How to find motivation when you have none

Where motivation comes from, why waiting for it gets you nowhere, when money helps and why a penalty sometimes makes things worse. Based on research, not on motivational quotes.

This morning there was a plan: a run, the report, and finally calling the bank. By lunch it's clear that motivation isn't coming today. You wait for it like a package: delivery window from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., phone in hand, and in the evening a text arrives: "Your delivery has been rescheduled for tomorrow."

You don't have to wait for it. Motivation has several sources, and nearly all of them can be switched on by hand. One of them is money, and money turns out to be more interesting than it looks.

Why you have no motivation to do anything

When nothing feels worth the effort, the cause is usually one of these:

• The task is too big or too vague. Nobody feels like "studying for the exam", but "reading the first chapter" is bearable: a tiny first step takes a lot of the resistance away.
• You can't see results. Nothing drains you faster than effort that seems to vanish without a trace.
• The goal isn't yours. If someone else needs this done and you don't, you'll have to talk yourself into it every single time.
• Nothing happens if you skip it. Putting it off today is free, and doing it costs effort. The choice is obvious, and it doesn't go the task's way.
• You're running on empty. Sometimes "no motivation" is plain tiredness. If you've been sleeping five hours a night for three weeks, no technique will help until you catch up on sleep. To tell tiredness apart from laziness and apathy, here's a side-by-side comparison.

One warning sign deserves its own paragraph. If for weeks you haven't wanted to do anything at all, things you used to enjoy no longer feel good, and your sleep or appetite is off, it could be depression, and what helps there is a doctor, not motivation. If you have thoughts of hurting yourself, don't wait: call your local emergency number or a crisis line. In the US, you can call or text 988.

Intrinsic vs extrinsic motivation, in plain words

Motivation is whatever gets you to start something and keeps you from quitting halfway. It's usually split into two kinds.

Intrinsic motivation is when the activity is rewarding in itself: interesting, enjoyable, meaningful. That's how people read a favorite novel or put together a LEGO set. No reward required.

Extrinsic motivation is when you do it for something outside the activity: a grade, a paycheck, praise, or staying out of trouble. That's how people do their taxes. Nobody files a tax return out of love, and yet the returns get filed.

Psychologists Edward Deci and Richard Ryan, who developed self-determination theory, argue that intrinsic motivation rests on three things: a sense of choice, a sense that you're getting good at it, and a connection with other people. Knock one out and interest fades, even in something you love.

Neither kind is bad. Intrinsic motivation feels better, while extrinsic motivation is more reliable where there's no interest and never will be. Trouble starts when people mix them up.

Motivation comes after you start

The biggest trap is expecting the desire to come first and the action second. It usually goes the other way: five minutes of work first, then the desire to keep going. So the best answer to the question of how to motivate yourself sounds strange: start without it.

Harvard Business School professor Teresa Amabile and her colleague Steven Kramer collected nearly 12,000 diary entries from 238 employees at seven companies, who described their workday every evening. What lifted mood and motivation most wasn't a bonus or praise from the boss. It was the sense of making progress on work that felt meaningful, and even a small step counted. The worst days were most often the ones when the work stalled.

Two practical takeaways follow. First, start with a step you're sure to pull off, like the habit rule of starting with a version too small to skip. Second, make progress visible. A crossed-off line, a check in a tracker, a star in the sky: these aren't decorations, they're fuel.

A motivational quote on your lock screen looks nice. It won't take the first step for you.

When money kills interest

In 1971, Edward Deci ran a simple experiment with college students and a puzzle. Some were paid for every figure they put together, others weren't. Then the experimenter found an excuse to leave the room, and that's when it got interesting: the students who had been paid spent less of their free time on the puzzle than the rest. The game had turned into a job, and nobody does a job for free.

Later, Deci and his colleagues pooled 128 experiments and confirmed the pattern: an expected reward lowers interest in an activity people already enjoyed. On boring tasks, though, rewards didn't lower interest, because there was none to lose.

The takeaway is simple: don't pay yourself for what you love. If you draw for fun, don't turn it into "three drawings a week or else".

When financial incentives work

The largest meta-analysis on the subject combined 183 studies spanning 40 years, with more than 200,000 participants. The verdict was a truce: intrinsic motivation better predicts the quality of work, and extrinsic incentives better predict the quantity. Put simply, interest helps you do it well, and an incentive helps you do it at all.

It gets more interesting when money can be lost rather than earned. Economists Roland Fryer, Steven Levitt, John List and Sally Sadoff ran an experiment in schools in Chicago Heights, just south of Chicago. Some teachers could earn a bonus at the end of the year if their students improved. Others got the same bonus at the start, on the condition that they'd hand it back if their students didn't improve. Math scores rose noticeably only in the second group. The ordinary bonus did almost nothing, even though the amount was the same.

Economists still argue about why a loss hits harder. For a long time it was thought to feel about twice as strong as an equal gain, but a recent reanalysis disputes that number. Field experiments like the one in Chicago Heights show the effect without settling the argument.

Smoking tells a similar story. In a 2015 trial with 2,538 participants, some people were offered a reward for quitting, while others were asked to put down $150 of their own money first, which they'd lose if they went back to smoking. Ninety percent took the reward offer, and only 14% agreed to put money down. But those who did had much better results: six months later, 52% of them weren't smoking, compared with 17% of those in the reward program. Part of the gap comes from who agrees to a deal like that in the first place: the most determined people. The lesson is still useful, though. A commitment works for the people willing to make one.

Why a penalty can backfire

There's a counterexample too, and it's worth knowing. In 1998, economists Uri Gneezy and Aldo Rustichini introduced a late fee at six daycare centers in Haifa, Israel: 10 shekels if parents picked up their child more than 10 minutes late. Late pickups didn't go down. They went up, from about 8 to about 18 a week per center on average. And when the fee was dropped, late pickups stayed at the new level.

The explanation is right in the title of their paper: "A Fine Is a Price." Before, being late meant an awkward moment with the teacher. The fee turned it into a service: pay ten shekels and your conscience is clear.

What that means for a promise to yourself:

• The amount has to sting. If paying is easier than doing, the promise turns into buying the right to put things off.
• The decision has to be yours. The daycares imposed the fee on the parents. When you make a promise to yourself, you set the terms, including the amount.
• It's not only about money. A promise kept saves you Stars, but it also gives you a reason to respect yourself.

Financial motivation in StarDo

StarDo is a to-do list inside Telegram where any task can come with a promise: a number of Telegram Stars you commit to. It's the same kind of incentive the Chicago Heights teachers had: not a reward you might get, but your own Stars that you'll hand over if the task doesn't get done. Stars are bought with real money (what they are and what they cost), so a promise like this feels real.

Nothing is charged upfront. Get the task done in time and you keep your Stars, and a star lights up in your sky in the app. If you don't, you have 48 hours to pay, and if you don't pay, your honor rating goes down. You pick the amount, from 5 Stars up, and this is where the Haifa lesson comes in: pick a number you'd hate to part with. There's no luck involved. The outcome depends on you alone, and the best one is paying nothing.

Which tasks need financial motivation

Going by the research above, money helps most where there's no interest and won't be any: a report, taxes, a deep clean, the phone call you've been dodging for three weeks, the first weeks of exercise before it turns into a habit. For things you love, a promise isn't needed and can even hurt.

• Make promises about specific actions with deadlines: "sort the paperwork by Saturday", not "get more organized".
• Start with one or two promises a week, not one on every line of your list.
• If the same task keeps falling through, the amount isn't the problem. It's time to cut the task into smaller pieces.

For how to choose an amount, and why a prepaid gym membership doesn't help, see what a commitment device is and how to use one.

Frequently asked questions

What should I do when I have no motivation at all?

Pick a five-minute task you're sure to finish, do it, and check it off. Motivation shows up after the first step more often than before it. If this has been going on for weeks and nothing brings you joy, it's worth talking to a doctor.

Which is better, intrinsic or extrinsic motivation?

You need both. Intrinsic motivation helps you do a good job at things you enjoy. Extrinsic motivation helps you get through things you don't enjoy but still need to do. Just don't attach money to things you already love.

Do financial incentives actually work?

Yes, especially for boring tasks and when money can be lost rather than earned. But the amount has to be noticeable: a penalty that's too small reads as a fee for the right to skip the task.

You don't need to find motivation once and for all. You only need enough for the first step, and progress will carry you from there. And for the tasks where nothing else helps, there's a promise you'd hate to break.