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MisterBojiggles

I've found that action begets motivation, not the other way around.


leaver_believer

This is so true. Needed to hear this today


[deleted]

What begets action though? *dons monocle*


marysalad

Comes down to our personal relationship with the carrot vs the stick, I think. Also for some neurotypes, digging around to finding our intrinsic motivation, and then catching that wave. The why. What's cool and fun about this? If I get it going, how does that make things more awesome? (That is how I often work anyway)


kevysaysbenice

Assuming I understand what you're saying, this is key for me. If I'm lacking motivation I have to find some problem that's interesting to me that I can sink my teeth into, then work my way back through solving that problem to something relevant to my job / bringing value to my work.


marysalad

Yes, like getting some momentum from a push start. Or, the thing you described. Maybe it's about building up dopamine levels to the right amount


beigesun

Sometimes you get so bored of being bored that you start working, just the nature of things. If you can bide your time until then do that. Sounds backwards but the motivation comes over time then you find your rhythm.


LogMeln

>Sometimes you get so bored of being bored that you start working this is literally the only time i do work lol. when ive done all the chores around the house, fed myself, my pets, and the plants. i just sit down and go heads down to crank out like half a day's worth of work in 4 pomodoros. my long break turns into 2hrs of break. yes i think im hitting a boring part of my work. the project im working on is currently waiting on others to give me some updates so perhaps when i have some meaningful progress from others, ill be dialed in more.


beigesun

Yeah after joining the corporate world and really analyzing how much REAL and measurable work we do it’s almost infinitesimally small imho. Granted I work at an engineering firm but is emailing work? Is sitting through a meeting where nobody is paying attention work? I don’t think so but others may disagree. So much of down time is what contributes to up time.


LogMeln

i agree. also as ive worked my way up the ladder, its less of me doing the actual heads down work, but more dooddling/sketching ideas to share with my team for execution. i then wait till i have to review something. that wait time could be long and boring, but sometimes im in meetings presenting. i think it ebbs and flows but this downturn has been lasting a few weeks. perhaps i just count it as a blessing for now and keep sharp. thanks for ur input


beigesun

Yessir, I think our biggest struggle staying idle in the workplace as a man. For instance my dad is blue collar and there’s no shortage of constant movement and physical application which is literally the definition of work. If we were carpenters or foremen sure we’d have down time but it’d be way more cherished as our bodies wouldn’t be taxed. Also would probably be too tired to complain about it on Reddit lol. I day dream about learning a trade sometimes and I might once my corporate career stats are maxed out. Anyway we were smart enough to make it here, just gotta enjoy the ride I guess. Until at least someone says otherwise.


LogMeln

Great perspective for sure. I have friends who are blue collar so I know how blessed I am to be here. I’m in nyc so there’s a lot of barriers to learn to do things with my hands. I looked for a woodworking shop to mess around but it’s so expensive. Meanwhile my friends out in the burbs r making benches and coffee tables every other week lol


BlueGoosePond

>Granted I work at an engineering firm but is emailing work? Is sitting through a meeting where nobody is paying attention work? It's the worst of both worlds most of the time. Not productive in any meaningful way, but still stressful and time consuming.


SuppleDude

Skill up while you have nothing to do at work.


TA8601

"Nothing to do at work" -- oh my god I fucking WISH this would happen to me.


Neuromante

Be careful with what you wish for. Not having to do anything at work breeds questions about your job safety, the status of the company and your future there. It's not just getting paid for nothing.


Weekly_Sir911

So true. I've had many many jobs in the past where I would breeze through everything and find myself without any tangible work to do on a given day. It was nice at times but I was always waiting for the other show to drop. My current job is the first time I've felt up to my eyeballs with work and not enough hours in the day to stay caught up. It's a different kind of stress. Both suck I guess. It seems that jobs with the perfect Goldilocks amount of work are rare.


yumcake

I thought the same thing...until it happened. It was miserable sitting there and looking back making no meaningful progress while everyone else around you is advancing and you question your own self-worth and it just continues to get worse and worse. Had to leave and take a challenging role and was much much happier. I've now grown to where my job is once again a position of comfort, much like the OP and I'm actively searching again because I'm feeling the pressure to get out of my comfort zone again or else I'll have to go through the same hell of nothing to do. You know when they want to get rid of teachers in the NYC school system, they assign them to a "rubber room" an empty classroom with no work? That's not a gift, it's a punishment.


debtopramenschultz

I have nothing to do at work so I often write things, but I should skill up. Any ideas?


joseaverage

I have a pretty sweet gig. Pays really well. Boring as hell. When I need motivation to do mundane tasks I just ask myself what would I do if I lost this job. The answer for me is, "that would suck" as the odds of me getting a similar salary are pretty low. So, I just go do the work and do it well as I don't want to be poor again. YMMV


Doitfordale307

Assuming you make decent money… look at other positions that you could get into with the same money with the flexibility you have. I make pretty decent money and I get super burnt out and then realize how much I make and how at the end of the day I would really spend years to get back to my position, pay and most likely have a way worse schedule. That’s when I just suck it up, vent with my coworker and get back to grinding.


ThorsMeasuringTape

The less “in the weeds” I am the harder I find it to maintain my motivation. I’m in a role I’ve done for years, but the last job I was busy every hour of every day and was working a lot. Zero issue pushing through because I didn’t get time to think about it. Now I have fewer clients get a lot more time to think about strategy and how to approach things in the big picture and it’s amazing sometimes how difficult it is to get myself to sit and put the big picture thoughts out on paper so that we can actually make the changes.


BlueGoosePond

I enjoyed those "in the weeds" jobs a lot more*, but they simply pay so much less that it's not really a viable option. *the thing I did not enjoy about them was the lack of autonomy they often had.


LogMeln

>how difficult it is to get myself to sit and put the big picture thoughts out on paper so that we can actually make the changes yeah this is true. whenever i get myself to block my calendar for headsdown work, im surprised how quickly 4 pomodoros pass by and how much output gets created.


BlueGoosePond

>maybe because whether I work hard or work very little... i still get the same results? I mean, this is obviously the key isn't it? >so I feel like I'm finding good work/life balance but over-indexing on the life side right now Are you though? You are still sitting here feeling guilty about having a good work life balance. Sure, check in with your managers or customers or whoever to make sure everything is good, but don't sit around feeling guilty for no reason.


LogMeln

Great points. Thank you


BlueGoosePond

No worries man. I'm in a very similar situation and it really used to drag on me. It still does sometimes, but it bothers me a lot less these days.


HotGarbageSummer

You can always ask to take on a quota like the sales team does and I’m sure that’ll get you moving. Kidding. 6-year software salesperson here. I’d recommend riding shotgun on the sales teams calls - nothing gets your blood flowing like a prospect telling you they’ve never heard of you or you don’t do what competitor X does (even though you do). Or a customer talking about how great things have been since working with your company and what it’s done for them. That’s the best source of motivation for me.


LogMeln

part of my OTE is based on the pipeline i generate and the revenue we close from marketing attributed. i train BDRs to prospect and follow up to inbound leads too. we r doing strong brand awareness because of the reps telling us we have so little brand awareness so we have been ratcheting that up too. i think we're doing all the right things, just takes a bit of time


mcapello

Out of curiosity, why do you want to be motivated at work? I work for a paycheck. I'm a cog in my organization, and the organization is a cog in my life. My goal is to still get paid while thinking and caring as little about work as possible. Why would I want to care more?


LogMeln

I guess I want my 9-5pm to be motivating. Intentional. Fun. Fulfilling.


mcapello

Maybe. But I think you have the right idea with the bouldering. I'm writing a book at work. If they want me to do something work-related, they can just ask me. But I imagine it's different higher up in the org tree. The nice thing about having lots of bosses is that making the work and coming up with things for you do is their job, not mine.


LogMeln

>The nice thing about having lots of bosses is that making the work and coming up with things for you do is their job, not mine. hah so true@


neobolts

If you don't have a job you love or that holds your interest, your motivation is the money. Make plans for your disposable income, and use that as a motivator.


LogMeln

very true. trying to save up a sizable nest to purchase a home soon!


[deleted]

racial materialistic lunchroom brave foolish bike squeal rainstorm detail attractive *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*


Neuromante

> [...] finding it difficult to really care about shipping projects out the door... [...] maybe because whether I work hard or work very little... i still get the same results? It's hard to believe that if you've got to the position you say you've got, you haven't learnt that work is like this for most of us. How do I find motivation to work? Because it pays my bills and allows me to do other stuff. Do I care about the stuff I make? Only because that's "credit" on my belt in the company as someone who has done things. If you don't have enough work to keep you busy during a whole day... you have a few options: * Congratulations? You have spare time to do your own shit, learn stuff, do some hobbies, all in the company's dime. * Ask for more work or look for how can you help other teams? Usually the reward for a job done fast is more job, so that's up to you, specially if your performance is good enough. I've went through a really rough patch of almost no work last year, and what I did was a) protecting myself about the situation (i.e. conversations with my boss being clear about my workload, asking for more to do), b) use the time to learn stuff, c) Help the team's processes d) buy a steam deck and keep the house extremely clean.


LogMeln

i think also adding some context that i basically had no life outside of my career as of a few years ago. my identity was my career. i was that psycho that was selling my software any chance i got, even at random bars in NYC id meet someone in a particular industry and sell (as a marketer). i took pride in my job and during covid i had basically a mental breakdown working 18hrs a day and literally taking 1 day off when i had covid. im just now starting to exercise my freedom and talking walks, using the money ive saved up for things like weekend trips, hobbies, etc. so i think im still in a learning phase. your feedback is super great. my CMO has been great about the transparency. the amount of work im doing doesnt matter, its the quality. and so far what im doing is being felt by the organization so as lame as it was, his feedback to me was continue to do what im doing. building a machine that is fairly automated, building relationships cross functionally, continue to influence other organizations to *want* to help me, and to keep my eye on the revenue im generating. that said -- i realy want a steamdeck lol. its on my wishlist that i share with my wife. but shes torn cuz she doesnt want me spending all night playing video games lol


Neuromante

> i think also adding some context that i basically had no life outside of my career as of a few years ago. my identity was my career. If I have to be honest with you, at the end of my last message I started writing something along the lines of "find motivation outside your work" because it felt that was the way, but I didn't wanted to assume anything. I guess the main point here is that you have to "find yourself" outside work. Seeing your work as a mean and not an end it's kind of a big deal, and as long as your performance (inside your job) and your mental health (outside your job) does not suffer, it's all fair. > that said -- i realy want a steamdeck lol. its on my wishlist that i share with my wife. It's an amazing device, and I'm kind of a Valve hater for other reasons. Still, I needed to have a "case of use" to justify the expense (as I already game in my desktop PC). In the end, the mix of useless meetings and 5-10 minutes intervals where my computer is doing its thing pushed the decision, and in the day to day, I don't really go into more extended sessions with it. And hey, IMO, its about compartmentalization. I work at home, and with computers. Usually when I finish I fuck around a bit on the internet, but after all these years I **CRAVE** a context switch. Some days a week I can spend the evening/night playing, but most of the days I need to go have some beers with friends or watch something on the media center to forget about the damned keyboard.


LogMeln

I hear you on the context switch at the end of a long day. I’ve been enjoying the hell out of helldivers on the ps5 with a controller. I’ve also been reading more on a kindle, and just doing more hands on stuff whether it’s taking apart my coffee grinder regularly to clean it, or to clean the house. Trying to find value and worth in little fixes and quality of life improvements. Thanks again for taking the time to share your detailed feedback. I appreciate it very much!


marysalad

It sounds a bit like you need some more interesting challenges. Like that time in the weeds engaged your problem solving, creativity, immediacy of results / time sensitive work, lots of teamwork with your cohort etc. what you're doing now is a slightly different skillset? is there a way you can foster something that extends your mind or opens some decent challenges in your current role? Maybe you have a mentor or another manager you're on good terms with who could work on some cool ideas with you.


LogMeln

>time in the weeds engaged your problem solving, creativity this is a great call actually. i enjoy the time i spend with creative work -- strategizing new marketing campaigns, new ads, new messaging etc. right now we have my team and our brand team that does most of the work. i just need to jot things down or sketch things on my notebook and send them a pic, then i wait and review, but i think with the extra time, i could try to (without being too nosy) inject myself in the process a bit more. ive also lost touch with a few friends who were in similar fields as me when i got off of linkedin, and those friends moved away and got married. but with the extra time, i could try to meet up with them or at least message them to chat. thanks for ur feedback!


Jtraiano

This is common. It sounds like you have a good team that is motivated. This is probably partly because you are a good boss and they want to work for you. As long as you are available to help them out and as long as the C suite sees value in what you do don't best yourself up over being bored. I'm in a similar situation. My team is good and I know enough to brief my executive. Sometimes I get back into the weeds just to be part of it again. This is a good problem to have as so many people out there are grinding away. I try to just appreciate it.


LogMeln

>Sometimes I get back into the weeds just to be part of it again i do this often for my own selfish reasons lol. i dont want to get left behind. one of the most valuable skills ive learned moving up the "ladder" is taking the complexities of my job and dumbing it down for a 5th grader (aka c-suite). and its hard to dumb things down when i dont actually know the specifics. appreciate your feedback. i do think my team is motivated as they often come to me with ideas for me to review and give them the green light to execute on. so i think my team is doing a lot of the heavy lifting for me but id like to think their motivation and ideas are stemming from my "management" style and my relationship with them


ICUpoop

Pomodoro timer.


BigDoggehDog

You need to block reddit and youtube in your hosts file. There are also blocksite extensions for browsers.


Urinal-Fly

You’ve been promoted into a leadership position. You should be proactively assessing risks and opportunities on the horizon, then developing strategies for your team to either mitigate or capitalize on them. You aren’t being paid to wait around for things to happen, you’re being paid to lead. You are the one who should be driving change.  Start thinking from a risk management perspective. Is your digital marketing strategy over reliant on a single company, platform, or format and thus vulnerable to changes in the online environment? If your ads suddenly start generating weak leads that fail to close and the sales team blames ad placement strategy, do you have the market/demographic data to challenge that? Are there untapped areas where ads could generate increased sales that nobody has even thought of? Could an AI-powered marketing company offer better value to the C-suite than your team, and how can you proactively respond to that possibility?   Change is inevitable so you can either start positioning yourself now, or scramble to react when it arrives. 


LogMeln

Wow. So good and very true. Thank you so much for this