7 Ways To Motivate Yourself When You’re In A Slump

This is going to be a practical exercise. A meta post if you will. Because I wrote this while I was in a very negative emotional place. (I edited it and wrote this intro in a much better mindset.)

This isn’t the time or place to get into any great detail about my personal experience with depression. It exists. And it tends to creep in every once in a while. It can last a day or two, or it can last over a week. I retreat inwards, shutting out much of the world, and I feel lethargic. I get overly self-reflective and dwell in negativity. When that happens I don’t want to work. I don’t want to be productive. I don’t want to write or create art. And then, one day, I wake up and it’s better.

While this is my personal experience, everyone experiences this in some way. Everyone has bad days. That is what this post is about. We’ll call these bad places slumps. (“Slumps” sounds reductive towards clinical depression and severe mental health issues, but this post isn’t about that — it’s for everybody. And everybody has slumps.)

When my mood takes a dip (or a full-blown nosedive), I don’t want to wait to get better. I have enough going on in my life (both personally and professionally) where I can seldom afford to wait for a depressive mood to pass. Therefore, I’ve come up with a few ways to keep going. They may not pull me fully out of the slump, but they will at least pull me off the couch.

Don’t worry, this post gets a lot more upbeat, complete with GIFs from The Departed that I deemed appropriate. Why The Departed? Aside from the fact that it’s one of the greatest movies ever made… I have no idea. But if you’re in a slump, they can’t hurt in pulling you out, right?

1. Make a to-do list

The feeling of being overwhelmed almost always accompanies a slump. For some people, feeling overwhelmed causes them to shut down completely, which just exacerbates the problem. Organization is the enemy of inundation.