3 Tricks For Keeping Your Hands-on Momentum Up, gathered in one list
Q: Dear John (no it is not a Dear John letter) and Sherry. I am begging you (on bare knees in front of laptop now) to write a post that teaches the following: HOW… HOW, I beg you, do you find the motivation and… ENERGY to take on such things after work?! Or even a whole weekend cooped up in a bathroom? I BEG you, please, how do you get that mind-set to get things done?! And after work! It is incomprehensible to me but I would enjoy to be that person. If you bottle it, I am buying ten. I know this is not a motivational/self-improvement journal but I think your attitude to get things done so consistently does have a place. Please? Purty please? Luv luv LUV your journal. -Anna in Sydney
A: We are not going to lie. Fitting in our constant Hands-on undertakings is certainly is a challenge. We know all about being short on time (I am typically tethered to the computer from 8am-8pm and John has a full time job downtown) so we do nearly 100% of our projects on nights and weekends (and many of them over holidays as well). Sometimes it simply comes down to making the decision to put off the lively stuff like going out to dinner and hanging out with friends in the name of crossing things off of our to-do list.
But of course, simply like any strict diet that will not work for the long haul, we are all motivating ourselves to at last finish something that we have worked hard to accomplish. So here are three strategies that have worked to keep our Hands-on momentum going strong.
Strategy #1: Motivate Yourself With A Reward – We are fairly into updating our home, so we are weird sufficient to think that painting or demo-ing sounds like a good time… but we know it is not everyone’s idea of lively. And sometimes we dread projects like you would not believe, but we tell ourselves that we have to do it sometime, so we might as well bang it out and then go out to dinner the next day to celebrate (instead of dragging it out and having it hang over our heads for months).
Working in these little “accomplishment rewards” can certainly keep things feeling more balanced and keep you feeling motivated- and of course you will be full of self-congratulatory pride for a job well done- so that also comes into play (once you paint one room you will feel so good it’ll be easier to embark on the next one than it was to pick up that paint brush the first time).
And sometimes setting a goal and working towards it is easier than you think- especially if there is something oh so sweet waiting for you at the finish line. For example, declare that if you complete five things on your list you will treat yourself to a mini vacay in a nearby city for the weekend or that you will at last order that fairly Etsy print that you’ve been drooling over. I guess it is sort of like doing anything else that takes time and effort (losing weight, studying for finals, etc)- it truly takes drive and motivation to stay at it. So anything you can do to push yourselves forward and encourage each other along the way can truly make all the difference.
Strategy #2: Share Your Home Adventures With Others – We will simply come out and say it. Perhaps you should start a journal. We find that we are motivated to do more and work harder simply so we can share our results with people who are chomping at the bit for pics and details. Perhaps that will assist motivate you as well? Not that anyone truly has “extra time to start a journal” when they are working on their home, but we did not think we did either (two years ago when John began this whole thing I was fully uninterested) and simply look at us now!
Or perhaps you can find another way to motivate yourselves by sharing your progress- like creating a especially straightforward Flickr album with before & after photos and sending the link to friends and family once a week to share your Hands-on hardships- and all the glory that comes with them once they are blissfully completed. Even privately documenting your process simply for yourself can be hugely motivating. For example, you can take “before” photos of your whole house and put them in an album with a blank sleeve after each one that is simply waiting for an “after” picture. It certainly will not happen overnight, but as you slowly start adding after photos and seeing exactly how far you’ve come you will be amazed how empowering, motivating and rewarding it can be. Heck, we’d even call it downright addicting.
Strategy #3: Get Your Mind Right – A lot of times when you head into each project your attitude can make all the difference. Simply like if you are training for a big tennis match or going to a job interview, if your internal monologue is saying things like “I am going to fail- this is going to be a disaster- I am so bad at this stuff- this will take me forever…” then you are likely setting yourself up to fall on your face from the get-go.
We like to go into each project in a positive and optimistic state of mind. Simply the act of putting on some music, having full bellies, and generally embarking on our next home improvement adventure in a good mood can make all the difference. Of course we have also learned that having unrealistic expectations is the fastest way to never want to pick up a hammer or a paint brush again. So even when we take on a should-be-plain task, we never say things like “this should only take a second” or “we can totally bang this out before our dinner plans in an hour” because those assumptions can truly amp up the stress of the situation and make any small ten minute snafu seem like a major disaster since you went in with such unrealistic ideas about how the process would go. Instead we like to set aside large blocks of time when we know we can truly dive into something (again with full bellies and some good music playing to rally our spirits) and then we frequently find that we are pleasantly surprised by how smoothly things can go (instead of expecting everything to be effortless and being disappointed when things do not magically happen in a matter of seconds).
In short: you certainly have to put in the time to get things done, but do not forget to reward yourself and document your achievements along the way. And having realistic expectations and going into each project with excitement instead of dread can truly make all the difference! Plus tackling one room at a time or breaking projects down into pleasant little manageable “bite-sized tasks” can certainly take the fear out of something that seems way too large and ominous. Does anyone else have other secrets to staying motivated and keeping their to-do list in check without going crazy? Do tell.
Psst- Learn more about keeping your house sprucing projects more manageable by decorating in stages – and check out some of our biggest-bang-for-our-buck upgrades that were surprisingly plain to accomplish.
