10+ Best Articles on Motivation
The most useful articles on motivation from around the web—beginners to advanced—curated by thought leaders and our community. We focus on timeless pieces and update the list whenever we discover new, must-read articles or videos—make sure to bookmark and revisit this page.
Top 5 Motivation Articles
At a glance: these are the articles that have been most read, shared, and saved on motivation by Refind users in 2023.
Videos
Watch a video to get a quick overview.
Dan Pink: The puzzle of motivation
Career analyst Dan Pink examines the puzzle of motivation, starting with a fact that social scientists know but most managers don't: Traditional rewards aren't always as effective as we think. Listen for illuminating stories -- and maybe, a way forward.
How to ...?
How To Motivate Yourself To Study When You're Too Busy With Work
Are you too busy with work that you sometimes lose motivation to study? Here are some tips on how to build and maintain your motivation despite being busy.
«Quotes that inspire need to be easy to remember, connect with you on a personal level, and fire up your passion, enthusiasm, and goals in life.»
How to motivate yourself to change
Change is hard, but it’s possible. Use motivational interviewing techniques to build your confidence, and take the plunge
How to Hack the Reward System in Your Brain And Stay Motivated
One of the most important things we need to achieve our goals in life is motivation. Here's how to hack the reward system in your brain and stay motivated.
«The moral of this story is that things usually feel out of control when we begin to neglect or ignore the things and people who matter to us, even if it’s temporary»
Short Articles
Short on time? Check out these useful short articles on motivation—all under 10 minutes.
How to Use a Sense of Urgency to Do What Actually Matters
Harness your motivation to tend to "urgent" matters as a way to achieve goals.
«We know that our brains respond to urgency, so instead of fighting against ourselves, we can harness this latent motivation and use it to get things done.»
The science of motivation: how to get and stay motivated
Motivation only starts to build again once we have taken the first steps and gained some momentum in our task. It's all about getting started and consistently taking action, making sure we get back on…
«three innate psychological needs which must be satisfied to enhance self-motivation and mental health: competence, autonomy and relatedness.»
The crucial link between motivation and self-awareness
To achieve a goal, a drive to do so is key. Yet not all motivation is created equal – and some factors driving a desire to succeed can even be harmful.
«self-improvement does not have to be a chore, but a source of joy.»
What To Do When You're Tired of Being Tired
In our first session this year, my coaching client Jane told me that she has rested, given herself permission to feel down, and lowered her personal bar, just as we all have been advised to do as we…
«A mantra I use in my own life is, “This is what’s happening right now. I’m doing the best that I can. Just get going, and see what happens.”»
Which Matters More: Method or Motivation?
Surprising results about what matters for learning from a famous study.
«you need a system. You need to understand how learning works, and how you can make best use of your time to make a difference.»
Long Articles
These are some of the most-read long-form articles on motivation.
10 Things That Steal Our Motivation—and How to Get It Back
Bookmark for your 'meh' days.
The Six Different Contextual Types of Rewards in Gamification
Yu-kai Chou, Gamification Gosu and former CEO of RewardMe, lists out and explains the 6 Contextual Types of Rewards in Gamification and when to use them.
The Science of Motivation
Motivation is hard to come by. There's always another task, another project, another objective—and any motivation you manage to scrape together for one thing is absent for the next. \
What is Refind?
Every day Refind picks the most relevant links from around the web for you. Picking only a handful of links means focusing on what’s relevant and useful. We favor timeless pieces—links with long shelf-lives, articles that are still relevant one month, one year, or even ten years from now. These lists of the best resources on any topic are the result of years of careful curation.
How does Refind curate?
It’s a mix of human and algorithmic curation, following a number of steps:
- We monitor 10k+ sources and 1k+ thought leaders on hundreds of topics—publications, blogs, news sites, newsletters, Substack, Medium, Twitter, etc.
- In addition, our users save links from around the web using our Save buttons and our extensions.
- Our algorithm processes 100k+ new links every day and uses external signals to find the most relevant ones, focusing on timeless pieces.
- Our community of active users gets the most relevant links every day, tailored to their interests. They provide feedback via implicit and explicit signals: open, read, listen, share, mark as read, read later, «More/less like this», etc.
- Our algorithm uses these internal signals to refine the selection.
- In addition, we have expert curators who manually curate niche topics.
The result: lists of the best and most useful articles on hundreds of topics.
How does Refind detect «timeless» pieces?
We focus on pieces with long shelf-lives—not news. We determine «timelessness» via a number of metrics, for example, the consumption pattern of links over time.
How many sources does Refind monitor?
We monitor 10k+ content sources on hundreds of topics—publications, blogs, news sites, newsletters, Substack, Medium, Twitter, etc.
Can I submit a link?
Indirectly, by using Refind and saving links from outside (e.g., via our extensions).
How can I report a problem?
When you’re logged-in, you can flag any link via the «More» (...) menu. You can also report problems via email to hello@refind.com
Who uses Refind?
300k+ smart people start their day with Refind. To learn something new. To get inspired. To move forward. Our apps have a 4.9/5 rating.
Is Refind free?
Yes, it’s free!
How can I sign up?
Head over to our homepage and sign up by email or with your Twitter or Google account.