It’s a new year, but work feels like the same old same old.
You want to be excited, but there’s just not that much to be pumped about: You’re not in line for a big promotion or raise. And there’s not some innovative new project on the horizon. So what do you do to remotivate yourself in 2025?
Here are some techniques that have helped my time management coaching clients recommit to their jobs when it could have been easy to check out.
Be grateful for what’s good
Sometimes you can become so fixated on what’s wrong with your job that you forget about what’s right.
Try to think through any of the things that make you happy: Maybe it’s that you get to work from home two days a week or that you like your coworkers or that there’s free coffee in the breakroom.
Express at least three things you’re grateful for about your job each morning by saying them out loud or writing them down.
And if you’re really struggling to appreciate anything, be grateful you have a source of income. Making no money and having no benefits can become really stressful, really fast.
Lock in your schedule
Maybe you can’t change much about your job scope, but you could up-level your time management so that your schedule works optimally for you.
If you’re working longer hours than you prefer, that could look like practicing planning, prioritizing, and cutting back on distractions to log off on time and not have to get back on later at night.
If your hours are already good, see if you can be even more efficient to create space for what’s important to you, like working out at lunch or leaving in time to make it to your son’s soccer game.
Having a personal incentive to up-level your productivity can gamify better time management and make work seem less onerous.
Create growth opportunities
In almost any situation, you can create opportunities to learn and grow in a way that feels satisfying to you.
For example, you could see if there is a special project where you could engage to learn new skills. You could ask to be on a committee where you would get exposure to colleagues in other departments. Or I’ve even seen a situation where my client’s organization had officially frozen all promotions but was willing to give him a direct report so that he could develop management skills.
If development within your job just isn’t a possibility, look elsewhere. That might range from attending webinars offered by your trade association to hear the latest industry news to enrolling in online classes to sharpen your skills to applying to a graduate school program to increase your credentials.
Your possibilities for development are endless.
Ask for what you want
Sometimes some small shifts in your work could make a big difference in how motivated you feel to perform.
Think about what you’d really appreciate in your current role. Then see if you can ask for at least some of those changes.
For example:
- Mentorship: Ask if you can have some consistent one-on-one meetings with your boss or another leader that are primarily focused on your professional development instead of just covering task completion.
- Development Road Map: See if you can have a discussion with your manager about a personal road map for your growth. Where could you be in one year, three years, and five years? What experience would you need to develop to hit those goals?
- Flexibility: Maybe you want to leave early one day a week to attend a class or pick your kids up from school. There may be room to ask for those accommodations, particularly if you have a clear plan on how to make up the time.
Don’t dismiss the upcoming year before it’s even started. With the right mindset, you can create a motivating job situation in 2025.
