Act first, wait for motivation second
Waiting to feel like it is the single most common way people stay stuck.
Do this
Schedule the activity regardless of mood, at a specific time, and do it at whatever quality you can manage. Start with things that used to give you a sense of pleasure or accomplishment. Rate mood before and after, so the evidence accumulates where you can see it.
Why it works
This is behavioural activation, an established treatment for depression that performs comparably to cognitive therapy and antidepressants in several trials. Low mood reduces activity, which removes sources of reward, which lowers mood further. Breaking the loop at the behaviour is easier than breaking it at the feeling.
Where it fails
Overloading the schedule backfires and confirms a sense of failure. It also works less well when the inactivity has a practical cause - illness, caring responsibilities, poverty - rather than a motivational one.
How you’ll know
Your before-and-after mood ratings should diverge. If mood after is consistently higher than mood before, the mechanism is working even when it does not feel like it.