It is common for people to feel too lazy to do anything. Laziness is dmeonstrated in different forms; sleeping, idleness, procrastination or many others. Laziness can also come in when people are disgruntled over the amount of work they have to do without the assistance of any other person.You could feel lazy when it comes to doing something you generally do not like very much or you find it very demanding in terms of the efforts that have to be put in. Laziness also comes when there is no will power to do something or when there is no motivation. It can equally come because of depression. Laziness is the reason why many people continue to stay idle today rather than go out there and do something useful with their lives. When you don’t have the courage or you are not motivated enough to carry out a particular activity, it often encourages laziness because you will keep postponing it. So it is high time you get rid of laziness and start working.
How to get rid of laziness
Figure out why you are being lazy: Once you start feeling lazy in the morning, afternoon or evening, try to find out the reason for your laziness. For example, is it because of depression, tiredness, fear, or probably you were working but got stuck somewhere and you are now feeling lazy and discouraged? Sometimes, you may just lack motivation. You have to make some assessment of what is really happening to you. Once you find out the real problem, try as much as possible to unearth it. When you do this, you can now address it because it is only after finding the cause of a problem that you can then address it and tackle it effectively.
After you have figured out what your problem is, the next thing to do is to focus on that problem and try to see how you can handle it. For example, if you felt lazy because you were demotivated, find some motivation for what you want to do no matter how small. It could be the payment you’ll get, or even the fulfilment you’ll get after doing it. For example, you may find no motivation in doing house chores and this leads to laziness, now how do you fight it? Sit for a while and have a cool head. Try to find some small motivation in doing the house chores. Your motivation may be that you’ll sit in a clean environment at the end or that your mind will be free of worry after you do the chores because until you do the chores, you will not feel free.
Again, if your laziness came as a result of tiredness, find some time to rest because everyone needs it. When you get time to rest, even your output at work increases. If you are overwhelmed by the amount of work you have, why not try to break it down into smaller bits. This way you can finish it one part after the other. Thinking that you can do the whole work at the same time is what makes you feel lazy. You may also be feeling lazy because you are depressed. Staying depressed will not help you. Get over your depression and get to work.
It is true that at one point in time, everyone feels depressed but what makes the difference is the ability for some people to still stand tall in the face of their depression and overcome it. Of course that depression will not put food on your table so get up and give yourself some positive talk and be your self-motivator. Say to yourself, “I can still make it” and then keep forging on. Fight the laziness and keep moving because with time you will even forget that you felt depressed some time ago. Learning to fight the cause of your laziness is just the perfect cure for laziness.
Carryout regular physical exercise: You feel more energised all day long when you carryout regular physical exercise. By exercising in the morning, you help to keep your body energised 24/7. Exercise keeps your blood flowing and also keeps your body activities and metabolism up. Regular physical exercise is also the cure for laziness because it keeps you healthy and alert. Being healthy makes you feel fine, whole and energetic so if you want to get a cure for laziness, then try carrying out some regular physical exercise. In the first place, when you get engaged in regular exercise, you become active at that moment so you can use that opportunity to do whatever you feel like doing after you exercise so that in case you start to feel too lazy to do anything again, then you must have finished your work.
Eat healthy food: Healthy food gives your body the energy it deserves and needs. When you eat junk food instead of healthy food, it causes the body to be in lack of the nutrients it needs in order to be active. In other words, junk food may not contain the nutrients needed to boost the body’s activeness and once the body is not active, it leads to laziness. Eating too much fatty food will equally make you feel heavy all the time. You may be neglecting this aspect but the kind of food you eat has a great role to play when it comes to your activeness. For example, if you consume a large quantity of food or let’s say heavy food in the morning before going to work, you may just experience some sort of laziness because you feel heavy and of course this will be as a result of the breakfast you took. Therefore, to get rid of laziness, start eating healthy food.
Be organised: You might be thinking about what being organised has got to do with laziness but it is a fact. You will feel lazy to start working in your office if your table or desk is messy and disorganised, in the same light, you will feel too lazy to do anything at home if the house is first of all very much disorganised. Why does this happen? Our subconscious mind has a lot to do with it and once we don’t get rid of that problem, it continues to affect our minds. When your desk is disorganised, you become demotivated. So always try to clean up and organise your house, your office, and even your car. Let’s imagine that you get to the office in the morning and the whole place is a mess, you may find yourself sitting in your colleague’s office for the whole day because at the time you just had that sight, laziness set in. you get to feel too lazy to do anything because you feel that it is a whole lot of work to begin organising your office before you get to the reel work of the day. At this moment, you become overwhelmed and as a result, very lazy.
In order to get rid of laziness caused by disorganisation, try keeping your office in order before you go back home from work so that you don’t feel very overwhelmed when you come in the next day. This is so because, when you come in the next day and everywhere is organised, it plays on your subconscious and you become very motivated to work. And for those at home who feel too lazy to do anything because the house is disorganised, you should always try to wake up early and keep the house clean. If you sleep too much or wake up very late, you start feeling lazy and that’s because you will be tired from so much sleep. Yes you can get tired of sleep. It is very possible. So always sleep early and wake up early too. The early morning cold will make you very active and is a perfect cure for laziness. So get organised!
Get rid of negative self-talk: To get rid of laziness, you also have to get rid of some negative thoughts that are on-going in your mind. Sometimes you just feel too lazy and your thoughts just help you to even feel lazier. Rather than allow your thoughts say words like; “oh God I feel so lazy today”, say words that will encourage you to work. Find some motivation by saying words like; “no I have to finish up this job quickly so that I get a free mind and get time to rest later.” Now that is some motivation and inspiration you have found for yourself, a free mind and some rest. When you always think about negative things, it will help to promote laziness in you, making you feel too lazy to do anything. This is because negative thoughts kills motivation and you never get the will power to work.
On the contrary, with a positive mind, you can do a whole lot. A positive mind set gives you the desire to work, the desire to achieve certain desirable goals in life and makes it impossible for you to feel lazy about anything in life. When you belief you are going to achieve a dream of yours, it makes you want to always work hard in order to achieve those dreams. So rather than be a promoter of laziness to yourself, try being your self-motivator because it will act as a perfect cure for laziness.
Laziness and procrastination
Procrastination and laziness are two interwoven components. Procrastination is the act of postponing events due to laziness and sometimes cowardice. It is also seen as the habit of putting off until tomorrow that which can be done today. It is a symptom which is clearly related to laziness and doubt because rather than doing what you ought to do, you instead spend time giving excuses why you want to postpone the job or activity. Sometimes procrastination can be all about the refusal to accept responsibility when it can be avoided. Rather than putting up a stiff fight, you prefer to compromise and sometimes you compromise with difficulties rather than take a bold step to see difficulties as stepping stones to your advancement. You may get a feeling of laziness towards certain opportunities that come your way. Rather than working towards them, you prefer to sit in your comfort zone and keep postponing and before you know it, those opportunities would have passed you by even before you realise yourself and come back to your senses.
In procrastination, you bargain with failure rather than working hard to achieve success. This is a habit which is particularly dangerous to your work, your career, and every other activity you find yourself engaged in. There are a number of opportunities which you will fail to take advantage of simply because you have cultivated the habit of laziness or procrastination. Let us look at the different ways by which you can overcome procrastination
Overcoming procrastination.
Set a goal and a time frame to achieve it: In overcoming procrastination, always strive to set your goals straight. Be systematic in all you’re your activities and have it in mind that you are working on a time frame. When you set a time frame to overcome procrastination, it keeps you conscious and helps you to avoid being lazy and of course it will stop you from postponing events because you would want to meet up on the time you had given yourself. The secret here is to value your time. Value time because once a certain time has passed, it won’t ever come back. There is just one Wednesday 2nd of May, 2018 in this life and no other. So if you had to do something on this particular day and didn’t do it, then you failed at that moment because that particular time of the year will never come back again. Working in life without having your goals set is really dangerous to your dreams because it makes you feel like a captain without a compass. That is, you just live life with no clear cut aim or direction to what you want to do or what you want to achieve. Setting your goals is a very important step towards overcoming procrastination because it gives you a clear focus.
Learn to be decissive: A great decision making power is what you should have in the course of overcoming procrastination. The habit of postponing events may come in when you do not have the ability to firmly decide on when you want to do things or when you intend to carry out your activities. A strong will power will save you from procrastination because once you get to make up your mind that this is the time you want to do something, it stays that way and you go on to do it at that time. Easily changing your mind to suit personal comfort is a very dangerous habit to you and your career because not only does it affect your work, it also affects your self-esteem. Those who have the power to make strong decisions have turned out to have a higher self-esteem than those who are very flexible in decision making.
Ask someone to check up on you: find someone who will help you to be accountable in meeting your deadlines. This person may be a committed friend or even a coach who will always help you stay on track. Take note that it will be best for you if this person is someone who is serious and who is strict with time. Don’t go looking for just a normal friend who may not take your work seriously. Find someone you will want to make proud, someone you fear to disappoint and someone who will always encourage you. This person should be able to remind you of the task you have to complete in the days ahead. By so doing, you can begin to forget about procrastination. Mind you, for you to even get more serious, you can ask your boss to check up on your deadlines and in future, you will abandon the habit of procrastination.
Minimise distractions: sometimes you postpone very important work because you were distracted by something else which may not even have been half as important . One habit you should cultivate is the habit of being able to draw up a scale of preference and to be able to set your priorities straight. A simple example is; let’s say you have to do some research and send to your boss by email at 5pm and your friends come visiting by 4pm when you had probably planned to begin doing the work. Now there are two things you can do. Sit and chat with your friends and postpone your work for some other time or you tell your friends to give you some time to finish the job and then you chat later. Now someone who has a strict sense of priority will avoid distraction and choose the latter option while the other who has the habit of procrastination will choose the former. It is all about having a sense of purpose because you may get into trouble when you allow yourself to get distracted. It is certain that you cannot completely avoid distractions but the bottom line here is that you should always learn to minimise these distractions and know when you can have time for them. The example above is just one of such cases where you can get distracted but there are many other distractions that will come your way just at the moment when you have to do something really important.
Do away with excuses: “I’m not in the mood, it is not the right time to carry out this project” and so on. I’m sure you are familiar with these words. Don’t train yourself to become used to giving excuses. If you use excuses as your escape tool to get away with not doing your work, then you are threading on the wrong path. Rather than find ways of doing things or rather than prepare yourself for some presentation in your office, you find yourself instead trying to figure out an excuse for not wanting to do the presentation. If you make this a habit, then you will be no better than a coward.
Quit trying to be perfect: Those who always want to be perfect will always postpone things because they will always feel it is either not the right time to do something, or that they are not fully prepared for it. You need to get rid of your all or nothing mentality because no human being is perfect and nothing in life is always perfect. When you always wait for things to be perfect before you proceed, then you will never succeed because you will never complete your task. Instead of trying to be perfect, why not try to focus on being better. This does not mean that you should not strive for the best. It just means that when you get good results from your start up, proceed to the next even if those results are not perfect. Bottom line is, to be able to succeed in life, always avoid procrastination. Now away from procrastination and laziness, let’s look at depression and laziness.
Depression and laziness
One of the ways to avoid laziness is by avoiding being depressed. Depression is a function of thoughts about the impossible, a difficulty one may be encountering, fear of failure, and feeling of humiliation. Consequently, when one is depressed, it is possible for laziness to easily crop in as well. So, depression and laziness are positively correlated. Since depression affects the effective and efficient functioning of the brain, it becomes difficult to think positively of the immediate task one has to accomplish. It is therefore possible to avoid depression and laziness by having a positive mind set and appreciating daily situations and events with the ultimate aim of getting the best results out of them. Depression and laziness are part of man; but, by all means possible, people have to strive to live above them in everyday life.