How to Stop Being So Lazy
We all have our lazy days: those days where we just don’t feel like doing anything, so we lay around the house and do nothing instead.
And you know what? Having a lazy day every now and then isn’t so bad. In fact, it’s often necessary to escape from the stresses of life and give your mind and body a rest.
However, too much laziness is certainly a bad thing. Habitual laziness can cause you to miss work deadlines, affects your relationships, lowers your self-confidence, and even fail to take care of your health.
These severe consequences of our laziness are enough to show us that laziness is okay only in moderation. But if you struggle to motivate yourself, you may be wondering how to stop being lazy.
This post will help identify the cause of laziness and offer solutions to get rid of it once and for all! All it take is a little self understanding and some simple tips.
What are the Main Causes of Laziness?
In many instances, laziness is simply a personality trait that you have to overcome. This doesn’t mean you can’t change though!
Some people are natural doers who love to stay busy and productive, while others thrive when their plate is empty.
But there are actually some hidden causes that cause and promote laziness, such as:
Lack of Purpose
It’s much easier to feel motivated to complete a task when you recognize and understand the purpose behind it. If someone asked you to dig a hole for no reason, you probably wouldn’t feel very motivated to do it.
But if they told you to dig the hole so they could build you a brand-new swimming pool, you’d likely feel a bit more driven to complete the task quicker.
If you’re struggling with laziness, take some time to consider your purpose in life. If you’re feeling unmotivated in your job, maybe you need to reconsider your career field, and so on.
Fear
For some, their laziness is a way to cover up fear. They may not do a task simply because they’re afraid of doing it.
Or, more commonly, they’re afraid of failing. You may be hiding behind laziness to mask fear, anxiety, or an overwhelming feeling of the task at hand.
Depression
Depression looks different for everyone.
Some individuals who experience depression distract their thoughts by staying busy, while others become tired and unmotivated.
What is often viewed as laziness could be someone struggling with depression.
Medical Conditions
Certain medical or biological conditions can even cause laziness.
Those who constantly feel unmotivated, overwhelmed, and tired may be experiencing thyroid disorder.
How to Overcome Laziness – 6 Simple Tips
Right now, the question that should be on your mind is: how do I stop being unmotivated and lazy?
No need to worry; that’s what we’re here to address. We’ve compiled just a few different strategies you can follow to combat your habitual laziness for a more productive and well-rounded lifestyle.
1. Determine the Real Issue
In order to overcome an issue, we must first identify the issue. You can set out to fix a car that’s not running, but until you locate the exact problem, you won’t get very far.
Whenever you recognize yourself exhibiting lazy behavior, pause and assess the situation. Ask yourself this: what is causing your lack of motivation?
The answer may be different for each situation you encounter, so have some patience with yourself. In one instance, you may be overly exhausted. In another, you may find no purpose in the task.
Once you’ve identified the issue, do what you can to rectify it. If you’re too tired to complete a task, consider taking a nap or making some serious changes to your sleep schedule.
2. Stick To Manageable Goals
As we mentioned earlier, laziness can be the result of feeling too overwhelmed or the fear that you won’t be able to complete a task.
Part of managing your laziness in this way is by first managing your goals better.
Trying using SMART goals instead of an arbitrary list of goals. A SMART goal is:
- Specific
- Measurable
- Achievable
- Relevant
- Time-based
SMART goals help you develop goals that promote success over failure. Otherwise, you could end up with a long, daunting list of tasks that simply makes you want to turn and run the other way.
3. Give Yourself Grace
In today’s society, both education- and career-wise, there’s an extreme amount of pressure to be perfect; be the best. This seems to be particularly true of young people.
Perfectionism can easily lead to high levels of anxiety and depression because the idea of perfection often involves tons of stress and a fear of failure. When you don’t measure up to these high standards, you may feel down about yourself.
In that case, you may begin to avoid these stressors altogether and use the veil of laziness to steer clear of your to-do lists.
All this to say: give yourself a little bit of grace. Once you understand that it’s okay to not be perfect, it becomes easier to tackle small tasks slowly and gradually. Failure is a part of everyone’s life, and conquering your laziness means being okay with that possibility.
4. Avoid Distractions
Everyone has distractions in their life. When you’re trying to avoid a task, what do you do? Some of us will instinctively reach for our phones and scroll through social media when laziness kicks in. Other people run to the kitchen for a snack or even switch to another, less important task.
The best way to avoid distractions (and ultimately, our laziness) is to make them as inaccessible as possible. So, if your phone is your biggest distraction, try leaving it in another room, turning it off, or putting it in silent mode.
If the television is what’s grabbing your attention, sit in a room that doesn’t have a TV or hide the remote control in a drawer.
5. Reward Yourself
If you’re the type of person who thrives on rewards, then this tactic can work well. Do you have 10 things on your to-do list that really need to get done?
Make a commitment to get 5 of them done, then take a break and reward yourself with whatever treat that works for you. Whether it’s a nice coffee break, a Netflix episode, a massage, or checking your social media apps or watching kitten videos – whatever reward works for you!
Then once you’ve done that, get back to your tasks and rinse and repeat. You will feel both a sense of accomplishment and that you’ve ‘cheated’ the system by making time for the fun stuff.
6. Ask For Help
For many of us, asking for help is very difficult. Some see it as a sign of weakness or a signal that they’re not good enough or smart enough to figure out a problem on their own. There’s a certain level of shame that enters when we have to ask for help.
But asking for help ultimately increases your overall chances of success! There’s nothing wrong with asking for help, regardless of the task or environment. In fact, you might just strengthen your bond with a classmate, friend, or co-worker by asking for their help.
The above tips all help to start to break the cycle of laziness and find ways to be an active participant in life again. The best part to take away, is that you can make the change yourself. If you’re looking for some more ideas on how to get out of a rut, keep reading:
