Self Motivation – The Key to Productivity

Published by Ryan Healy on February 19th, 2008 in Books, Productivity | 12 Comments

Whether its athletes, musicians or high powered executives, from the outside it seems that the most successful people appear to have an inhuman ability to stay self motivated.

Douglas Walker and Steven Sorkin wrote a great book called "A-Ha! Performance, Building and Managing a Self-Motivated Workforce." The authors claim that building and maintaining a self-motivated workforce is the single best way to improve company performance. They outline the eight Intrinsic Motivation Points (IMPs) that drive human performance and they show managers how they can use these IMPs to get their employees to increase motivation and productivity.

Managers can learn a lot from the book, but we entry-level folks can learn something too. We can learn that being self motivated, without any external help from our bosses and managers, will give us a big leg up on the competition. Here are a few things that help me stay motivated on a daily basis.

Create a schedule, but don't get too comfortable

I usually start work at 8 a.m., break for lunch around 12, head to the gym at 4 p.m. and get back to work until dinner. This schedule is great, but some days it just doesn't work.

Today I couldn't concentrate. I attempted to fix some of our financials with no luck, then I tried to write a post but nothing came to mind. From experience I know that trying to work when I'm not all there is just a waste of time. My productivity and quality of work drop dramatically. So I closed my computer at 1 p.m. and headed to the gym to sweat out the weekend. Now it's 8 p.m. and I'm sitting at a coffee shop making up for my lost work time.

Get some exercise

I love what I do, and I've admitted to being a workaholic, but if I didn't run on a daily basis my motivation and productivity would take a serious hit.

Studies show that aerobic exercise provides benefits including mood enhancements through the release of endorphins, and neruogenesis, the creation of new neurons in the brain. I'll admit, I'm not totally sure what this means, but I do know that during and immediately following a run, my creative juices are in high gear.

I've come up with the topic for almost every one of my posts while jogging, and my highest productivity point everyday is right after a good run. Whether it's running, lifting, basketball or tae bo, get some exercise everyday and your motivation to work is bound to increase.

Don't forget to sleep

The average American gets six hours of sleep per night. For most of us, that's just not sufficient. Strangely enough, you often hear successful people like Donald Trump and Condoleeza Rice being praised for surviving on next to no sleep. But don't be fooled, not all highly successful people forfeit sleep for success. According to Mark Penn, Hillary Clinton's chief campaign advisor, Bill Clinton was famous for his afternoon naps. And Ronald Reagan was too.

When I worked at IBM I would typically get six hours of sleep. I figured after getting home from work I needed at least another six or seven hours to run errands, work out, read, and watch TV, so I went to sleep around 1 a.m. every night. These days I make it a priority to get a minimum of seven hours of sleep, and if possible, I get eight hours.

Needless to say, my productivity at IBM wasn't even close to what it is now. I often crashed after lunch and Monday mornings were especially difficult. Everyone's body is different when it comes to sleeping patterns, so figure out what works for you and be sure to get the necessary amount of sleep, you'll be amazed at the increase in energy level.

Managers should certainly take the advice from Walker and Sorkin's book and do everything they can to build and sustain a self motivated workforce, but in the mean time, us workers should do everything in our power to build and sustain our own self motivation.