The fictional 18th century German adventurer Baron Munchausen once pulled himself out of a swamp by his own hair. It’s an action that we’ve probably had to do – figuratively – hundreds of times, when we feel we’re going under a mountain of tasks, projects and meetings.
Click start to play today’s Spell It, where we learn how not to ‘sink’ under the pressure, through self-motivation techniques.
When the pressure is on, staying on the ball consistently and persistently can be difficult to achieve, yet it’s something that differentiates high-achieving professionals from the rest. According to a November 2018 report in US-based business news website Harvard Business Review, there are a few strategies you can use to push forward, even when you don’t feel like it:
1. Focus on goals
A 2002 study published in the journal American Psychologist found that setting specific, challenging goals consistently leads to higher performance than just abstractly telling team members to do their best. Tighter deadlines were also found to lead to a more rapid work pace than loose ones. The key is that the goal should trigger an intrinsic rather than extrinsic motivation – meaning, it should be seen as its own end, rather than something that should be done to attain a reward and avoid a punishment.
2. Find external motivators
In some cases, when you are set up with long stretches of arduous work, it can be helpful to create effective rewards for yourself as an incentive to get the job done. A November 2014 study in the Journal of Consumer Research found that some external motivators are even more effective than others – for instance, most people were found to work harder to qualify for an uncertain reward rather than a certain one, because it was more exciting and challenging. So, you could keep two envelopes at your desk – one with a greater-value reward – and pick only one, at random, once the job is completed. Loss aversion – our preference for avoiding loss – has also been found to be a better motivator than the anticipation of a reward.
3. Sustain your progress
People usually start strong, and then end up with a slump in the middle of a project. One way to break this trend is to break up your goal into small ones, so that you give yourself less time to fall into a slump. Another mental trick is to focus on what you’ve already done so far, and then switch your focus to what’s remaining. The shift in perspective makes all the difference. For instance, if you have to send 50 thank you notes, you can motivate yourself by counting the cards until you hit 20, and then counting down how many you have left to do, rather than counting upwards.
Do you find these strategies helpful? Play today’s Spell It and tell us at games@gulfnews.com.
