Do you like to sit idle sometimes and do nothing? Do you often procrastinate and postpone your work? Well, that could just be the world of laziness for you.
Laziness is the desire to be idle and do nothing, and let things stay the way they are. Sometimes, you might enjoy being lazy- on a cold winter morning or after working hard for the day, but this should not become a regular affair.
Laziness can lead to multiple side effects in your life and take a toll on your productivity. Hence, it is important to overcome laziness to achieve success in your life. You need to resist it, combat it and get over it.
In this article, we have listed down the effects of laziness and 15 tips on how to overcome laziness.
15 Tips to Overcome Laziness
Here is a list of 15 ways for you to combat laziness:
1) Break down bigger tasks into smaller tasks
Most often, you avoid tasks because you find them too big and daunting. You may be scared to think that you may not finish it. When your work tasks are too big and time conusming, it is recommended to break them down into smaller tasks.
Instead of having one big task, you may create a series of small tasks that are needed to complete the bigger task. This can solve your problem of laziness because the small tasks will not seem too overwhelming to you, and can be performed with ease. Bonus: Give yourself a tiny reward at the end of each small task, and you’ll be playing a game of brain chemistry with yourself incentivizing yourself to complete these small tasks.
2) Figure out the real issue
When you start feeling lazy, sit back and try to understand what is happening. Laziness is generally a problem backed by some reason. You need to understand the reason for your laziness, and what could be the cause of your lack of motivation. Is it because you are tired, uninspired, overwhelmed, unclear or afraid of your work?
Most likely, the issue is smaller than you think and can be easily resolved. Once you know the reason for your laziness, you need to address it in the best possible way and deal with your laziness effectively.
3) Set achievable goals
When you set worthy and achievable goals, you have something to look forward to. Without setting goals, your mind will work aimlessly and become a victim of laziness after some time. But with a set of goals to look forward to, you can pick up your tasks and start with the ones that inspire you.
It might be useful to maintain a personal journal of your tasks, and a vision board of your goals and dreams. When you have an inspiration to look forward to, your chances of laziness will reduce drastically. Visualize the end goal and what it would feel like to achieve it. Let that vision inspire you into action.
4) Stay motivated
Sometimes, laziness occurs when you are not motivated enough to do your work. You need to motivate yourself to get up and do your job. It is very easy to stop bothering about life, but the biggest challenge is to motivate yourself and start working.
Overcoming the initial inertia is the most difficult part, but once you achieve that, you can do anything and everything. You need to strengthen your motivation using various affirmations and thinking about your future. You can also overcome procrastination by staying motivated.
Pro tip: When you feel unmotivated to work, try the 5-second rule. Close your eyes and give yourself 5 seconds to visualize the work and the benefits of completing it. Then use Mel Robins’ 5 second rule countdown, 5-4-3-2-1, and lift off into action.
5) Think about the future
Whenever you feel lazy, spend five minutes thinking about your future. When you think about the benefits you gain if you get rid of your laziness and take the necessary action, you will be able to focus on the work.
You should also think about the consequences if you miss your work. This will keep you motivated to work and avoid falling into the trap of laziness.
6) Start with easy tasks
When you overload yourself with work, you might not be able to finish any one of them. Too many tasks at once might seem intimidating, and you may resort to laziness to avoid the work. But if you take one task at a time and focus only on that, things would be easier to handle.
Plus, you must start with easy tasks that can be completed quickly. Once you are through with the simpler tasks, you should start with the difficult ones that require most of your effort and time.
You should also break up your tasks like mentioned above and focus on the small actionable steps, to begin with. This will motivate and keep you calm, and will not let laziness affect you.
7) Eat protein-rich food
If you are wondering “how to combat laziness?”, you might find the answer in protein-rich foods. Getting enough protein can keep you healthy and help you overcome laziness. Protein can ensure that you feel full therefore not feeling lethargic, which can make you feel lazy. High-protein foods like eggs, almonds, yogurt, cottage cheese, etc., can increase your energy levels and you are less likely to feel lazy. Whereas foods high in carbs, such as pizza or pasta can drain your energy and make you feel extremely lazy. So, think about what you’ve had to eat prior anytime you’re feeling lazy.
Additionally, you can try coffee protein powder to give you a protein boost and keep you feeling energized and focused throughout the day.
8) Get adequate rest and sleep
While laziness in itself seems to be like rest, quite often, it occurs due to being tired or lacking energy. Too much work pressure exhausts you and drains your energy, leaving you feeling lazy and lethargic after a few hours.
You need to give yourself small work breaks in between work. You can utilize the 20 minute rule to achieve success here! By breaking down your work hours, you will feel more relaxed and rested, and your work will seem less daunting.
Moreover, you will feel more energetic and motivated at the end of the day. With adequate rest, it is also critical to get quality and peaceful sleeping hours. You should sleep for a minimum of seven hours to avoid feeling lazy in the morning. Good sleep also helps in keeping your mind alert throughout the day.
9) Exercise
While there are innumerable benefits of exercise, the main one is to stay energized 24/7. When you get into an hour of exercise routine every day, your blood gets flowing, and your metabolism goes up.
Studies have shown that regular exercise can treat the negative effects of laziness, even in middle-aged adults. This helps you stay energized throughout the day, and overcome any laziness that occurs in between your work.
Exercise also helps you stay in shape and shed off the excess fat from your body, which can also be one of the causes of laziness. If you do not follow an exercise regime, it is time to start that now. Start with small steps and make an effort to exercise regularly. Exercising regularly doesn’t have to be that complicated, check out this workout method from Tim Ferris’ 4 hour body that will have you workout only 30 minutes a week to get some amazing results.
10) Remove distractions and escape routes
Do you also turn to your favorite distraction when you do not feel like doing your work- whether it is scrolling through social media or cuddling your pet? This is a classic case of laziness.
You need to make all these distractions less accessible during your work time. You need to find a separate space for you where you can quietly do your work, and prevent your mind from wandering aimlessly. All your focus should be on the current task, so shun off all distractions and escape routes, to avoid being lazy. Feel free to not work in the room that has a TV, or keep your phone on Do Not Disturb and away from you while working.
11) Follow a disciplined routine
One of the key ways to overcome laziness is to attain discipline. You need to create an action plan and stick to it. In addition to avoiding distractions, you also need to maintain discipline.
It is nothing but refraining from certain habits that may stop you from achieving your goals. Whether it is fidgeting through your gadgets or playing around with your pet- dedicate a certain time to everything and stick to that to attain a disciplined routine.
12) Make boring tasks fun
You usually succumb to laziness when the work seems boring. When you need to make an hour-long presentation or pile up a few reports, you may find it tedious and look for ways to avoid it. But work is work; even if it is tedious, you need to complete it.
You can make these tedious tasks a little fun by putting on soft music or listening to a motivational podcast. This way, you can add a little spark of enjoyment to some of your tedious work, and avoid laziness.
13) Reward yourself
While getting a job done is a reward in itself, you still need to motivate yourself with external rewards. When you have a reward to look forward to, your chances of getting lazy go down. Your focus stays on the reward only.
Rewards can be a simple ice cream treat to watching your favorite show or deal-breakers like getting closer to a promotion. These rewards keep you motivated to complete your tasks without succumbing to laziness. It is also one of the best ways to stop procrastinating.
14) Manage stress
Stress can drain your brain and make you feel exhausted, thereby leading to laziness. Take simple steps to manage stress like sipping some water, cuddling your pet, talking with your loved ones, etc., and keep yourself mentally peaceful. When you manage your stress levels, you can combat laziness and increase your productivity.
15) Stay hydrated
There are endless benefits of drinking water- one of them is to fight laziness. Carry a bottle of water wherever you go, and keep sipping it from time to time. Staying hydrated can significantly improve your energy levels and cognitive functions, thereby improving your productivity.
Further, it also helps in maximizing physical performance and rejuvenates you to complete your work on time without giving in to laziness.
Effects of Laziness
Laziness can affect you in a lot of ways:
- Hampers your creativity: When you are lazy, you simply want to sit idle and do nothing. This affects your mind and brings your thinking capacity to a halt. With a pause in your thinking, you tend to lose out on your creativity. You reduce your ability to process new information because your mind gets rusted with old information.
- Adverse effects on health: Laziness makes you physically inactive and creates an adverse impact on your health. With no physical activity, your muscles and bones become stiff and do not get adequate space to grow. It often leads to health problems at a young age. With poor physical health, your mental health also starts to slow down, thereby hampering your overall health.
- Lowers your ambition: Laziness usually makes you carefree and less bothered about the things going on in your life. You may only think about your goals, but you hardly do anything to work towards achieving them. When laziness becomes highly addictive, it restricts your options for work and other opportunities. It thereby limits your advancements and ambitions.
- Makes you neglectful of others: Laziness makes you neglectful of other people in your life. With your laziness tying you down, you do not get time to interact with people. This makes them avoid you, and you may end up separating yourself from your life. This will lead to loneliness, which can thereby lead to depression and negativity in your life.
- Reduces your productive time: When you become lazy, most of your time is spent in vain. You fail to spend your time productively and lose out on the precious time available in hand. With laziness, you become like a butcher going through the stress of killing an animal but then leaving the carcass to rot. Moreover, laziness can also become one of the major causes of procrastination and create a delay in your work. Hence, you waste your time sitting lazily and reduce your productive time.
When you feel lazy, it is important to remind yourself about its adverse impacts and take a setback from laziness. Do not let your laziness overpower and control you so that you do not become a victim of its adverse effects.
Takeaways
Laziness isn’t always a bad thing, and everyone deserves a day off from work just to chill and doze off. However, when it becomes a habit, you need to look for how to overcome laziness. You may need to change your lifestyle and adopt healthier habits, and also change your approach to specific tasks. By following the tips mentioned above, you will be able to restore your energy and get rid of the laziness surrounding you.
