Congratulations people, we all made it through the first full week of the New Year! This probably means that you are feeling like all the fun of the festive period is nothing more than a distant memory and unless like me you have a January birthday, there doesn’t always seem that much to look forward to.

When my alarm went off this morning it was raining, cold and so dark it felt like the middle of the night, which can make things seem pretty miserable on a Monday, so it got me thinking about how to get motivated and stop those winter blues from kicking in.

Here are a couple of tips that I am going to put in place and pass onto others…

First give yourself meaning.  Do you know why what you do is so significant? Are you aware, really of how you are impacting on the company, clients and even your colleagues – No? Then find out. Who wants to be working with a “what’s the point” attitude – Not me! Look at your goals, targets and see the bigger picture; feeling like you have a purpose is a huge motivator, after all don’t we all want to make a difference?

Next stimulate your brain.  If you have a number of tasks to work through, I am pretty sure you will find some much more enjoyable than others. So instead of doing a whole day of the fun stuff knowing that you will dread the bore of tomorrow, why not break all the tasks up in to more palatable chunks; perhaps morning and afternoon sessions could work for you? After all they do say variety is the spice of life!

Now you need clear thinking. Sometimes even the most comprehensive to-do list can be overwhelming and you feel like you’re on a never ending hamster wheel achieving very little and getting nowhere fast. In reality you are probably getting through more than you think. There is always “stuff” that comes up that you deal with, distracting you from your tasks, and this is what makes you feel that you aren’t getting through your core jobs. These distractions are probably very important but they just get forgotten about, so why not make a “done” list so you can see what you are really getting though and you will be surprised just how satisfying it is… Go on, I can already see that little smirk of over achievement!

And finally… It’s time to set yourself up to manage your own work. You’ve got your brain pumped and ready, you know what needs to be done now let’s take responsibility for the task in hand. Autonomy in a role is a wonderful thing, that’s not to say you are not part of a team, but it really allows you to take ownership of your work.  Set out your ideas and get the training you might need to allow you to truly pick up your projects and run with them and in turn get the results you want. Achieving your goals, what better motivator is there than that.

Hope that got you motivated to take on the year ahead with gusto!