Lack of motivation for filmmakers: how to fix it
Today, I wanted to touch on the lack of motivation/productivity we have sometimes as artists. Obviously, this can happen in any field of work, but it’s the worst when it happens in a creative field.
Some people say, and I used to think that this was true; some people say that “if you love making movies enough you will love filmmaking no matter what.” This is a false statement, and here’s why. We all lack motivation and productivity sometimes. For some, it’s more often, while for others it’s not. I think it mostly depends on you as a person. We all get burnt out eventually, lose motivation, and sit there doing nothing. So today, I wanted to touch in a little bit on lack of motivation, and how to fix it.
There’s not a clear designated time when we are going to be unproductive and unmotivated. In fact, it will probably come at the most unexpected times. However, you can always optimize yourself and your time so that they will come a lot less often. The first thing – go to sleep not late. Since it is currently summer vacation, I normally go to sleep around 10:30-11:00 AM, which is pretty good. I know that sometimes, all-nighters are necessary, but do them with caution, and don’t plan on doing a whole lot the next day. Second: you’ve all probably heard that the mornings are the most important in terms of if your day is going to be productive or not. Here’s my philosophy on a well-optimized morning: Wake up early, 8:30 AM at the latest. 9:00 AM if you just need to. When you get up, take a shower or something to wake yourself up. Eat breakfast, exercise/go outside, and when you come back, only then start going through your social media. One big problem that people (including myself) have run into is checking social media too early. In fact, don’t even get on your device before you’ve eaten breakfast and went exercising. When you finally do get on, do not stay on for too long. Check the social media, watch some new YouTube videos that came out over-night, and get it over with. The quicker you get it over with, the better. Now you’re ready to start your day. Yay. First, make a plan on the things you would like to do and the things you need to do. I recently was listening to an audio book from audible, titled “59 seconds, think a little, change a lot” by Richard Wiseman. It’s not as much as a self-fulfillment book but a book that can really help you achieve your aims and ambitions by teaching you how to plan out your day. So as you can see – it’s all about planning. Somewhere in the book Richard mentions 4 steps to a much more productive and positive day. Those steps are simple:
1. Plan. Plan out all of the things you want and need to do. Try to make them as specific as possible.
2. Telling. Tell somebody, preferably to the public on social media, the biggest task you want to do. Richard did a study on students that showed that the ones who told somebody their task(s) accomplished more, since they made a promise that they would get it done.
3. Benefits. List the benefits that doing your tasks will bring. Will they bring you closer to your long or short term goals? Will they help you in a certain field?
4. Finally, last but not least, rewards. This one is kind of tricky. For each task, write down a reward that you will give yourself. It can be maybe 30 minutes of social media time, going out to eat, whatever. Just remember – don’t set rewards that are too big. Another tip is to set the biggest reward for the hardest task, and the smallest reward to the easier task.
What I love about the book is that everything is supported by an experiment/study. And the guy himself knows what he’s talking about. I’ve just started to do this, and it really helps me out in terms of productivity.
Now, of course, sometimes you just lack the motivation. In this case – it’s not you. It’s that thing inside of you that doesn’t want you to do anything for the day, and then at the end of the day it will all of the sudden make you feel bad that you didn’t do anything. How to fix this? Simple. Take a cold shower. Like, all the way cold. For like 15 seconds. Man it helps.
So I’ll leave it at that. Lack of motivation and lack of productivity are things that can really stop us from going where we want to be, and fixing them will make you feel pretty good about yourself. So try the method – and I also suggest you check out the book for yourself. Also, I’ve talked about Simon Cade in one of my last posts. Well, he actually has a whole DSLR guide episode dedicated to productivity for filmmakers! You can check it out down below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V_N-HAfdr_g
He also has a DSLR guide episode, which is newer, on how to be an efficient filmmaker. You can check that one out, here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_jxS9MJIGqk
Do YOU lack motivation/productivity sometimes? Do you have other methods of fixing it? Leave a comment, or you can tweet me @IlyaMTweets!
Some people say, and I used to think that this was true; some people say that “if you love making movies enough you will love filmmaking no matter what.” This is a false statement, and here’s why. We all lack motivation and productivity sometimes. For some, it’s more often, while for others it’s not. I think it mostly depends on you as a person. We all get burnt out eventually, lose motivation, and sit there doing nothing. So today, I wanted to touch in a little bit on lack of motivation, and how to fix it.
There’s not a clear designated time when we are going to be unproductive and unmotivated. In fact, it will probably come at the most unexpected times. However, you can always optimize yourself and your time so that they will come a lot less often. The first thing – go to sleep not late. Since it is currently summer vacation, I normally go to sleep around 10:30-11:00 AM, which is pretty good. I know that sometimes, all-nighters are necessary, but do them with caution, and don’t plan on doing a whole lot the next day. Second: you’ve all probably heard that the mornings are the most important in terms of if your day is going to be productive or not. Here’s my philosophy on a well-optimized morning: Wake up early, 8:30 AM at the latest. 9:00 AM if you just need to. When you get up, take a shower or something to wake yourself up. Eat breakfast, exercise/go outside, and when you come back, only then start going through your social media. One big problem that people (including myself) have run into is checking social media too early. In fact, don’t even get on your device before you’ve eaten breakfast and went exercising. When you finally do get on, do not stay on for too long. Check the social media, watch some new YouTube videos that came out over-night, and get it over with. The quicker you get it over with, the better. Now you’re ready to start your day. Yay. First, make a plan on the things you would like to do and the things you need to do. I recently was listening to an audio book from audible, titled “59 seconds, think a little, change a lot” by Richard Wiseman. It’s not as much as a self-fulfillment book but a book that can really help you achieve your aims and ambitions by teaching you how to plan out your day. So as you can see – it’s all about planning. Somewhere in the book Richard mentions 4 steps to a much more productive and positive day. Those steps are simple:
1. Plan. Plan out all of the things you want and need to do. Try to make them as specific as possible.
2. Telling. Tell somebody, preferably to the public on social media, the biggest task you want to do. Richard did a study on students that showed that the ones who told somebody their task(s) accomplished more, since they made a promise that they would get it done.
3. Benefits. List the benefits that doing your tasks will bring. Will they bring you closer to your long or short term goals? Will they help you in a certain field?
4. Finally, last but not least, rewards. This one is kind of tricky. For each task, write down a reward that you will give yourself. It can be maybe 30 minutes of social media time, going out to eat, whatever. Just remember – don’t set rewards that are too big. Another tip is to set the biggest reward for the hardest task, and the smallest reward to the easier task.
What I love about the book is that everything is supported by an experiment/study. And the guy himself knows what he’s talking about. I’ve just started to do this, and it really helps me out in terms of productivity.
Now, of course, sometimes you just lack the motivation. In this case – it’s not you. It’s that thing inside of you that doesn’t want you to do anything for the day, and then at the end of the day it will all of the sudden make you feel bad that you didn’t do anything. How to fix this? Simple. Take a cold shower. Like, all the way cold. For like 15 seconds. Man it helps.
So I’ll leave it at that. Lack of motivation and lack of productivity are things that can really stop us from going where we want to be, and fixing them will make you feel pretty good about yourself. So try the method – and I also suggest you check out the book for yourself. Also, I’ve talked about Simon Cade in one of my last posts. Well, he actually has a whole DSLR guide episode dedicated to productivity for filmmakers! You can check it out down below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V_N-HAfdr_g
He also has a DSLR guide episode, which is newer, on how to be an efficient filmmaker. You can check that one out, here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_jxS9MJIGqk
Do YOU lack motivation/productivity sometimes? Do you have other methods of fixing it? Leave a comment, or you can tweet me @IlyaMTweets!