How to Start Anything: Expert-Approved Strategies to Get Motivated

The best time to start doing something good for you is… probably tomorrow, right? That’s when you’ll have the motivation to start waking up earlier, going to the gym, eating healthier, learning a language, and practicing piano. Or maybe Monday is better.

“Nine times out of 10, what gets in the way of all the starting is our emotional response,” Tim Pychyl, Ph.D., author of Solving the Procrastination Puzzle: A Concise Guide to Strategies for Change, tells Men’s Journal. “Though most of the time, we’re not even aware of what it is.”

Which is why the first step to starting something is to identify your emotions—the ones that go deeper than feeling flat-out lazy. What’s really stopping you? Frustration? Fear? Anxiety? Defeat over all you’ve started before but never finished?

“Okay, yeah, you’re feeling all those things,” says Pychyl. “But you’re not going to fix any of that right now. And do you want this hanging over your head tomorrow? No. Then what’s the next action?”

Whether you’re building a new habit or want motivation to dive into one more day, these hacks from what we know about the human brain and psychology will help you take action. Layer as many together as you can.

“One strategy on its own is likely not going to save you,” says Pychyl. “You need different tools for different parts of the same job. The more you nest them together, the more powerful they become.”

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How to Start Anything: 20 Expert-Approved Motivation Strategies

 

1. F*ck Motivation
According to research from social psychologist Dan Gilbert, a Ph.D. at Harvard University, we use how we feel in the present to predict how we’ll feel in the future—and we do it terribly. “We think, ‘I know I don’t like going to the gym, which is why I never go, but today I think tomorrow I’m going to feel like it,’” says Pychyl, “and then naïvely, we are surprised when the future comes and we don’t feel like it.”  In short: Don’t expect to feel motivated. “Motivation doesn’t precede action. Motivation follows action,” says Pychyl. So do something. Anything. Like… Stokkete / Shutterstock

2. Pull On One Sock
Don’t feel like working out? Then don’t. Just pull on one sock. Then the other. Then your gym shorts. Well now that you’re dressed, maybe you should work out. We need to embrace what productivity consultant and Getting Things Done author David Allen has taught us, says Pychyl. “The question to ask is, ‘What’s the next action?’”  Do one pushup. Open a fresh Google doc. “Keep the action very small with a low threshold to get going,” notes Pychyl, and you’ll likely keep going. “Social psychology has shown us that when we make progress on our goal, it fuels our well-being. And if we have more well-being, we’re more motivated.” FOTOKITA / Shutterstock

3. Picture Someone You Know Who Would Start
Fire up the competitor in you by imagining someone you know—a friend, perhaps, or a foe is even better—who would get off their ass and start. As Derek Jeter once said, “There may be people that have more talent than you, but there’s no excuse for anyone to work harder than you do.” Frank Franklin/AP / Shutterstock

4. Plan to Do It Poorly
Winston Churchill joked about how perfectionism can also be spelled p-a-r-a-l-y-s-i-s. So don’t aim for it. Instead, ask yourself, “How good a job do I really need to do right now?” Plan to pedal your Peloton to last place. Practice super slow double-stroke drum rolls. Or, just as bestselling Bird by Bird author Amy Lamott famously urges writers, create “a shitty first draft” so at least you’ll have a draft at all. Historia / Shutterstock

5. Make Your Plan More Concrete
“A funny little hack about the human brain is that when we think about things abstractly, they seem to belong to tomorrow,” explains Pychyl, while research has shown “when we think about things concretely, they seem to belong to today and have a sense of urgency to them.”  So instead of planning to “learn French” on Friday, plan to “Do one lesson on future tense,” and instead of planning to “work out,” plan for “Chest, shoulders, and triceps.” YAKOBCHUK VIACHESLAV / Shutterstock

6. Visualize Kicking Ass
Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps has always visualized his races as if he were watching a movie of himself. Picture yourself working toward your goal the same way Phelps does: “What you want it to be, what you don’t want it to be, what it could be.”  Research has shown the brain can’t fully distinguish between what is vividly realized and what’s real, so the feeling you get from imagining your success may inspire you to actually carry it out. Andy Hooper/Daily Mail / Shutterstock

7. Count Yourself Down Like a Rocket Launch
Life coach Mel Robbins wrote an entire book, The 5 Second Rule, about the life-transforming trick that first got her out of bed in the mornings when she wanted to sleep in.  “If you have an instinct to act on a goal, you must physically move within five seconds or your brain will kill it,” she writes. “Hesitation is the kiss of death.”  The moment you have an instinct or a desire to act on a goal and feel yourself hesitate, she says, “Count 5-4-3-2-1-GO and move towards action.” Shutterstock

8. Set an Implementation Intention
Plan for exactly when and where you intend to complete a behavior. “Psychologist Peter Gollwitzer has demonstrated over countless studies that intentions that take the form of ‘I will do behavior X in situation Y to achieve subgoal Z’ are most effective,” says Pychyl, “because this form of implementation intention puts the cue for action into the environment.”  In his book Atomic Habits, author James Clear suggests making a template for your intention like “I will [BEHAVIOR] at [TIME] in [LOCATION].” As in: “I will meditate for 5 minutes at 7 a.m. in my living room.” Or create one with an If, Then format, like: “If I haven’t done my planks by 7 p.m., I won’t turn on the TV until I do.” GaudiLab / Shutterstock

9. Enjoy the “Suffering”
In his memoir The Push: A Climber’s Journey of Endurance, Risk, and Going Beyond Limits, rock climber Tommy Caldwell writes of the practice and pain it took to become the first person to free climb the 3,000-foot Dawn Wall of Yosemite’s El Capitan. He kept starting by focusing on the fact that he was choosing the pain for good reason. Yes, it hurts. It’s supposed to hurt. “Elective suffering really speaks to creating hardship on purpose,” Caldwell has said, “because you know it’s going to change you as a human being.” Dudarev Mikhail / Shutterstock

10. Set a 10-Minute Timer
Set a timer for 10 minutes—because you can do anything for 10 minutes—and see if starting the activity makes you want to keep going. Or set a timer to see if you can beat your last effort in that time frame. You may be surprised by how much you can accomplish in that span. “When you overestimate how long things are going to take, it becomes a barrier to doing it,” says Pychyl. “Use the time available to make a dent.” Marcelo Leal / Unsplash

11. Hide the Phone
“We have this Stone Age brain running around in a modern world that is too easily pulled toward whatever works against us,” says Pychyl, “so preempt that which tempts.”  He points to the work of neuroscientist Adam Gazzaley, M.D., Ph.D. and psychologist Larry Rosen, Ph.D. who explain in their book The Distracted Mind how our brains have an “extreme sensitivity to goal interference.” So remove the interference. Want to eat healthier? Remove the snacks from the cupboard. Want to go to sleep earlier? Leave your phone outside the bedroom. Want to meditate? Don’t check your email until you’re done.  Ameen ALmayuf / Unsplash

12. Attach Happiness
Why do miserable things miserably? Attach something you’ll enjoy to that which you decidedly don’t. Listen to a great audiobook while doing meal prep. Bring your laptop outdoors or to a sunny corner to draft your emails. Or splurge on new sneakers for your cardio. Just Life / Shutterstock

13. Start as if You’re Ending
You can give yourself permission to half-ass it, or go completely the other way and decide to do it with the spirit of Roger Federer playing his last professional game. As Marcus Aurelius once wrote, “Do this thing in front of you as if it is the last thing you were doing in your life.” Anticiclo / Shutterstock

14. Outsource Your Will
“Willpower doesn’t have to be solely an internal resource,” says Pychyl. When you move from multiplying numbers in your head to using a calculator, for example, “that is called extended cognition because we are extending our ability to think by using tools.” And just as your math ability doesn’t have to rely solely on mental math, “extended will is recognizing willpower doesn’t have to reside solely in you.” Outsource your will for your tasks: Set the coffee timer for 5 a.m. and put your sneakers in the doorway so you have to stumble over them. “It’s like creating a chute that’s making it easier to get your shoes on.” Alina Rosanova / Shutterstock

15. Google-Invite Yourself
Your work calendar isn’t negotiable, so why is your personal one?  “It’s a profound shift to say: ‘My calendar isn’t a suggestion,’” says Pychyl.  Plan it thoughtfully by asking, “All things considered, using my best practical reasoning, when is it in my best interest to do this?” Then stick to it. Treat yourself with the same respect you’d treat a commitment to another person. Roman Bozhko / Unsplash

16. Do the Worst First
Mark Twain said if your job is to eat a frog, it’s best to do it first thing in the morning, and if your job is to eat two, it’s best to eat the biggest one first. In other words, “get started early when you have lots of willpower,” says Pychyl. And get the most awful part out of the way first. Ewing Galloway/Uig / Shutterstock

17. Go With the “Flow”
One reason you may not want to start your task? It may be too easy or too hard. Aim for an ideal mix of both to reach what psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi famously called “flow”—the optimal state of complete absorption in a task, and one of the most powerful sources of intrinsic motivation there is.  Add different hills to your training or practice guitar with a different song—whatever will make your job better able to reach that balance. As author Daniel Pink explains in his book, Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us, the best state for a task “was a notch or two beyond his current abilities, which stretched the body and mind in a way that made the effort itself the most delicious reward.” Dean Drobot / Shutterstock

18. Hold Yourself Accountable
If you’d never let a friend down, make plans to work out with one at the end of the day. If you’d never renege on a deal, swap texts of your daily sweaty selfies. If you’d never lose a bet, put some cold hard cash on it. In essence, says Pychyl, “Harness existing self-regulatory skills to foster new ones.” Jacob Lund / Shutterstock

19. Build a “Streak” Chart
Borrow a secret from the language learning app Duolingo, which has successfully gamified the process of learning in part by tracking how many days in a row users do a lesson and rewarding them for keeping a steady streak going. Do that for yourself: Print out a chart or calendar where you can “X” off your successful days as a visual reminder of your commitment. The longer your streak gets, the less you’ll want to lose it. Pra Chid / Shutterstock

20. Meet Your Future Self
Who is your ideal future self? Someone who can speak Chinese in Shanghai or who proudly finishes marathons? A study of Pychyl’s found that meditating on a future version of yourself developed more empathy for the future self, which was statistically related to a decrease in procrastination. So picture what's meaningful to the future you—then don’t flake out on him. As Muhammad Ali once said, “I hated every minute of training, but I said, ‘Don’t quit. Suffer now and live the rest of your life a champion.’” John Rooney/AP / Shutterstock

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