Hi, friends.

Some days (aka nowadays), I feel unmotivated to do anything. I feel myself slip into a funk and all I want to do is lie on my couch with reruns of Gilmore Girls. I can feel so drained when I come home from work. Each morning, I always make these plans for after work to either go grocery shopping, go on a run (and finally start my running journey), or work on my side hustle (aka my passion project which is this blog). But I get home from work (around 4 p.m.) and I feel drained and I know that’s my body telling me to rest, but I know there are a million other things that I want and need to get done.

**** side note: do you ever feel like when you became an adult that adulting is just having a never ending list of chores to do? Dishes, cleaning up after dinner, laundry, making your bed and washing your sheets, etc. The list is endless!

I wanted to write today’s blog post as an ode to how to be productive when feeling unmotivated and burnt out. Even if you’re not burnt out and you’re just in a slump or not really feeling motivated to do anything, I want this blog post to help you. You don’t have to do everything on this list but I hope it reignites that spark in you to get things done. And remember this as you read through this blog post—you know what your body needs. If your body needs rest, let your body rest. Sometimes, my body uses that an excuse to not get things done most of the time. So anyways, I hope you enjoy today’s blog post and let me know in the comments if you want to read more blog posts like this! :)

Get off screens.

I’m not going to be the 1000th person to tell you to delete your social media apps. HOWEVER, when I slip into a funk and become unmotivated to do anything productive, my fingers go straight to the Instagram and TikTok apps. Here’s a practical tip for you: set your phone down. Yeah, set your phone down even if you’re reading this blog post. Get up—I know, it may be hard because your couch or bed is sooo comfy. But get up and walk to that task in the kitchen that you need to do; maybe it’s washing your dishes or cleaning out your fridge. Maybe you’re still working from home as you read this, and you need to get back to work. Whatever it is, just get off screens. Set your phone down—I promise your phone will still be out there.

Take a long walk.

And consider changing the scenery. (Please stay safe and aware of your surroundings.) Honestly, I am the laziest person that I know, but there’s something about a long walk that really gets my endorphins moving. (Duh, that’s physical fitness.) Turn on a podcast or your favorite playlist (make one if you don’t have one! I’ll link my Spotify and my favorite playlists.) to pump you up. Or go without music or a podcast or an audiobook. Go on a walk and listen to the sounds of nature and the bustle of cars driving by. It gives you a lot of time to think and reflect.

Change up your scenery.

For those feeling unmotivated or burnt out at work, consider changing the scenery. For my in-office girlies, you can even do this at the office. Does your office have a conference room, and do you have a laptop that you can carry? Take your laptop to the conference room—check with your boss first and see if this is feasible—and work from the conference room for a while. Go outside if the weather is warm. For my WFH girlies, visit a coffee shop. Get out and see people. This may help, this may not. Try changing up your scenery. Even if it’s another part of your apartment or house.

Take a break.

This is for the person who continues to hustle and grind even when they’re not feeling motivated. Go back to tip #1 and get off screens. Or take a walk. Whatever it is, get up and take a break. Do you remember when Nickelodeon would have those days where if you switched the channel to Nick (to watch iCarly or Zoey 101 lol), you’d be met with a screen (usually one day a year) that says “go out and play”? It would be their annual “go out and play” day to encourage kids to quite literally … wait for it … “go outside and play.” They were doing that for a reason—to get kids out of the house and get some fresh air outside. Whatever a break looks like for you, take a break. Whether it’s a five-minute break or a five-week break (haha that would be a great vacation), take it. Take that vacation, take that five-minute coffee break. You deserve it and it will (somewhat) help you feel better.

Write two to-do lists.

Hear me out … write two to-do lists. Here’s the first one: this is your work to-do list. This can include your full-time job, side jobs, or things you need to do around the house or any errands you need to run. This is your working list, or the things you need to get done. Here’s the second one: this is your fun to-do list. Make a list of things you WANT to get done. Do you want to go see the new movie in theaters? Do you want to go spend your life savings at Target? Do you want to sit on the couch and watch Gilmore Girls until you go to sleep? Write it down on this fun to-do list. Write this right next to your work to-do list and it (maybe) will get you in the hype mood to achieve your work to-do list.

Know your energy levels.

I’ve talked about energy levels on the blog before, but this is where you want to know when you actually get more things done during the day. Do you tend to cross more things off your list in the mornings, afternoons, or at midnight? (I don’t recommend vacuuming every night at midnight because NEIGHBORS!!!) Figure out those times of the day when you get the most things done … and feel the most productive as well. When you’re burnt out or unmotivated, this may be hard to do because you don’t feel like getting anything done at any point of the day, but go back to when you weren’t feeling that way and decide those times of they day when you did get things done. Trust me, this worked for me, and now I love getting things done in the morning. (I’m even writing this blog post in the morning before I go to work.)

Organize your mess.

Ummm … I hesitated putting this because you certainly don’t need to have an organized area to feel the most productive. This is coming from someone who has a cluttered desk. (Editor’s note: I have since cleaned my desk and I do feel more productive, so I think this little experiment may work.) If that’s you, then feel free to ignore this. But sometimes, organizing your area is a good thing to feel more productive especially after feeling burnt out. I call it procrastination from actually getting things done, but sometimes taking that break to organize your desk area renews your mind.

Honestly, there are probably a handful of other things that you can do. Go search some more, but I would call that procrastination. To be honest, if you are burnt out or just unmotivated, then you probably just need a break. If you’re already on your break, and dreading going back to whatever you were doing, then listen to a motivating podcast or fun, upbeat playlist to get back into the work zone. Or, take a vacation if you really need one. (This can be a staycation.)

Hope you enjoyed this blog post and let me know in the comments if any of these helped you. :)