What is laziness, really?
Laziness is a habit conditioned over time where we persistently and consistently resist effort in preference of a strong desire to be idle.
It’s a passive habit and state-of-mind where mentally and physically we just don’t seem to care. Yes, there are all these things we could do, but we just don’t have the energy or motivation to focus on getting these things done.
We, therefore, take no proactive action in the direction of our goals and instead choose the path of least resistance, where the pleasures of the moment outweigh any future rewards we may want to experience.
The Difference Between Laziness and Procrastination
Given what we now know, laziness typically comes across as very passive behavior, where we have a strong desire to resist effort. Procrastination, on the other hand, is a little different.
Procrastination isn’t passive. It’s rather hesitant. Procrastination is reluctant behavior that we use to avoid doing something. It’s a defensive mechanism against obstacles, difficulties, potential failure, criticism, and setbacks.
When we procrastinate, we are naturally riddled with guilt. We desperately want to do something, but hold ourselves back, and that subsequently makes us feel miserable.
Laziness, on the other hand, doesn’t come attached with guilt. It’s a very carefree behavior where we find comfort in being idle. We just couldn’t be bothered doing something strenuous or difficult, or can’t bear the thought of exhausting our mental energies on a particular task. We simply couldn’t care less about what needs to get done. We rather indulge in the pleasure of the moment than to suffer through the pain of putting effort into something meaningful.
The Real Reasons Why You Succumb to Laziness
We all, of course, succumb to laziness from time-to-time. However, for some people, laziness isn’t a “once in a while” kind of thing. It’s actually a regular thing. Kind of like a nasty habit that lulls us into a false sense of comfort. It sure feels good to be lazy, but it’s so not good for us in the long-run when we consider the long-term opportunity cost.
But why? Why do we succumb to laziness?
We succumb to laziness for numerous reasons. Possibly we are feeling tired and we, therefore, use laziness as an escape mechanism that helps us recharge our batteries. That’s all well and good, of course. We all need rest. However, rest isn’t the same as laziness.
Resting is all about recuperation after putting in work and effort into a task. Laziness is simply not caring about the task and subsequently using laziness as a path to ignorance.
If, however, you’re not tired, then possibly you’re feeling kind of uninspired or bored. Perhaps you need a little more mental stimulation to get yourself focused and motivated. Possibly you need to challenge yourself in a new way. Or, just maybe you need a little creative inspiration to get yourself going.
Laziness can also take hold of us when we’re feeling somewhat overwhelmed. In such instances, laziness is used as a defensive mechanism similar to procrastination. However, the difference is that here in this scenario you just don’t give a damn. You’ve reached a point where you just don’t care about the outcome, and laziness just seems like the better option.
Laziness can also be triggered when we’re feeling hurt or are afraid to face something. But as above, we reach a point where we just don’t care. And, therefore, laziness is something we choose to indulge in without guilt or shame.
Laziness is something that just makes sense in the moment. It results from taking a short-term view of our life where we simply preference short-term pleasure over long-term rewards.
Laziness is one habit that we all want to overcome irrespective of our fields. It makes its way, through our living, by default and no matter what you do, it remains intact. Unless you are very firm with your willpower, laziness gets the better of you. But is it, really, that hard to overcome laziness, or it is just there in our mind. Here are some easy ways to overcome laziness.
Morning Laziness:
We all face a very tough time to leave our bed and get up in the morning. We switch off our alarms and go back to sleep, thinking to get up in the next 5-10 minutes, only to see those 5-10 minutes turning into 30, 45, and sometimes an hour or two. At that time it’s important that we be firm with ourself and get up as soon as the alarm rings. Nowadays, in this era of smartphones, there are many alarm apps available which require you to solve a puzzle or take a selfie or accomplish some easy task (which you can choose). The alarm shuts itself only on successful completion of the task. This way you not only break out of your sleep but also gather consciousness which will help you to get out of the bed immediately.
Schedule Effectively:
To overcome laziness, scheduling is very important. Not only scheduling but an effective scheduling is needed. Effective scheduling is to list down the tasks of the day and take them one at a time. When you are doing one task, you shouldn’t be thinking about the other and once done, put a check on it. Laziness occurs when a person sees a whole load of work to be accomplished and ultimately ends up accomplishing nothing.
Exercise:
So what if you managed to get out of the bed early. It’s important that you counter the laziness that will follow you the whole day and will make you feel sleepy. Exercising is the vital source of overcoming that laziness. It will keep you active and on your toes throughout the day. You will feel fresh once you work out in the morning and your productivity will increase manifold.
Have a good sleep:
To overcome laziness; it’s important to understand the cause of it. Laziness can be due to various reasons, most prominent being the lack of sleep. The human body requires a sound sleep of 7-8 hours to gather oneself from the tiredness of the day and to generate the energy required for the next day. It is important that you sleep well in the night so that you do not feel lazy due to lack of sleep.
Take a good meal:
A proper meal is the best way to combat laziness. Our meals are our source of energy. It happens quite often that we skip our breakfast, lunch or dinner due to workload. It’s a blunder to do so as we drain out our energy and get tired quickly. So, meals must be taken properly without skipping.
Don’t Exhaust Yourself:
Sometimes, we get so much involved in our work that we forget everything else in its wake. Ultimately, we end up exhausting ourselves and start to feel tired and lazy. We must take little breaks in between our work. It will help us to refresh our mind and can work with even more enthusiasm by containing our energy.
Avoid rambling:
The biggest factor behind our tiredness and laziness is the rambling of our mind. Our mind tends to ramble between the worries of the present and anxiety of the future. Since the mind does not get enough rest, so we end up getting tired more often than not. So, one must make sure that he/she lives in the present and forget everything about the future and the past.
Laziness is not that big a worry as it is seen to be. True that it gets very difficult to overcome laziness. We fail even due to our repeated efforts. We start to feel guilty because we aren’t able to rectify our habit. All that is required is to take measured steps and stick to them. Once done seriously, it won’t be that big a task to defeat laziness.
Final Thoughts
Do a small part of what matters most first thing in your day.
To feel like you can enjoy your lazy/rest time fully and without guilt it’s important to actually get what truly matters in the long run done each week.
So start your day with that. But make it easy on yourself by breaking down that task into smaller steps and then focus on just the first one.
Get on it right away to get into an effective and focused mindset.
By doing so you set a good tone for your day. You get that quick 5-10 minute win in first thing and you’ll be a lot more motivated to keep going on that path during the rest of your day.
Instead of starting with busy work like checking emails – this may be vital to do first thing for some but for many it’s probably not – or checking Facebook etc. and then 30 minutes later getting started with today’s work.
List the downsides and upsides for renewed motivation.
Asking yourself better questions tend to give better answers.
Two sets of questions that I have sat down and asked myself with closed eyes and that have refueled my motivation many times are:
- How will my life look in 5 years if I just continue to stay on the same path as now?
- How will life likely become worse for me and maybe even for the people around me?
This is not like beating yourself up but rather a sober examination of where it’s realistic that you’re heading.
And it may be uncomfortable but try to see the negative consequences as vividly as you can in your mind to kickstart your motivation to get going for that positive change.
Then ask yourself:
- How will my life look in 1 year if I get started, stick with it and keep going with this change?
- How will life improve not only for me but for the people that I love if I stick with it?
Unclutter your life.
When your life’s too cluttered and overwhelming then you may shut down and procrastinate by lying lazily on the couch and just watching the TV or your smart phone.
When that’s the case then start uncluttering both your work hours and your private time. Two questions that have helped me to do that and to find what is most important are:
- What would I work on if I only had 2 hours for work today?
- If I had just 1 hour of free time today then how would I spend it?
Life Lesson's 