Do you ever feel like you have absolutely no motivation? Do you have the kind of moments where even though you’ve managed to snag a second of free time, you just don’t know what to do with yourself? After becoming a parent, my free time has diminished to nearly nothing. You’d think that when I manage to grab a few minutes, I’d want to do All The Things. Play All The Games. Read All The Books. Get All The Things Done Around The House.
Nope.
Okay, sometimes that’s true. But sometimes I’ll realize I can do whatever I want and nothing sounds appealing. Sometimes all I want to do is sit and play 2048 for the 2049th time even though it’s the most unproductive thing I could do. Because this happens a lot, I’ve developed some coping strategies for what to do when you just can’t do anything.
Do Nothing
Go ahead and do nothing. If this sounds too terrible to fathom, set a timer for 15 minutes and do nothing until the timer goes off. Manoush Zomorodi has a whole book about how being bored helps us come up with great ideas. Remember being bored as a kid? Didn’t it feel terrible at the time? But now it feels like a luxury. Indulge. Let yourself be bored.
Engage in some Self Care
Self care is different for everyone, so don’t take a bubble bath if you don’t like bubble baths. I usually go for a walk, take a hot shower, or cuddle with my cat. Some people enjoy gardening or exercising. Maybe your form of self-care is to scream into a pillow or re-arrange your precious moments figurines. I’m not here to judge.
Get One Tiny Thing Done
Instead of cleaning your whole entire house, find something on your to-do list that’s small and tackle that. Maybe this burst of accomplishment will push you forward into completing more tasks. Maybe it won’t, but at least now your kitchen sink is clean.
If none of those things work, there’s always mobile games and Netflix. Don’t feel guilty. We all need to zone out sometimes.
What do you do when you don’t feel like doing anything?
Cover image: This dog just can’t right now. Photo by Sashank Saye on Unsplash.
I usually go for the one tiny thing. My chronic pains drain a lot of energy and keeping up with house work in addition to dog care and writing, makes it a challenge. But if I can do one load of laundry or sweep the floor or clean the kitchen, I’m satisfied.
That’s often also a trigger to do more since the satisfaction of having completed a task is giving me motivation to complete another.
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Sounds like we had the same day, I just didn’t wanna do anything but I made myself and felt better afterwards.
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I made myself do my PT exercises and then I felt better.
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