This post contains affiliate links. I may make a small commission at no extra charge to you when you buy with my link. I appreciate the support!
Motivation is hard to come by when you are an exhausted mom
There are times when I just want to cuddle in a blanket and do nothing all-day
BUT
I am a mom so that won’t happen
Not only am I a mom, but I am also a business owner
So sometimes a need a little extra help to get motivated
There are 13 ways to motivate yourself when you are an exhausted mom:
- Establish a concrete why
- Have an accountability partner or group
- Break your goals into tiny pieces
- Plan!
- Release the expectation that you’ll always have the motivation
- Choose the lesser of two evils
- Set yourself up for success
- Manage your energy
- Use manifestation
- Try time blocking
- Remember that the first step is the hardest
- Celebrate everything you do!
- Schedule in Uh oh time
Not all of these will work for everyone
So take the ones that fit your lifestyle and try them out
Establish a concrete why
The first thing you need to have to get motivated is a concrete why
This is the reason you need to do the thing that you are trying to do
To give you an example, I make all our food and snacks from scratch
My why is seeing my kid’s health and language improve because they are not eating so many artificial colors, flavors, and just junk in general
I am extremely motivated because my kid’s health needs are a huge why
I struggle with working out because I don’t have a concrete why
Every time I start I have a goal to get stronger but there isn’t a real reason why
So when the first round of lack of motivation hits, there is no anchor to keep me going
You need to have that strong why to help you through the hard days
If you don’t have one, start asking yourself questions
Keep digging until you either let that goal go or have a concrete why to keep you going
Have an accountability partner or group
Sometimes a little extra help is needed
Accountability partners or group are great for this
But you have to have people who are serious and preferably doing the same thing as you
I had an accountability group once.
We all did different things and I was the only one actually meeting my goals
That group was not helpful at all
There was no social expectation and it felt like a chore
Almost like I was dragging more dead weight
So if you choose to go the accountability route, make sure you choose the right people
Break your goals into tiny pieces
Breaking goals down is a great way to motivate most people
People with ADHD struggle with this one because many tiny tasks are just as overwhelming as one big task
If that is true for you, I would break the big task into 3-4 medium tasks
Forget about the 2-4 tasks for a while and focus on the first medium task
Then break the medium tasks into small tasks
That way the task is broken down but also doesn’t look like a million tasks
Let’s say that you want to clean the kitchen
Let’s break the kitchen down into medium tasks like:
- Dishes
- Put away dishes
- Counters
- Stove and microwave
Let’s start with the dishes
Now that we have our medium task, let’s break it into small tasks
We need to:
- Wash the silverware
- Wash the cups
- Wash the plates
- Wash the bowls
- Clean the sink
Once you are done with those tasks, do the same thing to “put away dishes” and so on
This takes a big task like cleaning the kitchen and makes it feel more doable
Plan!
Planning is your friend!
Time blocking is great
You can make small time blocks or large ones
Whatever works best for you
I like doing 1-hour blocks
Every morning, I write down everything that I need to do on either paper or sticky notes
Those tasks will fall into categories:
- Blogging
- Learning
- Crafting
- Cleaning
- Cooking
- Dinner
- Night Routine
- Outside time
You create your own categories that fit your life
Then you put those categories into your schedule
For example, outside time is from 1-2 pm
Anything that I want to get done outside needs to be done during that hour
Once that hour is done, we move on to the cleaning hour
Anything that didn’t get done during the outside hour is either removed to moved to the next day
The morning is when I decide what is important and what I will do first during those time blocks
This makes it clear what I need to do and when I will do it
It also prevents me from neglecting one area of my life if I try to do too much in a different area
Everything has a time limit
And it works really well for my family
Release the expectation that you’ll always have the motivation
I know this sounds weird in an article about getting motivation but hear me out
You will not have the motivation every day
It is just not realistic
You can have discipline or momentum
But motivation will not always be there
By learning to understand that, you can equip yourself with the tools to be prepared for when the motivation is just not coming
And that lack of motivation will not have power over you anymore
Choose the lesser of two evils
There are some tasks that suck if you do them and suck if you don’t
Getting up early, laundry, and most cleaning in general fall into this category
Think about the consequences of doing them and the consequences of not doing them
If you do your laundry, you do something you don’t enjoy for a little while
If you don’t do laundry, you run out of clean laundry
This means you’ll either need to buy clothes or wear dirty clothes
What consequence is worse?
Set yourself up for success
It doesn’t take long for our brains to talk us out of work
I believe the rule is 5 seconds
Keep the things you need within 5 seconds of you
So if you want to go for a morning walk, keep your clothes and shoes within 5 seconds of your bed
Think about what you need to do your task
Maybe you want to start cooking better dinners
Take the meat out of the freezer the day before and cut up the veggies for the week all at once
Getting as much ready as you can means you are less likely to talk yourself out of doing it later
If the task doesn’t feel like a big deal, the motivation will be easier to get
Manage your energy
Managing your energy is really important
You cannot create or destroy energy
It is part of everything
And everything you do either adverbs energy to use it
Think about your energy as a bank
You add energy to your account and you spend it
If you are in the negative, you don’t have any energy to spend on your tasks
Motivation doesn’t really matter at that point
You are spent
So you need to manage your energy well
Do enough that gives you energy like:
- Eating
- Drinking
- Sleep
- Fun
- Laughing
And so on
That way you have enough in your energy account to do the things you want the motivation to do things
Use manifestation
I know
Manifestation is trending and there is a lot of weird information out there
But I am going to talk about it in a very mundane way
Manifestation is having confidence that something will happen for you
You believe that it is already happening and believe that it is yours
If you knew thought you were going to fail a math test and there was no way that you could do it, how motivated are you to study?
Now if you know that you can do it if you do the studying and you are confident in your ability to learn, you’ll probably be a lot more motivated to study
Keep in mind that this doesn’t mean believing without the work
You can believe that you can all you want but it isn’t going to happen unless you study
Manifestation is the same way
It is working on your belief so that you can better do the work
Try time blocking
I mentioned time blocking during the planning section but it is a great way to get things done even if you are not motivated
Time blocking was used by the manager of my first job
I was needed at the register during a specific block, stocking shelves during a different block, eating lunch at another block, and so on
In those blocks, I had tasks
I had to clean, check out customers, answer the phones, point people in the right direction, call people up to help customers, and so on when I was at the register
But I had different tasks during the stocking shelves block
It works well because we know that is what we are required to do and there is no question
We can use the same system as moms
Just make sure you don’t try to fit more than a time block can handle
I find that 1-3 hour blocks work best for moms because things usually don’t go as planned
In each block, I plan to do 2-4 things
If everything goes smoothly, I have extra time
Yay!
If not, I have the time during my block to do what I can
If things just don’t happen and I don’t get any of my tasks done during the block
Then I need to look at why
If it was not in my control, I let it go and start fresh with the new block
If I got lost on social media or something else preventable, then I make a plan to avoid that happening and start fresh with the new block
The point is to make your days smoother, not to beat yourself up
Remember that the first step is the hardest
The first step of everything is the hardest
Standing up in the morning is the hardest part of waking up earlier
Getting the ingredients out is the hardest part of eating better
Remember that when you are struggling to get started
Getting started is the hardest part
If you can do that, you can do the task
I like to start with something easy and enjoyable
That way the first step is easier
Then the second thing I do is the big hard thing
That way that is done and out of the way
From there, everything else is usually pretty smooth sailing
Celebrate everything you do!
I know it is easy to look at your one accomplishment and think it isn’t a big deal compared to the list you still have to do
But it is important to celebrate yourself!!!
Our brains get dopamine cravings
We want the hormone that makes us feel good
When you celebrate everything that do you, you give yourself dopamine every time you accomplish a task
Even if that task is small
That means your brain is start connecting those tasks to the hormone that it craves
That greatly increases motivation!
Now your brain will want you to do those things because it wants the celebration at the end
Schedule in Uh oh time
My last tip is to schedule in uh oh time
This is time to catch up if something happens during the day
If everything went smoothly, this time becomes you time
You have this time blocked out and you have no scheduled tasks for the day
Don’t fill this with things you were going to do tomorrow
Reward yourself with fun things and enjoyment
That was a great day
If you had something that HAD to be done during the day but it didn’t happen, this is the time to do it