[rc6987]

Hi, would like to hear what others do to stay motivated, productive and overcome procrastination on a daily basis?

Or, if you're struggling with it, what aspects do you find challenging about being motivated in life and keeping a productive, orderly schedule?

Would like to get some ideas shared here

[kaliope]

hi rc6987
well, i teach this program at work called positive action. it is based on the philosophy "when you do bad, you feel bad and when you do good, you feel good". it uses the thoughts, actions and feelings cycle. when you have negative thoughts, you take negative actions and you feel bad about yourself and vice versa. so say you are unmotivated to clean your house, and have the negative thought, "i hate cleaning"...you dont clean and feel like crap because you have a filthy house you are caught in that negative cycle...how to you turn that around to something positive? you cant just say "i love cleaning" to motivate yourself. you have to find something positive. I do love the feeling of coming home to a clean house, so i can use that to motivate me to clean. so i think about that instead and the good feelings i would have and that gives me the motivation. instead of "i hate exercise" i can think about how i want to be healthy. so you think about the things that are going to make you feel good and that gives you the motivation to do good things. like i am working on eating healthy right now. i have been doing really good for quite a while now. i cheated yesterday when the girls at work went out and got frozen yogurt. i had some too, with brownie bites and caramel candies. i was miserable for the rest of the day and night. i have been feeling really good eating healthy for the last several weeks and being in so much pain last night, i can tell you i am not going to cheat again. i choose feeling good over feeling bad. so this can be applied to anything you make choices about in life. are you making choices that make you feel bad or are you making choices that make you feel good? are you using your time wisely? how could you be doing things differently? make a schedule and prioritize your time? i hope this helps.

welcome to psych central. you will find we have several forums where you can post about your concerns and receive feedback from other members. you will get a lot of support here. again, welcome

[CANDC]

Hi rc. Welcome to Psych Central (PC). Glad you are reaching out to be part of this community.

Many people here at PC find they can share these feelings and what they are going through with the confidence that people go through similar things and can empathize. So many forums are offered as well as Chatrooms (after you have 5 posts or comments on others posts). Depression chat meets on Thursday night at 9pm EST and Anxiety Wednesday at 8PM.

You can also be an active member in other ways like supporting others in their questions, reading articles and posts http://forums.psychcentral.com that are applicable to your area of concern.

Please feel free to private message me or any of the Community Liaisons by left clicking on the name in blue to the left of their post) for questions or just to share.

For me lifestyle changes fit big in my recovery hopes..

I have to watch what I eat because foods I eat can stabilize my moods or exaggerate them. A high protein low carb diet with snacks or meals every 3-4 hours will over time reduce my swings. I also avoid alcohol and recreational drugs because those can really increase depression.

Other lifestyle changes that help me are doing yoga, exercises, mindfulness, calm music, and being active on Psych Central.

[counter15]

One of the ideal ways that you can motivate yourself is to think about how much you could have accomplished had you been proactive in working on your goals. That's the core issue with procrastination, when you look back and where you currently are, something within you keeps on telling you that you can could have been a lot closer if it was laziness.

[Dog on a Tree]

This is a good thread. Although I am doing stuff, I do get bored where as when I was a young/teenager or even as a adult in my early 20's I still would do stuff but not get bored.
I guess it's the mental health, depression and addiction.

Anyways these days i'm playing soccer about 3 times a week. Also I play video games. That's about it as of late. I want to get back into watching documentaries on a regular basis, as well as watching anime and movies.
I did watch a short documentary today and that was fine but I don't know, lol.

[stewartmays1]

i think once you have things in place it gets a lot easier to do the things you know will help you out.

[stewartmays1]

just keep on doing the things you love makes all the difference