I am looking for the best ways to express "to get something going" in German. It seems like here are some intuitive expressions, but there seem to be limitations to them that I don't quite understand. Let me provide some examples. In English, these are all common phrases:
I need to get myself going (I've been lazy all day, there are things to do)!
Let's get this party going!
Let's keep the conversations/discussions going between us.
Now, it seems that "in Gang setzen/bringen/halten" sort of (?) works for examples 1 and 3 (correct me if I'm wrong), so that I could write
Ich muss mich in Gang bringen.
…
Wir müssen die Unterhaltungen im Gang halten.
Which leads me to believe that it should work for 2 as well, but it seems not to. This is turn leads me to believe that "in Gang bringen" is not best translated as to get something going, but means something a bit different. I have heard "zum Laufen bringen" which seems to work better for 2, but not as much for 1 and 3.