Why is it that the times I feel most stressed are the times when I have least motivation?

Because when we're stressed- we automatically want to shut down and just act like nothings happening. When it's the time we need to have the most strategy, organization and determination than ever.

If you had a huge redwood in front of you that you had to cut down, would it take a long time? Yes. Would you want to do it all right away? No. What if you had a tiny sapling. You might be able to pull that out of the ground with your bare hand! Bigger tasks give you more stress and you really don't want to get anything done when you're feeling so pressured. It just feels like there are too many things to accomplish and too little time! Try breaking up large things into smaller jobs. For example, instead of just thinking that you have to clean the whole kitchen, tell yourself you have to clean the dishes, then clean the counters, then clean the appliances, then sweep the floor. You can take breaks in between or power through it depending on your style. Either way, a plan helps you feel organized and in control.

Stress takes a lot of energy from you. And evergy is tightly connected with motivation. In your case, stress takes a lot of energy along with motivation.

You're stressed because you're not motivated and because you haven't been motivated in the past to do the things you should have already completed/dealt with.

i think i feel this way because i'm not able to focus on any one thing—it's all so overwhelming. and because of that lack of focus i tend to overthink. not knowing where to start to tackle what's stressing me out—that's when i'm least motivated. there's so much to do that i don't know where to start....so i don't start anything. which only ends up causing me to stress more. it's a vicious cycle! causing me to think i can't really do anything [right] at all. that's why when i feel the least motivated, i know that i need to just tackle one task or one stress point at a time until i've accomplished what needs to get done. making list and getting myself organized makes me feel like i'm working towards a goal of getting my life back in order!

Personally, I've seen that many times my lack of motivation becomes a burden to me. I start slacking and everything seems to slow down. When I realize that I am not getting anything done, or that I'm falling behind, I start to panic. This panic usually leads to a lot of stress and I even shut down sometimes. I guess that, when I do feel motivated, a certain strength of mind takes over me and that strength helps in reducing stress. Maybe that's just me though, but that's what I've experienced.

u r more stressed so of course u dont want to have more stress so u work so as to not have more of it meaning doing nothing or at least less cause your brain goes like "ok if i dont do anyhting stress wont come" ...wich is obviously wrong cause u getstress for not doing stuff. break the cycle and do something just do

i think prioritization and time allocation are remedies to stress.if u want to make ur work productive practice mindfulness and do one task at a time.work on the most fullfilling task first and yes some task u can avoid which can be done in future or become unimportant automatically if not done like checking email

Because stress is not motivating, it's a strain on your resources. It takes away from the feelings that make it easy and fun to work. Sure, some stress can help get people get working, like looming deadlines, but that is not the same is motivation.

Stress can override your mind and stop you from working and knowing how to continue. You will naturally not want to keep doing something that raises your stress levels so your motivation will decrease. A good idea when this happens is to try to think rationally about the situation. If it is a huge work project to get through or have too many things on your mind to get done, you could write down a list of all the things that need to be done for this stress and work to be completed. Putting it into sub-points for each thing too could make things easier too as they will become more manageable. After this has been done, and after you have taken some deep breaths and some water to calm your mind, slowly and methodically go through the list and bit by bit, your problem will slowly get easier. Some things seem much more scary and therefore stressful if it will need a huge amount of time and effort but splitting it down into much more reasonable small pieces, the stress should be gradually better as it will feel as though you are becoming more organised about it which in itself will help.