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Getting motivated<\/h3>\n
Before using your motivation to power through to the end of your projects, the first step is to foster the motivation to take your first step. The best way to start is to define what your goal is as clearly as possible; the more you know about what you’re trying to achieve, the greater the chances are that you will be able to keep your motivation levels high.<\/p>\n
Writing out answers to the following questions will help you see your goal clearly:<\/p>\n
My goal is to…<\/em><\/p>\n What?<\/strong><\/p>\n Here you want to write out what your goal is. Make it as clear as possible because this will make it easier to achieve. For example, if your goal is ‘To learn how to code’ it can be easy for you to eventually lose your motivation because it’s not clear when this goal has been reached or how close you are to it at different points. In this case, a more effective phrasing would be ‘To learn how make my website mobile responsive using code’. <\/p>\n Why?<\/strong><\/p>\n This section is for the different reasons why you want to achieve your goal. Again, make sure these are clear; phrasing one of your reasons as ‘to drive more traffic’ won’t be as useful as ‘to deliver a 10% increase in mobile traffic’. It’s also worth writing down the emotional benefits behind these reasons for achieving your goal so you can use these later to stay motivated.<\/p>\n How?<\/strong><\/p>\n To complete this section, write down all the key steps that will be required for you to get your goal completed. This will give you a much more defined picture of what lies ahead and will help you to keep track of your progress.<\/p>\n Here’s an example for the different stages in making a website responsive:<\/p>\n When?<\/strong><\/p>\n Now you’ve got your plan, the next step is to define the time-scale on which you want to achieve your goal.<\/p>\n Make sure that you're realistic when creating your time-scale and include an extra cushion of time for each stage in case the task proves to be more complex than you thought or if other commitments arise that you need to take care of first. Working these into a schedule that you can stick to will help you to be even more specific and realistic about how the work will be performed.<\/p>\n If you’ve followed the steps above, you should have a really clear plan for achieving your goal and this alone should make it much easier for you to stay motivated throughout the project, but, for a little extra help, there’s a few additional things you can do to keep your levels of motivation up.<\/p>\n Reward yourself<\/strong><\/p>\n Rewarding yourself for completing different stages of your project is a great way to stay motivated. When you’re working on a particularly long project, it can just feel like a huge period of work before you actually reach your reward, so give yourself some small rewards as you go to stay enthusiastic like buying yourself something special or going on a night out. <\/p>\n Remind yourself of your reasons<\/strong><\/p>\n Keep your reasons for starting the project strong in your mind by reminding yourself of them throughout the different stages of the work. You could schedule reminders to do this or have your reasons written down in places that you will see them often. When you look at these reasons, try to imagine how you’ll feel once you’ve completed your goal and remind yourself that it’s going to be totally worth the effort.<\/p>\n Review regularly<\/strong><\/p>\n Be sure to review your progress periodically once you’ve started the project to see if you need to adjust your time-frames or the methods that you are using to complete the goal. Nothing can ruin your motivation like a strong feeling that your project is going badly so reviewing your progress will help you to take immediate action if your progress is starting to wane and keep you positive that you’ll be able to see the project through. <\/p>\n Got any tips for staying motivated? Post them in the comments below.<\/p>\n Image credits: Chris Florence<\/a> and Daily Motivation<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Motivation is an essential force in daily life; from small tasks like designing an icon to significant actions like going freelance, motivation needs to be present. However, it can often seem difficult to get motivated and to stay motivated to see things through to the end. This post takes a look at how you can do this so you can complete even more awesome projects.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":8192,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-7634","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-power-up"},"yoast_head":"\n\n
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<\/p>\nStaying motivated<\/h3>\n