Getting Out of A Work Rut

Happy, happy Thursday! I hope you had a relaxing and refreshing weekend 🙂 Weekends are my time to rest, reset, and recharge – SO vital to my workflow when Monday rolls around. If I don’t take my weekends to totally reset, it ends up being more difficult to get back into the flow of things when the week begins. But, every so often, no matter how much rest and recharging I’m doing, I still can’t get my mind in a productive place. I love what I do, but I’ve learned that it’s normal to occasionally get in a place of frustration where you lack motivation and the ability to work productively. When this happens, rather than forcing myself to push through, I go back to these foundational practices that help me get back on track. 

#1 – Change your environment 

I work completely remotely, and while I love my home office and the flexibility of working from home, I definitely get bored of sitting in the same four walls day after day. If I’m not mindful of this all of the time, I will 100% stay home and work all day without ever leaving the house. And like clockwork, I will end up in a place of frustration and lack the motivation I need to work on exciting branding and web design projects. The obvious solution here is to work from elsewhere, like a coffee shop or cafe. But, it also sometimes means interrupting your workday to change your environment – go for a walk, sit outside, go for a car ride. Sometimes we just need to step away from “work mode” and experience a different environment to get re-inspired. 

#2 – Socialize 

This one probably sounds a little funny, but hear me out. Before I brought on Amy and Izzy, the only socializing I was doing during the day involved client check-ins and running into my husband in the hallway (yes, we both work from home!) which doesn’t really help ignite my creativity. Now, I know that I have a team meeting with Amy and Izzy every Monday, and still chat with them throughout the rest of the week. If you don’t have a team, I really recommend working from a coffee shop or co-working space. Even if you’re not literally talking to or socializing with anyone, even just being around other people is a form of socialization. 

#3 – Plan a mini getaway

This one is obviously a bit of a luxury, but it doesn’t have to be! This isn’t meant to suggest that every time you’re feeling unmotivated that you book a trip to the Bahamas, but it could be as simple as taking a day trip to the mountains or beach, going to visit a friend, planning a staycation, or planning a weekend away. Just a few weeks ago, Luke and I took a long weekend in Nashville. We still worked the entire time, but we had a great, new environment to do so in, and then after we shut our laptops down for the day we got to go out and explore a new destination. By the end of our stay, we were definitely ready to get home and back to our routine!

#4 – Reevaluate 

This one dives a bit deeper, and you can read my blog post from last week about The Power of Outsourcing if you want to hear all the ins and outs of what I’m about to talk about. But, sometimes being in a work rut is due to burnout or lack of passion and/or drive. This is why outsourcing was entirely necessary for me – I was quickly reaching burnout with my daily to-do’s, not because I didn’t love it, but because I was just simply doing too much and needed help. Something I didn’t enjoy though, was social media and anything writing or marketing related, which is why I hired Izzy. Marketing was definitely a place where I lacked passion, so finding someone who thrived in that area was crucial. If outsourcing or bringing on other team members isn’t an option for you yet, I would recommend taking a step back and evaluating what you really love, and what you really don’t love about work. Are you happy in your position, just tired of the same thing everyday? If so, how can you switch things up to spark your passion again? If that’s not the case, is there an obvious issue that would be more laborious to fix? I.e., do you not love the field you’re in anymore? Are you entirely unmotivated to do anything related to your job? Do you live for the weekends? If so, it might be time to reevaluate your career. This sounds like an extremely scary thing, but I can promise you that this is actually so common. It takes a lot of courage to admit that you’re no longer happy in an aspect of your life, but remember that it is never too late to take a different path to get the life that fuels you!