What does staying motivated in times of lockdown really look like?

Do you feel like you’ve lost yourself during lockdown? If you were looking for a way to keep your mind motivated, then this is for you.

It has been a turbulent year. After numerous attempts to Google our unproductiveness away, we have now found ourselves baking bread, doing workouts, learning new languages and making candles and soaps. It all falls down under the umbrella of keeping ourselves occupied and busy to make time in lockdown pass faster. “Staying productive during quarantine” generates 4.220.000 search results at any given moment. But is our spirit following these attempts consciously along with our body? Or is it just executing orders from recipe and craft websites blindly?

It is easy to lose oneself between four walls. After one year of isolation, minimum stimulation and maximum stress levels, it is only natural that we might have forgotten how to even smile genuinely — not self-sarcastically.

This is not going to be your average article about practicing yoga or meditation to keep your mind… mindful. Not that both these ways are not helpful, but it is common to do things only for the sake of doing today. Being productive means being motivated to begin with.

You cannot hop on a journey of new hobbies, when your mind, and your heart in extent, are not ready to come along. So let’s find out if our minds are on the same pace as our bodies — and if not, how to achieve so.

Set boundaries, don’t let your mind wander in dark places

How many hours was it today, that you stayed in front of a screen, any screen? Can you measure how overwhelmed you got by lists, news, emergencies and so on? If yes, then you might be on the right track. If not, then you might want to reconsider how much you let yourself absorb — how much information, how much stress, how much frustration.

Having no boundaries means that our minds are allowed to wander around useless “places”, causing ourselves to subconsciously gather all the above. We might not even realise what has been going on, and we get unmotivated little by little, until we melt down.

So, set boundaries for your mind. Do not allow yourself to go to these dark places and if this needs to be extended into the physical world, then so be it. Limit your screen time, not only for the sake of your eye health, but also to minimize the overwhelming input. Refuse to stress. I’m sure this sounds easier than done, but do it. Make the statement, and your mind will follow.

Embrace your emotions and let yourself breathe again

Imagine that you give yourself a hug. Do it. At this point, we are free to manipulate our emotions any way we want. So let’s embrace them. You need to cry? Bawl your eyes out. You are not only allowed, but encouraged to do so. You need to laugh? Go ahead, watch a funny cat video and laugh — on your own, yes. You need to just keep still and quiet? Go stand near that plant in the corner of your room and make friends.

The situation we are all dealing with makes it justified to feel all kinds of emotions. Do not restrain yourself from listening to yourself. It is so dangerous to get to that point of feeling weak, because you think you can’t handle this. You can. But you are also a human being, with real emotions. Share them, if you need to. Or not, your decision.

You will not be able to focus and stay motivated, if the back of your mind is an emotional mess, no matter how many blankets you learn how to cross-stitch. Bring your emotions to the surface and allow yourself to breathe again.

Routine yourself: Break this neverending cycle into smaller, more bearable chunks of time.

See how we listed the internal aspects of staying motivated first? We needed to help you prepare your mind and get your feelings sorted before we moved on to more active aspects. Now that you are aware about how important it is to be sincere to yourself, it is a good time to think of the past days.

Did you just wake up, open your computer from 9am till 11pm and then go back to bed? Same. Work, studies, entertainment, all of it is now dependent on a screen output. The least we could do is to set a small routine, to help ourselves break this huge chunk of time into smaller, more bearable chunks of time.

So try to wake up at the same time everyday, preferably early and not in the afternoon, to give yourself a head start for the day. Offer yourself a cup of coffee or tea and breakfast, think of the day ahead. Be present and conscious every step of the way and try to avoid doing things mechanically.

Your task is not to add as many tasks as possible to your day: Set small, achievable tasks

Again, cutting big chunks of responsibilities in smaller bits has always had the effect of achievability. Did you know that word? Apparently, realising that nothing is as huge or intimidating as it appears, can have massive effects on your motivation levels.

“Picture yourself on the other side” is one trick Laura Vanderkam suggests, to make any task less intimidating. Your task is not to add as many tasks as possible to your day, in order to feel productive, because this will exhaust both your body and your mind.

Find your balance. Stand in front of your responsibilities bravely and honestly, look at them with eyes wide open and decide which ones are of most priority. Now take these important tasks and cut them into achievable parts. It is easy to get lost between too many or too little and to feel overwhelmed. So, here’s a small guide to stay focused and organized.

Reward yourself … with a personal Bingo board

Celebrate small wins! You are very much allowed to, because why not? Remember that old game, Bingo, that we used to play at school (and will probably play again in our future nursing homes)? It’s an amazing opportunity to deal with the situation with a bit of humor.

Create a small Bingo board for yourself, and bring your friends along if you want to. Write down easy, funny, very much realistic tasks you might have been or will be doing during lockdown and then reward yourself each time you complete one. Watched “The Matrix” for the 9th time? Played dress-up in your room? Have had too many cups piled on your desk? You name it.

Aside from the humorous aspect of it, Tony Robbins suggests that by rewarding yourself, “your brain elicits positive emotions, leading to the realization that your efforts result in a positive reward. By doing this continuously, your brain will start to link pleasure to accomplishing the task or objective and move towards it in the future.” Talking about staying productive, huh?

You do you: This is not a race for the most productive person in lockdown

Did you really need to watch nine consecutive episodes of Gilmore Girls on Sunday? Busted! But what if you did? As long as you walked out of bed and brushed your teeth, who are we to judge? You might read hundreds of lists, tips and tricks about keeping your spirit motivated. You might even read this article once or twice to convince yourself. You, and only you, know your needs, your worries and your wishes.

Whether it is crying or eating or making lists or doing nothing, your mind is always subconsciously asking you for what it needs. So hear you out! Go for a walk, or don’t go for a walk. Workout, or don’t. Cook or order delivery. This is not a race for the most productive person in lockdown, this is about you keeping yourself sane till we all go back to a somewhat normality.

Epilogue

The most important thing we can do to stay productive is to always be true and honest with ourselves. Every advice from above will not work, unless we face reality with bravery.

Whatever you decide works for you, do it with confidence, because it is a two way street. In order for your mind to be there, healthy and present, you need to listen to it. But in order to listen clearly, you always need to make sure that you take measures to keep your mind healthy and present. Yes, it is difficult. Yes, it is weird. And yes, your mind will thank you.