You Don’t Need to “feel” to Do Something to Start Doing It.
Your productivity can improve when you’re in the zone, but it’s easy to get carried away looking for motivation. In truth, you don’t have to feel the urge to do something in order to do it.
Sometimes you want to do something and sometimes you don’t. Real productivity comes when you realize that your mood is unrelated to what needs to be done. In his book The Antidote , Oliver Berkman explains :
Who said you have to wait until you feel like doing something to start doing it? The problem from this point of view is not that you don’t feel motivated; it is what you imagine that you need to feel motivated. … If you can view your thoughts and emotions about what you are putting off as inclement weather, you will understand that your reluctance to work is not something that needs to be eradicated or transformed into a positive. You can coexist with this. You can point out the deferring feelings and get going anyway.
Berkman invites you to view your thoughts and emotions in relation to your tasks like inclement weather. Your reluctance to work is not something to get rid of or turn into motivation. Learn to recognize this feeling, accept it, and move on. Or maybe you don’t have a procrastination problem , just an impulsivity problem .
The Antidote: Self-Help for People Who Cannot Withstand Positive Thinking | Amazon via Science of Us