set a goal as a “5-minute effort”, I think we can start without much thought. The key is to make the first step, or “Start with what we have to do.”
It’s ironic why people feel tired or bored even though there are piles of errands to do such as study, work, and house chores. It’s because, when there’s too many items on the to-do list, people get(become) overwhelmed and find it too difficult to even start.
Once we put our minds into trying to do things, even for only 5 minutes, many of us will acquire the needed push to continue for a while, even longer than 5 minutes. What’s more, some people are able to complete the tasks they have to do. All they needed was this 5-minute push to keep the ball rolling.
With this technique, I personally succeeded in overcoming some of the tasks I’ve had to do in the past, no matter how overwhelming they appeared to be.