Everybody has good and bad days – the trick to being successful is making sure that you’re consistently motivated enough to keep the bad ones to a minimum. But how do you stay motivated all day, every day?

Without motivation it’s not only difficult to do as much work as usual, but even starting a new task becomes a herculean effort. If you can get started and make some progress then you might be able to build momentum up off of that, but otherwise you’ll be left floundering for the rest of the day. Doc Rivers “You only have a number for one day. After that, it is all up to you” says NBA Coach, Doc Rivers. It means that we should make every day count.

I’ve struggled with this exact problem over the last three years of working remotely – it’s especially hard to stay motivated when you’re working from home without a physical team to back you up and keep you focused.

After trying everything from browser extensions to complex business systems, I realised that I was overcomplicating things. The best to-do list template in the world won’t help you if you don’t have the basic practices behind motivation down.

So, to save you from going through the same troubles I’ve collected nine tips which I’ve found most useful in staying consistently motivated all day every day.

Let’s get started.

9 Ways to Stay Motivated All Day Every Day

1. Eat breakfast

Yes, it sounds corny as anything, but if you want to stay motivated all day then you need to start it right. Eating breakfast will give you the fuel you need to stay focused on your work rather than your stomach.

The trick here is to eat enough that you don’t graze until lunchtime, but not so much as to have your body begin to shut down to digest a big meal. While this can be difficult to gauge at first, the best way to find your ideal breakfast is to experiment with the amount yourself.

Another important aspect is what you eat. I’m not saying that you have to eat dry Shredded Wheat to stay healthy, but certain foods will help you retain energy for longer and avoid you getting distracted.

Sugary foods (Frosties, for example) are generally a bad choice since your body will burn off the energy very quickly, both making it difficult to concentrate when you have energy and causing a crash when the sugar wears off.

Instead, try eating food which is high in carbohydrates, such as a bran cereal or some porridge. These will help you stay full for longer and thus stay focused on your work.

2. Have a steady supply of water

While this might also seem silly to point out, having a constant supply of water to sip at as you work is vital to keeping a clear head and maintaining your motivation.

You don’t have to drink liters of the stuff every day (although most sources recommend aiming to drink 2 litres to stay hydrated), but by at least having a bottle or cup of water next to your desk you can easily reach out whenever you start to get thirsty

Admittedly, this will make you need to take bathroom breaks more frequently. However, the additional clarity that you can gain by just making sure that your body isn’t dehydrated will more than make up for your trips to the WC.

3. Don’t binge on caffeine

I’ll be the first to admit that coffee is manna from heaven. The smell, the taste, the sound of the kettle; everything about it brings a smile to my face (like most other caffeine addicts out there).

However, if your ultimate goal is to stay motivated then you need to keep a careful eye on just how much caffeine you’re consuming.

We’ve all made the mistake of having too much coffee – the jitters and shakes resulting from that are far from a good way to ensure your productivity. More likely you’ll struggle to focus and get even less done than if you’d stuck to water.

Even the type of work you do can cause your productivity to drop when under the effects of caffeine. It’s been shown that while caffeine helps you complete tasks that require a lot of mechanical processes and repetition, creative tasks that are more decision-based and abstract in nature are much harder to complete when your mind is so focused from your latest cup of Joe.

Coffee itself is also a pretty bad (gasp) choice of drink if you’re looking to get the most out of your work. The boost you get is great, but the resulting crash can wreck any momentum you had going. Instead, try drinking green tea – it has roughly the same caffeine content but releases it more steadily, letting you stay focused for longer and without the crash once it’s worn off.

4. Identify your most productive time of day

Knowing when you get the majority of your work done every day is a great way to boost your motivation. This is because that knowledge works in your favor in two ways.

First (and most obviously), by knowing when you’re most likely to make progress on whatever task you’re working on, you can schedule your most difficult and/or important work for that time slot. That way you can get what you need to done and use the resulting motivation to power through the rest of the day.

Alternatively, if you’re more of an afternoon or night owl, you can know exactly when you work best and adjust your schedule accordingly. For example, while many people (even remote workers) put in a 9-5 work day, if you find that you’re more productive in the evening then you could either work later to get more done or make the case to your employer that it would be more beneficial to allow you to work later hours.

5. Prioritise your tasks accordingly

Going hand-in-hand with knowing your most productive time of day is the ability to prioritise your tasks effectively. Without doing this you’re essentially leaving your success up to chance, since you could end up wasting all of your energy on small, unimportant tasks and be spent before you reach the main event.

The best way I’ve found to do this is to use Brian Tracy’s method of assessing whether individual tasks are something that you need to do and whether they are something you want to do.

Once you’ve done that, the theory is to eat the ugliest frog first by tackling the biggest, most difficult task that you have to do but don’t want to. That way you’ll be able to make progress and get it either out of the way or down to a more manageable size before you run out of steam. That achievement in itself can then be a great motivator to keep going for the rest of the day.

After all, you’ve dealt with (or at least made progress on) the worst task on your list, so everything else is good by comparison.

6. Clear your workplace of distractions

By now you’ve probably noticed that a lot of these tips are simple and easy. While that’s true, they’re also incredibly easy to overlook and vital to staying motivated for extended periods of time. Remember; you’re looking to be successful all day every day, not just for a half hour every other Thursday.

In keeping with the trend, then, is the fact that you need to keep your workplace clean and tidy. I mean this both for your physical workplace (clear your table, empty any nearby bins in your office, etc) and your digital one. For example, consider hiding your bookmarks to avoid reminding yourself of what you could be doing instead, and use minimum distraction apps like Quip to stay on the ball.

This mainly benefits you by both eliminating another task that can play on your mind and distract you, and also by making sure that the most interesting thing you can focus on is your work.

Never underestimate the power of boredom – if the most interesting thing around is your work then you’re far more likely to stay on track.

7. Plan your day the night before

Planning your day the night before lets you take advantage of any early-morning energy spikes you have by removing any and all obstacles to your work. Instead of having to think about what you need to do that day and what order to complete your tasks in, you can just sit down and make some hefty progress.

This in itself is a great way to stay motivated for the rest of the day, since getting started is easily one of the most daunting parts about any task. Having that progress already made will help to make the rest of the activity seem far more manageable, but if you don’t have everything planned the night before then even the best productivity apps on the market won’t be able to help you stay motivated for long.

8. Get plenty of sleep

I know that by now I sound like a fretting grandmother, but if you want to be at the top of your game you also need to be getting plenty of sleep each night.

Although not everyone agrees on the exact number, you should aim to get roughly 7-9 hours of sleep every night in order to make sure that you’re not building up a sleep debt. If you try to skimp you’ll only make yourself less effective when it comes to actually doing your work, and your motivation will quickly disappear in a haze of tiredness.

Don’t think that you can sleep for less during the week and then make up for that during the weekend either – sleep debts don’t work like that. If you try to wake up early without getting enough sleep you’ll not only have to sleep more the following weekend, but you’ll also have to go to bed earlier than usual during the following week to truly wipe the slate clean.

Save yourself the trouble – get 7-9 hours of sleep each night.

9. Take short, regular breaks

Finally, you need to take short breaks regularly in order to avoid burning yourself out by trying to tackle too much at once. While it might be tempting to follow a train of thought or to push on for “just five more minutes” to try and get as much done as possible, you’ll only start to wreck your productivity in the long run.

Without giving yourself short, regular breaks (think 5-10 minutes every hour, maybe a little more) you aren’t giving your mind enough time to process the information you’re taking in. Not only that, but you’re potentially overloading yourself with things to think about, which itself will lead to burning out very quickly.

Don’t worry about being too strict (if you actually are only a few minutes from finishing and you’re in a good rhythm then it’s worth considering carrying on for 5 minutes), but be realistic with yourself and give your mind a chance to take a breather.

That also means that you should be doing something different during your break – if you’ve spent the last hour in front of a screen then take the time to look outside or go on a short walk. Do anything that doesn’t involve looking at a screen.

Conclusion

While these tips might seem simple to the point of being… well, pointless, I’ll keep stressing them until they sink in properly. It might be easy to ignore the simple things like eating breakfast and sleeping enough each night, but these small acts add up to a massive difference in your ability to stay focused and motivated day in and day out.

How do you stay motivated on a consistent basis? Let me know in the comments below!

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About the author: 

Benjamin Brandall is a content marketer at Process Street, where he writes on processes, productivity, and workflows to help you build a more efficient business.