9 Ways to Stay Motivated at Work and Inspire Those Around You

3 Break overwhelming tasks up into smaller pieces.

An author trying to write a book by sitting down and thinking “okay, today is the day I mash out my entire opus” may not remain an author—or a sane person—for long. Instead, they might do well to start by saying “I’m going to write this chapter’s opening paragraph,” or “I’m going to research my setting.”

This approach works with many daunting undertakings; the sooner you replace the impossibly vast project in your mind with a list of discrete pieces you and your team can handle, the sooner you can start crossing items off and making headway.

4 Set deadlines, even if they’re arbitrary.

Beyond the tried-and-true axiom that work expands to fill the time allotted for it, this one is especially helpful when you’re part of a team and need one person’s work to finish before a colleague can incorporate it into their next step. Feeling like part of a well-oiled machine can inspire your coworkers, and it helps to bypass the grating hurry-up-and-wait feeling that saps motivation.

5 Step outside your comfort zone.

Sometimes a lack of motivation stems from feeling underutilized. Finding ways to try new things could be the trick to breaking out of your funk—and the same goes for colleagues who might appreciate a new challenge.

“I think that’s how you grow,” says Marissa Mayer of Yahoo fame: “When there’s that moment of ‘Wow, I’m not really sure I can do this,’ and you push through those moments, that’s when you have a breakthrough. Sometimes that’s a sign that something really good is about to happen. You’re about to grow and learn a lot about yourself.”

6 Be open to criticism.

Whatever you’re working on, you want to deliver it on time and without much hassle—but more than that, when you feel driven or want to help drive others, you’re interested in how the process could run better next time.

Sometimes that perspective can come from a boss or a mentor ; other times you might get it from a peer who hails from a different background and who would try a radically different approach.

7 Exude good vibes.

Sometimes you have to fake it until you make it, particularly when you’re trying to up your team’s enthusiasm. By adopting a let’s-make-this-happen attitude and not just brusquely urging folks to work faster, you can energize the people around you—and perhaps find yourself energized in kind.

8 Reward yourself—and your colleagues.

Give yourself something to look forward to . Depending on what you’re trying to get motivated to do, the rewards can range from smaller treats, like a trip to the breakroom for a fresh cup of coffee as soon as you finish grinding through emails, to larger indulgences, like finally buying yourself that fancy pair of shoes you’ve been coveting just as soon as you ship your current project.

Those two words have tremendous power to do good. Whether someone helped rid your presentation of an awkward Malaprop or kindly offered a needed referral, it’s worth showing your gratitude . Just hearing someone say “Hey, you’re doing a good job” can go a long way to hearten people.