Do you often feel lazy even when you aren’t physically stressed out? Well, while you try to stop being lazy, note that laziness is a common thing for everybody, and it’s only natural some of the time. Being lazy implies that you don’t want to input much effort into something, especially if you feel it’s not warranted.
However, being lazy can also be problematic. If you are always feeling sluggish and unmotivated, you will find it challenging to take proactive actions to achieve things set out for you. When feeling lazy becomes problematic, it may often lead to depression, eating disorder, anxiety, and take particular detrimental effect that may leave you struggling with your personal and professional life.
The good news is, there are specific strategies you can employ to help you overcome or avoid the dark side of laziness. To stop being lazy, know that you would need to put in the conscious effort before any of these tips would work for you. These tips would make overcoming laziness much easier for you.
Ten tips to help you stop being lazy
1. Acknowledge that you are lazy
This is a crucial step in the whole process of overcoming your laziness, acknowledging the fact that you feel lazy makes you conscious of it and gets your mind prepared to tackle the issue. However, if you don’t like the idea of feeling sluggish, acknowledging the fact may seem like a burden to you and could be counterproductive as you may experience self-resentment rather than motivation to address your laziness.
The feeling of resentment can affect you negatively as it often leads to a series of negative self-talk, increased stress, low self-esteem, and less motivation. If this is your case, you have to accept your laziness, it is normal to feel lazy, it is okay to feel sluggish, and you have to learn to tackle your inactivity without feeling guilt or bad about yourself.
2. Figure out what makes you lazy and unmotivated
You cannot fight what you know nothing about; take enough time to understand the root cause of your laziness or lack of motivation. Yes, this step can be very challenging, mostly if you are confused about the source, but it is necessary if you genuinely want to overcome your laziness. If you successfully figure out what makes you unmotivated most times, you can quickly come up with ways to prevent it or stop it.
To make this process easier for you, ask yourself prompting questions such as; “Do you always feel lazy at a particular time in the day?” “Do you feel unmotivated when you less challenging tasks to handle?” carefully study your day, your activities, and your schedule. People can quickly lose motivation when they feel stressed, so pay attention to your environment, the people around you, and the work you do, then figure out things that make you stressed and work on them.
3. Work on habits
In most cases, laziness can be linked to direct or indirect habits, and this is evident if you feel lazy during a particular time, doing one specific thing in your day. One way to reduce your laziness is by breaking your habits and regular routines.
We humans quickly get bored with patterns but work better with changes in our environment; this is why you may feel less productive sometimes, especially if you happen to work from home or a particular office.
Consider giving yourself different working hours, working from a different location, or changing that uniform. Any significant change you take can have to take a positive effect on your mood and motivation.
4. Don’t set goals that aren’t easily attainable
Sometimes we become lazy because we set intimidating tasks for ourselves, and the thought of finishing such studies makes it difficult to begin work. For example, you decide to run 5 miles a day in preparation for a contest, and today happens to be so hot for even a professional runner to accomplish such a goal. In such a situation, it is only normal that you might feel discouraged and procrastinate as a result.
However, if you reduce your daily goal to 1-mile per day, it would be much easier to summon the courage and stay motivated even on days when the weather is unfavourable. Besides, running 1-mile per day is better than not running due to procrastination.
5. Accomplish small tasks before attempting larger ones
One of the best tricks to stay motivated is to ignite the feeling of accomplishment; this is because achievements make us optimistic and feel good about ourselves, and smaller tasks are more comfortable to accomplish. After a successful finish of a small job, it would be easier to carry that positive energy unto your next and more difficult task.
You can restructure your workload, routines and even your day to accomplish this. Choose a small and less tedious task at the beginning of your day; this would help you build momentum to handle the more tedious work ahead. You can begin with basic things like dressing your bed immediately after you wake up, or any task that would take 2 minutes or less to accomplish. Furthermore, if you find yourself stuck in the middle of a study, try to do something else that would make you feel better, even if it means you have to deviate from your plan.
6. Take down your escape routes
Most time, laziness can be linked to some “escape route.” We can easily get tempted to stop working so we can catch up with our favourite TV program, or get distracted upon hearing a notification from your favourite social media platform.
What you want to do to curb laziness, is to identify such escape routes and shut them down. You can start by turning off the notification on your device, try to work in a room where there is no television, or temporarily disable your internet access to avoid distraction while you do.
7. Make the most of your laziness
Sometimes being lazy can be a sign that you need rest and time of certain things, which is perfectly normal. Whenever you decide to be lazy and not work, make sure you to utilize the period effectively. You may choose to take a day off, go on a vacation or do the thing you enjoy and makes you feel better.
Things like that is much needed to remove your mind off some responsibilities and create time for yourself. Making the most of your lazy period would take a more positive effect on your productivity and wellbeing, especially if you lack motivation.
8. Reduce your sense of perfectionism
Perfectionism can be counterproductive, and it can make you feel lazier and less motivated. Being a perfectionist can also be bad for your mental health. It’s said that people with a high level of perfectionism have a 51% increased risk of death. The truth is, we cannot control everything, talk less to make everything perfect. To be more productive and less lazy, you have to reduce your sense of perfectionism and acknowledge that all works are flawed, and it’s okay for yours to be too.
9. Set rewards for your hard work
For many of us, it is easy to remain motivated when we know there’s a reward at the end of a long journey. When next you feel unmotivated to handle challenging tasks, plan to reward yourself if you can accomplish it. You can use any of your “escape routes” as mentioned above, as a reward for a job well done. Figure out what works best for you, but be disciplined and careful not to turn these rewards into escape routes.
10. Set awareness alarm
Most people find themselves on a lazy rut, not because of conscious decisions, but due to unconscious default. For instance, you might intend to do some research work online but end up scrolling your Instagram feeds at the sight of a notification. For a moment, you might forget your primary purpose of opening your browser and end up spending most of your time on social media.
To combat such occurrences, you can set an “awareness alarm.” These alarms go on and off at periodic intervals, preferably set by your standards. You can opt for every 15 or 30 minutes, and the primary purpose is to keep you aware of what you are doing at that moment. Whenever the alarm comes on, examine what you are doing, and figure out if you are wasting your time or utilizing it well.
Conclusion
It’s completely normal and okay to feel lazy sometimes, or maybe most times, everyone has to deal with laziness one way or the other. However, you have the power to control it, and you don’t have to let your lack of motivation hinder you from achieving your set out goals. Adopt these tips, figure out what works best for you, and create for yourself a strategy to combat laziness. Believe in yourself that you can be more productive than you currently are.
