Getting Things Done With Depression: 10 Ways to Find Motivation and Get Started

When depression drains motivation, even ordinary responsibilities can feel enormous. Answering an email, making a phone call, starting a work project, cleaning the kitchen, or simply figuring out where to begin can require far more energy than someone on the outside might realize.

This article summarizes a conversation from the Giving Voice to Depression podcast hosted by Terry McGuire, featuring New York City-based writer Sarah Fielding. Sarah joined Terry and original co-host Bridget to discuss practical strategies inspired by her Healthline article, “Nine Ways to Motivate Yourself to Work When You’re Struggling Mentally.”

The conversation starts from an important premise: depression-related difficulty getting things done is not the same thing as laziness. Depression can affect energy, concentration, decision-making, and the ability to initiate tasks. The goal is not to shame someone into working harder, but to find realistic ways to make the next step feel possible.

1. Tasks Are More Manageable Once Begun

For Sarah, the biggest obstacle is often not completing a task. It is starting it.

A project sitting untouched can grow larger in the imagination with every passing minute. When someone is already struggling mentally, uncertainty about where to begin can turn something manageable into something that feels almost impossible.

Sarah explained:

Whenever I have a task in front of me that I need to complete, it’s very overwhelming and just feels very big and it’s hard to really take that first step, especially on days where it’s just harder to function mentally.

The encouraging part is that starting can change the way the task feels. Once that first action has been taken, the unknown becomes more concrete. Instead of confronting an entire project, the person is simply dealing with the next piece of it.

That first step might mean:

• Opening the document
• Writing the first sentence
• Sending one email
• Gathering the necessary materials
• Making one phone call
• Spending five minutes outlining what comes next

Sometimes momentum begins with something very small.

2. Give Your Day Some Structure

When depression creates mental fog, keeping every responsibility in one’s head can add another layer of stress. Sarah recommends creating some structure by looking at the day as a whole before attempting to tackle everything at once.

That might mean identifying:

• The most important tasks
• What resources those tasks require
• Less urgent responsibilities
• Approximately how long each item may take
• Where meals, breaks, and rest belong

The schedule does not have to be rigid. In fact, Sarah emphasizes that the best structure may change from one day to the next.

Someone might use the “big three” approach and choose three priorities. Another person might prefer time-blocking, setting aside specific periods for work, administrative tasks, meals, and rest.

The point is not to perfectly control the day. It is to reduce the number of decisions that need to be made while already struggling.

3. Put Your Tasks on Paper

A mental to-do list can become intimidating quickly. Ten responsibilities swirling around internally may somehow feel like 30.

Writing them down creates distance and clarity.

Sarah described why lists are particularly helpful for her:

When I have 10 things I need to do and they’re just swimming around in my head, it just feels overwhelming and impossible to do anything. And then when I see it all written down, it just makes it so much more manageable.

Sarah said that nine times out of 10, once she actually writes everything down, the list turns out to be much smaller than it seemed in her head.

A written list also means someone no longer has to continually rehearse everything they cannot afford to forget. The page can hold the tasks for them, freeing up some mental bandwidth for actually completing them.

4. Break Big Tasks Into Smaller Steps

“Finish the project” may technically be a to-do item, but it is not necessarily a useful one.

Large tasks can be especially difficult during depression because they contain multiple unseen steps. Breaking them apart makes both the work and the progress easier to see.

Instead of:

Finish presentation

the list might say:

1. Review notes
2. Create outline
3. Draft opening slides
4. Add supporting information
5. Proofread
6. Send final version

Sarah shared how deliberately including even simple tasks helps her build momentum:

If I have to send a single email to someone, if I have to make a call to a doctor’s office, anything, I write it down because I know that being able to cross those simple things off my list will give me that boost of like, Okay, I did this. I’m motivated. I’m going.

Those small wins matter because they create momentum. Completing several easy tasks can also provide a productive bridge between two larger jobs when someone does not have the energy to immediately jump into another demanding project.

Terry later shared that she had started using the technique herself after interviewing Sarah. Instead of writing something broad like “write the next episode,” she could separate it into steps such as doing the interview and transcribing it.

Seeing those individual pieces get completed made the larger task feel less intimidating and helped create the sense of accomplishment that keeps people moving.

5. Work With Your Natural Energy

Not everyone does their best work at the same hour.

Some people concentrate well first thing in the morning. Others become more productive around midday or later in the afternoon. Depression, anxiety, poor sleep, and burnout can make those patterns even more noticeable.

Sarah recommends paying attention to them.

If someone knows that complex work is easier at noon, for example, they might use the morning for easier administrative tasks and reserve their stronger period for something requiring deeper concentration.

Sarah explained:

Analyzing kind of like what times you’re more productive ... getting those smaller things done in the morning to kind of jump start a bit your day and then really diving in at that point where you’re most productive is much better than trying to force it at a different time, if possible.

That last phrase matters: if possible.

Not everyone controls their work schedule. But wherever flexibility exists, working with natural energy patterns may be more effective than pretending productivity should remain identical from 9 a.m. until 5 p.m.

6. Check Your Basic Needs First

Sometimes the problem really is depression or burnout. Other times, another unmet need may be making an already difficult day harder.

Sarah and Terry discussed several simple possibilities worth checking:

• Has the person eaten?
• Are they dehydrated?
• Do they need a short break?
• Have they been sitting too long?
• Would some fresh air help?
• Would another workspace feel better?

These suggestions are not meant to imply that food, water, or a walk cures depression. They do not.

But physical and mental well-being are interconnected. Meeting a basic need may remove one additional obstacle from an already challenging day and make it a little easier to determine what is actually needed next.

7. Change Your Environment When Stuck

A workspace can sometimes become associated with frustration.

If someone has spent several difficult days sitting in the same chair staring unsuccessfully at the same computer, returning to that spot may immediately trigger the expectation that another bad day is coming.

Sarah described how a familiar environment can begin reinforcing discouraging expectations. After struggling for several days, simply returning to the same place can create the feeling that the pattern is destined to repeat itself.

Stepping away, even briefly, may help interrupt that association.

A temporary environmental reset might involve:

• Walking around the block
• Working in another room
• Moving to a library or coffee shop
• Sitting outside
• Taking a short break before returning

The goal is not avoidance. It is interrupting the mental loop that says, “I couldn’t do it yesterday, so I won’t be able to do it today.”

8. Check In With Yourself Honestly

A dramatic drop in motivation can feel random. One day someone may be moving through their work easily; the next, getting anything done feels nearly impossible.

Sarah encourages people to become curious about that change instead of immediately criticizing themselves.

What happened recently? Is something creating anxiety? Has work been unusually demanding? Has sleep suffered? Is burnout building? Is there something underneath the lack of motivation that needs attention?

Understanding the reason may not instantly fix the problem, but it can make the response more appropriate.

Sarah offered an important reminder:

Maybe it’s that you won’t be able to accomplish everything you set out to do today. I think the most important thing is to realize that that’s okay. You’re not a failure because you didn’t accomplish everything you set out to do that day.

Sometimes adjusting expectations is healthier than pushing until functioning deteriorates even further.

There can even be value in recognizing what is happening and responding appropriately. Acknowledging a limit is not the same as giving up, and having a difficult day is not evidence of failure.

9. Separate Busyness From Real Productivity

Modern work culture often rewards visible activity: answering messages, attending meetings, typing constantly, staying late, and always appearing occupied.

But activity and productivity are not necessarily the same.

Terry pointed out that some of her most productive moments might look like inactivity from the outside. She could close her eyes after an interview for 10 minutes without actually sleeping and mentally construct an introduction or even the framework of an entire episode.

Sarah agreed:

I think that busy and productive are two completely different things, because you can look busy as much as you want, but actually being productive and getting the work you need to get done is a completely different thing.

Real productivity may involve thinking, resting briefly, planning, regrouping, or protecting enough mental energy to complete the work that actually matters.

This distinction also challenges the assumption that someone who appears busy must be accomplishing more than someone who occasionally pauses. Productivity is about meaningful progress, not simply visible motion.

10. Remember Off Days Are Human

Perhaps the most compassionate theme running through the conversation is that human productivity naturally ebbs and flows.

Someone may accomplish an extraordinary amount one day and struggle the next. Depression can make those swings more pronounced, but no one operates at maximum capacity every hour of every day.

That applies at work, at home, and in virtually every other part of life.

Sarah emphasized that having a difficult day does not make someone a poor employee:

You’re not a bad person or a bad employee because you’re having an off day or a depressed day, or just a day that you’re not as motivated as the day before — and it’s okay to be that way.

Employers can benefit from understanding this, too. As Sarah discussed, allowing someone reasonable flexibility during a difficult period may enable that person to return with more energy rather than pushing until they are completely burned out.

The goal is not to abandon responsibilities or pretend deadlines do not matter. It is to approach work with enough self-awareness to make productivity more sustainable.

Finding Momentum When Depression Feels Heavy

None of these strategies is a magic solution for depression, and Sarah never presents them that way. There will be days when making a list, changing rooms, or rearranging a schedule simply is not enough.

But on days when someone is struggling without being completely incapacitated, small adjustments can reduce the distance between “I cannot do all of this” and “I can do this one next thing.”

The approach discussed throughout the episode is straightforward:

• Start smaller.
• Make the work visible.
• Prioritize what actually matters.
• Pay attention to energy and basic needs.
• Adapt the plan when necessary.
• Recognize progress instead of only unfinished work.
• Stop treating every difficult day as a character flaw.

Near the end of the conversation, Bridget highlighted another important lesson: what worked yesterday might not work today. There is an organic ebb and flow to motivation, mental health, energy, and productivity.

That may be especially important for people living with depression to remember. A strategy that worked beautifully on Monday may feel impossible on Thursday. That does not necessarily mean the strategy failed or the person failed.

Sometimes getting things done when depressed is less about forcing more effort and more about finding a gentler, more realistic way to begin. And sometimes the smallest completed step is exactly what creates enough momentum for the next one.