How to work on a startup when your motivation runs out

In most cases, positive motivation drives a person starting a new business. He wants to make the best product, become a leader, or earn a profit. When that positive motivation runs out, there are two possible scenarios.

Start delegating or decreasing the number of your tasks

When you run out of strength, either physically or mentally, you need to work less. It is important to delegate your tasks to other people because you can’t do everything yourself. If you have no people who can help you, you need to mobilize your willpower.

Or just reduce your workload.

I have had my own Internet projects since 2006. When I worked really hard, there was a return. However, I can’t say there were tremendous results. And when I had enough time to think about, there were excellent results.

This situation of running around with projects is familiar to me, but now looking back, I think all of this could have been done without wasting time and money. And all I needed was to sit and think about everything.

Good ideas come to mind when you have down time away from your projects and let your brain relax. But when you " totally immerse yourself into the OS ", you can’t come up with extraordinary ideas. :)

“Enable” negative motivation

Using negative motivation, you can challenge yourself. If you have unfinished tasks, you may think you will fail or set a bad example for the project team.

This is very motivating. In fact, it depends on you how your team will work in similar conditions.

Both directions are good in some ways, and sometimes they can even be combined.

In this regard, investors, entrepreneurs, and other people, who promote working on the project almost 24 hours a day really surprise me. This is terribly inefficient. Brains do not have time to relax, and you can’t see the project and the market from all sides.

But in another extreme, when you work on your project for six hours a day, assuming you aren’t tired, and think everything is okay. It is not so. When you don’t have any small crisis, the situation indicates that you are underloaded.

When the motivation runs out, it means that you work a lot and overload your brain, and you need some rest.

My personal practical ways to work when motivation runs out

1. When motivation runs out, I understand I'm just tired. I work for 14 hours a day or more, so I often face these situations and am already mentally prepared for them.

I understand this is just fatigue, and not the project, product, or whole world is bad.

2. When I need motivation, I remove all the tasks from my schedule when deep immersion and reflection are needed. I also cancel all meetings.

From my experience, it is better not to meet anybody and not to discuss even anything that isn’t important because the things will only get worse.

3. I leave only purely mechanical tasks that I have been doing for years. I can do them in any mood. I force myself to complete these tasks and then relax in the most suitable way. Sometimes, it’s a walk near the sea since I live in Montenegro. Sometimes I go to a bar, and sometimes I don’t want to see anyone and stay home to watch TV programs or films.

 When motivation disappears, there is a strong desire to give up everything and rest for a day. Nevertheless, I advise you to do at least a minimal set of tasks.

After you rest for a day and remember that it wasn’t easy, you will thank yourself for not abandoning everything but doing everything you could. Even in such a state, you did something to develop and/or grow your startup.

In turn, this is very motivating.

Gradually after a crisis, it will be easier for you to overcome difficulties and do more even when you are tired. This will not be some unfamiliar situation, you will understand that it is fatigue and use clear mechanisms for getting out of it.

You may even think it was quite a long time ago when you were last dissatisfied with yourself and the world around you. :)