Getting Out of a Productivity Slump

By Lon W. Schiffbauer, BA, MBA, PhD, SPHR

Even the most driven and motivated of us can find ourselves losing steam periodically and slipping into the productivity doldrums. It’s at times like these that we can become demoralized and sort of drift away from our goals. But it doesn’t have to be like this. Here are 20 techniques you can use to get back on track and start crushing it again.

1. Remember what got you excited about your goal in the first in the first place
   • Sometimes we get so busy with the day-to-day tactics of getting things done that we forget why we’re doing them in the first place. Take the time to envision your end state and why this is important to you. Revive the enthusiasm you once felt for the project.
2. Practice the 10-minute rule
   • If you don’t feel like doing something, commit to doing it for just ten minutes. Odds are once you get started you’ll end up putting in 15-20 minutes before even realizing that you have, but even if after 10 minutes you say “enough” and stop, you’ve still put in ten minutes. By following this rule even a two-hour task can be done in your spare time over the course of a week.
3. Make jotting down notes your new social media fix
   • Social media is all about posting for the likes, but jotting down thoughts and ideas is like posting for the motivation. Keep a notebook or even a note app on your phone and capture your thoughts and ideas as they come to you. Before long you’ll find yourself motivated to take action on these opportunities.
4. Figure out when you are most fired-up and schedule your project during that time
   • For most of us, there is a time of day in which we feel most energized and fired-up to do something awesome. By working on our aspirational goals during that time we turbo-charge our motivation to excel in whatever we’re doing.
5. Take a walk, in green spaces if possible
   • Taking a walk, especially in green spaces, can have a restorative effect, improving attention fatigue and helping us recover from stress. Walking can also get the creative and motivational juices flowing.
6. Commit to reporting out on two wins this time next week
   • Pull out your calendar and make an appointment with yourself in which a week from today you’ll report out on two wins. They don’t have to be big wins; they can be small and barely perceptible, but a win is a win, and success breeds success.
7. Strive for progress, not perfection
   • Insisting on perfection denies you of your wins. If only “perfect” results are acceptable then you’ll always come up short. Expecting perfection means you can’t enjoy the small wins, those all-important steps forward that help you develop and progress in your goal.
8. Let go of the guilt
   • Feeling guilt for slipping behind isn’t going to help anything. I’ve been on this earth over half a century so I know guilt isn’t something you can just switch off, but talk yourself through it. Who have you wronged? If it’s someone else, then apologize and make amends; if its yourself then get over it and move on.
9. Understand the root of your current non-productive state
   • It’s all too tempting to lay our lack of motivation at the feet of laziness or something equally as self-critical. However, more than likely it’s not laziness at all. It could be you’re afraid of taking the next step and so are finding reasons to procrastinate. It could also be that you don’t know how to take the next step and need to get the necessary skills before you can continue. By figuring out what’s standing in the way you can then figure out how to move past it.
10. Consider the rule of subtraction
    • It could very well be that one of the reasons you’re struggling is that you have too much on your plate and you’re feeling overwhelmed. At times like this the best thing may be to start subtracting goals and refocusing your efforts on those things that can have the greatest impact on your success. It’s the idea of opportunity costs: time you spend on lower-return activities is time you cannot spend on higher-return activities.
11. Trigger your Pavlov response
    • Pavlov conditioned his dogs to salivate when they heard a bell. We can use conditioned responses to bring about our productivity juices. For example, you can listen to the same music when you work, so when you don’t feel like working you can turn on the music and the desire to produce will follow. You can do the same thing with going for a walk or taking a shower. Do something that triggers the desire to be productive and you’ll find yourself working in no time.
12. Set up a measurement and reward system
    • As the saying goes, what gets measured gets done; what gets rewarded gets done. With this promise in mind, build a system that measures and rewards your productivity. It doesn’t have to be anything big or complicated—in fact the simpler the better; you don’t want to introduce sludge into the reward process. The best measurement and reward system is simple, clear, and meaningful to you.
13. Be S.M.A.R.T.
    • Sit down and write out your goal in a way that is S.M.A.R.T., which is to say, Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-Bound. If any of these elements are missing or poorly-articulated then it becomes difficult to take action against the goal.
14. Determine a specific action and deliverable
    • Ambiguous vague goals bring about ambiguous vague action. Beat this by scheduling specific tasks at specific times. Don’t just a blocked-out an hour on your calendar and labeled something nebulous like “work”. Be deliberate about the task, making sure to make the deliverable clear and specific.
15. Get started with a low-cost activity
    • Some of our goals are so big or abstract that it’s hard to get started. When you come across this obstacle, break the dam by doing something small, something that requires very little investment of self. This can be things like picking up, watering the plants, folding laundry—anything to just get you going. This momentum will then flow into your more aspirational activities.
16. Try something new
    • Sometimes the best way to become inspired is to try something new, maybe even a little outrageous, something that breaks you out of your rut and fires up your creative juices. It may be that going off the beaten path will get you back on track.
17. Use input rather than outcome goals
    • When you think of something you want to accomplish, odds are you’re thinking of an output goal. These are goals that explicitly state a desired outcome. By contrast, input goals focus on the actual work we do to reach the outcome. Sometimes when we lose motivation it’s because we’re focusing on the outcome, an outcome that is far off in the distance and slow in materializing. Instead, focus on the inputs—the day-to-day tasks—and the outcomes will take care of themselves.
18. Don’t overschedule your time
    • Don’t set impossible daily goals for yourself. You may feel obligated to load your schedule up to the gills, but before long you’ll feel overwhelmed and find yourself becoming demotivated. Remember that one or two things completed successfully is better than five or six things never done.
19. Take joy in the journey, not the promise of the destination
    • We can become so myopically-focused on the end objective that we can lose sight of the journey itself. It’s the journey that’s interesting, that fascinates, that educates, that builds our sense of self and our character. The ending of the story is almost a formality. In fact, if all we were interested in was the ending then we would only read the last chapter of the book or show up to the movie in time to catch the last ten minutes. Endings are all well and good, but it’s the journey that compels our attention.
20. Scrap the whole goal and start over with something new
    • Not everything turns out the way we hoped it would. Sometimes we start going down one path, only to realize it’s not taking us where we wanted to go. Still, it may be tempting to keep going down this track regardless. After all, we’ve come so far. But if it’s not taking you where you want to go it doesn’t matter how far you’ve gone. Don’t fall prey to sunk costs if you feel you’re no longer working toward something that matters

So there you are! Try these jumpstarting techniques and see which ones work for you. And hey, if you have any other tips, tricks, and hacks that work for you, please, let me know in the comments. I can use all the help I can get!

Lon is an Associate Professor of Business Management at Salt Lake Community College and holds an MBA, a PhD, and is a certified Senior Professional in Human Resources (SPHR). In addition to his academic background, Lon spent close to 30 years working and consulting for such companies as FedEx, Intel, eBay, and PayPal, as well as a variety of small to mid-sized companies around the world.