Visible Success

If you plan to do something (no matter what) and it will take you some time and effort I have discovered for myself that one can motivate oneself best if you make the whole thing measurable. This is the first step you have to take before even beginning with the real thing. It really helps you to feel and see the success every time you get depressed or want to give up.

Here are some examples how this could work, I normally do this stuff in excel:

Fitness Center

Make a training plan (normally at the gym they do it with you) and write down how many kilos you use with every exercise or how many minutes and in what difficulty you run. If you increase the weight note it, but don't delete the old weight. In that manner you can monitor your progress.

Finances

If you have financial problems and get depressed, because there is no money at the end of the month then the most important things is to get an overview of the situation that helps you manage your expenses. Make a list of all the regular expenses (monthly, quarterly, annually) and your regular income/salary. Then put in the balance of your bank account and deduct what's left for this month and then you have the balance at the end of the month and so on for the next month. If your balance is dropping each month then you have to change something. But, if it is rising then you now that your situation will change eventually and you don't have to feel depressed. But: You have to stick to your plan of course and you should cross check the budget with the real bank account statement and make changes if your plan isn't realistic.

Work

If I have a boring work to do that really sucks then I make a step-by-step plan, that means I split the whole work into sub-ordinate targets. Then I can reward myself with a "check"-sign for every little step and effort. I used this for example when I had to optimize the whole filing system at work by renaming hundreds of files. Every folder properly restructured was a step. And so even investing just a little time added to the progress plan and was made visible.

I really love this method, because I can feel the success just by looking at the figures and feel proud of what I have achieved. And that helps motivating even for the dumbest and most boring works!