How to Reward Yourself For a Job Well Done + 10 Ideas

To make sure you’ll reach your goals, you have to have a good plan and make your goals achievable. One of the best ways to motivate yourself to work and to make sure you are making steady progress is to reward yourself for a job well done.

The rewards don’t need to be big, they will still help you stay on track and keep going even when you don’t feel like it. But what kind of rewards work best? How you can motivate yourself with rewards? Let’s find out!

How do you reward yourself for working hard?

You might be wondering what is the best way to reward yourself for working hard and reaching your daily or monthly goals. The secret to choosing good rewards is to choose something that is connected to the goal and the specific problems you are tackling.

This way the rewards aren’t just fun little rewards, but they actually help you to stick to your goals and go forward.

To motivate yourself, you need to make sure that you get the reward often enough to keep you going, but not too easily so that it actually feels rewarding. If you for example reward yourself with a 20-minute Instagram break, you of course don’t want to do that after every 20 minutes of work – you wouldn’t get much done!

Instead, you might choose to give yourself the 20-minute break after 90 or 120 minutes of focused work. At that point, you’ll probably be in need of a break anyway and the idea of being able to relax by doing something easy has kept you going till then.

Should you reward yourself for your accomplishments?

It’s easy to just ignore your little victories and accomplishments and just keep going forward. While this doesn’t necessarily hinder your growth and progress, it can make you blind to your achievements.

That’s why I say you definitely should reward yourself for your little (as well as big) victories. If you for example come up with rewards for each week that you have been productive and have worked hard on your goal, it’s easier for you to hold yourself accountable, make progress, and also see what you could do better.

Why rewarding yourself is important

Normally people don’t reward themselves for any minor achievements and there isn’t necessarily anything wrong with that. But this can also lead you to feel like you haven’t gotten anything done or that nothing you do is in any way special.

If you have difficult goals to achieve, you need to be your own cheerleader and acknowledge your progress. Celebrating little achievements and victories motivates you and gives you confidence. And it’s fun!

That’s why rewarding yourself is important: it helps you see the progress you are making and it makes it easier to go forward even during the tough times because you know it matters and you have more confidence in your own abilities.

How to motivate yourself with rewards

Sometimes you need to do something really difficult or boring. Maybe you have tried something many times, but it hasn’t worked out. If you feel like you’re not going anywhere or that you’re not making enough progress, setting rewards can really help.

Most importantly you need to make sure that you have a good plan. Once you know what exactly you are supposed to do and your plan is realistic, you can motivate yourself with some carefully chosen rewards.

1. If you procrastinate a lot, you can reward yourself for starting to work when you’re supposed to, or for example for a certain amount of time worked
2. If you have a hard time making progress, reward yourself for every step you take, or for example, every ten steps taken

Come up with rewards that help you tackle your specific problem, like procrastination. This way the rewards will work better.

Some good rewards for everyday accomplishments

A good reward encourages you to take action but is still appropriate for the achievement. It doesn’t make any sense to make it too easy to get rewards because that defeats the point and it doesn’t really motivate you either.

Good rewards for everyday accomplishments are quite small, but will still make you want to do what you need to do. You can try these rewards for simple achievements like finishing your to-do list or studying for an hour.

1. Checking Instagram or TikTok

2. Listening to music eyes closed

3. Watching a Youtube video

4. Going for a stroll

5. Eating some snacks

6. Reading a chapter

7. Watching one episode of a TV show

8. Playing a game

9. Calling a friend

10. Making a coffee

Bigger rewards for a job well done

So far I’ve been talking about small rewards for everyday accomplishments. But what if you’ve done something big – like achieved your New Year’s resolutions or finally got that promotion?

In that case, you want to give yourself a bigger reward. Maybe you could go on a weekend trip to one of your favorite cities or for example get a nice new bag that you can take to your new job.

You want all the rewards to motivate you to work for your goal and it’s good if the reward is somehow related to the goal.

Knowing that a big reward that you really care about is waiting for you if you stick to your new healthy lifestyle or master a skill can really help you to stick to your routine even when you have no energy or you feel like you can’t do it.

As you can see, setting rewards for yourself really pays off. It motivates you, makes it easier for you to hold yourself accountable, and it gives you an extra reason to keep working, no matter what.

Do you usually reward yourself for a job well done? Have you noticed that it helps you reach your goals? Share your thoughts in the comments, I’d love to know what you think!

If you need some ideas on what goals to set, read these articles next:

30 Monthly Goal Ideas that Will Change Your Life

26 Life Goals You Need to Set for Yourself Today

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