I don’t feel like it

“I don’t feel like it.” Have you ever had this thought in the morning when the alarm clock goes off? It’s natural to want to hit the snooze button and explain away all the reasons why you shouldn’t.

The “Feel like it” mindset can be a real obstacle to increasing our productivity or performance. When we let our feelings or emotional state determine our actions, results can suffer.

The behavior of a “feel like it” mindset looks like this:

• Keeping busy, perhaps even wasting time, when not on a deadline
• Constant complaining — everyone always knows the mood you are in
• Finishing tasks at the last minute with little concern for quality

One way to combat this mindset is to tackle whichever task is most challenging first, and set a timer on it. Setting a timer on each task is a great way to stay focused and helps eliminate self-inflicted distractions. This technique is based on Parkinson’s Law, which holds that work will expand to fill the time available for its completion.

For example – working out. I used to work out in the afternoon or early evening about three-four times a week. I noticed that on some days I simply didn’t feel like exercising. After a long day my willpower had decreased, and my lazy feelings would win out.

To combat the “feel like it” mindset, I changed my workout time to the morning. Not only did I achieve a better work out, but it gave me the momentum to get other tasks out of the way.

Author and speaker Mel Robbins has a great technique and has inspired millions to do the things they don’t feel like doing. She calls it her 5-second rule. Anytime your brain stops you from doing something, like hitting snooze instead of getting out of bed or skipping a workout, you countdown in your head 5-4-3-2-1. And then you get in motion.

I certainly find it to be effective.

Eric Papp
Time Management Speaker