5 Expert Tips to Keep Your DIY Project Motivation High

The beginning of a DIY home improvement project is all fun and games—you’re likely excited about the outcome and looking forward to learning new skills. Plus, you’re certain you’ll feel a sense of pride upon completing the work yourself. But soon enough, regret sets in.

Our BHG 2024 DIY Trend Report shows that 89% of respondents have experienced what’s known as mid-project regret syndrome, or MPRS. It’s that feeling you get halfway through a task that makes you wonder why you even started it, and it’s often the cause for halting a project altogether. In fact, 74% of people told BHG they have half-finished projects in their homes because they simply lost motivation. In this article, we’ll talk to experts about how to keep spirits and inspiration high to ensure you finish those home improvements you were once so excited about. 

How to Stay Motivated During a DIY Project

Staying motivated and pushing through the discomfort is the key to completing home improvement projects and not stopping at the halfway point. “I try to remember that I look ridiculous when I’m only halfway through a haircut too,” says Al Ruggie, marketing director at ASAP Restoration LLC. “You usually can’t judge the quality of a job until the job is finished—haircuts and DIY construction projects are all the same.”

Read on to learn five ways to maintain motivation while completing a DIY project.

1. Plan Ahead

The more preparation you do before a major DIY project, the more motivated you will be. Think about what you are good at—you might be great at patching drywall but lack the patience and precision required for painting.

“You have to look at the whole scope of work before you start a project and determine if every step along the way is something that you are comfortable doing and that you have a desire to do so,” Ruggie says. “It might be a situation in which it’s best to have someone come in and finish up the end, otherwise, you might have an unfinished drywall patch until you sell the house,” Ruggie says. 

Going over a thorough list of tasks right away will ensure you don’t start a project you can’t realistically finish, and it will help you stay on track.

“Most large projects will require multiple steps and stages before you ever reach completion,” Ruggie says. “With projects like this, it’s best to have at least an understanding of what all the steps are. Then you can start determining which ones are going to take the most time and which require tools or skills you might not have.”

2. Prepare for Setbacks

Ruggie spent more than a year completing a deck in his backyard and had to remain flexible throughout after a series of setbacks. The deck was a complicated pentagon design that used an invisible securing system to avoid the look of screw holes in the wood. It also included decorative gabion towers (cages filled with decorative rocks).

“I’m a perfectionist when it comes to my own projects, but in all honesty, this one has really just been plagued by multiple bouts of mid-project fatigue,” Ruggie admits. 

At one point, he dislocated his shoulder and experienced pain that made cutting wire cages for rocks extremely difficult. When he later realized he would need to individually place more than 10,000 rocks in the wire cages to achieve his desired look, he had to change plans again, this time opting to work at night when the Arizona heat wasn’t so extreme.

“There are going to be times when progress feels unbearably slow. There are going to be times when you feel like the whole thing is a disaster, and you want to completely give up,” Ruggies says. “In these situations it can be easiest to break large tasks up into smaller ones so that you can feel like progress is always being made, even if it has slowed to a crawl.”

It’s important to plan for setbacks and delays in any project. You might find halfway through a tiling job that your local hardware store is out of the grout you used in the color you need, which could mean waiting a few days for a new tub to ship. You could also have something come up at work that takes your attention away from a project for a few days.

“When these life events force you to take a break, it’s also a good opportunity to assess the direction taken so far,” says Ruggie. “If you determine a better or quicker way to get something done while on a break, it might make the rest of the project easier, but you wouldn’t have known it without the perspective shift.”

3. Build in Milestones and Rewards

Instead of writing “renovate bedroom” on your to-do list, it helps to simplify major tasks so you can check them off along the way. That detailed list might include steps such as “patch walls,” “tape and prep for paint,” “prime baseboards,” etc. Doing this ensures you’re setting realistic goals about what you can get done and gives you a sense of accomplishment each step of the way.

“Break down what’s left of the project into smaller pieces and just focus on one piece at a time, then reward yourself with a break and something meaningful to you,” says Anastasia Ristau, PhD, LP, clinical psychologist and director of psychotherapeutics at PrairieCare.

A reward might mean going out for dinner or switching to a more exciting task, like buying new furniture for the completed bedroom—something that feels easier and more fun. It’s also important to reflect on the progress you’ve made so far, especially if you’re feeling as if you haven’t made any. 

“Show off your progress and enjoy a sense of accomplishment each step of the way,” Ristau says. This might include posting photos on social media or sending messages to friends and family to update them on your progress. Breaking the project up into smaller tasks in advance can also help you check items off your to-do list. Lastly, remember to keep your eye on the prize. 

“Revisiting those vision boards, pictures, or mantras that you found at the beginning of your project to reconnect with your ‘why’ and what inspired you to begin with can be helpful, especially during the middle stages of a DIY project,” Ristau says. 

4. Remain Flexible and Make Adjustments to Your Plan

When Ruggie dislocated his shoulder halfway through his gabion tower deck project, he had to adjust to his physical limitations. One way he got through was to set even smaller, more realistic goals for himself. 

“Personally, I like to set up permission scenarios for myself,” he says. “When I had to dig holes to put the gabion towers into, I told myself, ‘you aren’t allowed to do anything else until the digging is done.’ Then when it was completed, I celebrated.”

You can plan a project all you want, but life tends to throw curveballs, so it’s good to anticipate that possibility. 

5. Ask for Help

If you are looking for some extra encouragement, it could be as simple as phoning a friend for that extra boost. 

“Engage with friends or family to have some space to be real and ask them to give you the pep talk that you need, to help you get through a tough stretch, and to remind you of your capability and strengths in doing this project,” Ristau says. 

Ruggie says he prefers to tell friends and family about the project so they can keep him accountable. 

“This way, the people I care about and talk to the most will ask how the project is going and what progress I have made since the last time they asked,” he says. “If I feel guilty about not getting enough done on a project, the prospect of talking with someone who knows what to expect from me on that project will motivate me to do some of that work before speaking with them again so that I have some good news to share when I do.”

If you’ve tried to regain your motivation but are still feeling overwhelmed, it might be time to hire a professional.