Most of the people I know are lazy, at least some time. And that is absolutely natural. I am not trying to defend laziness in any way. If you are lazy and barely motivated, you will never be able to be proactive towards your goal. This will make you struggle on both personal and professional front.
If you want to fight out this dark side of your mind which is responsible for making you lazy. You need no diligently put efforts on your part. The following are some strategies you can use to beat laziness out of your system and succeedd in life.
Acknowledge your laziness
Although, I will be telling you ways to fight laziness for most part of the blog. But, if you loath yourself for being lazy that itself can be counter-productive for you. You will start resenting everything about you,
Here is why, if you do negative self-talk most of the time. It will lead you to have bad mood and cause stress, and that is worse for your productivity. Doing so will drag you into a vicious cycle. It will make you question your own worth and will take you down the spiral. You will have break out of this cycle by yourself by accepting your laziness. You can work to be pro-active and address the matter without feeling bad or resenting yourself.
Identify the source
It is the most crucial and challenging step to follow. You have to identify and understand the roots of your laziness. It is important to know what is that one thing which is holding you back and preventing you to become pro-active. Upon identifying you can mitigate the exact problem.
For example, there may be a particular time of the day when you feel unmotivated. Or there may be laziness when the work that you have is not challenging. One big reason is stress which hinders a lot of people to be motivated and there are multiple pieces of research in place to support this fact. Therefore, it is imperative to pay attention to things that are around you. Your environment, people, and the kind of job you are in.
Break your habits
Like success is a byproduct of good habits, similarly, laziness is a byproduct of bad habits. This is true if you feel lazy at a particular time or in particular circumstances. You can significantly reduce feeling of laziness by breaking your habits. This is even more important if you work from home or work from a particular place.
Try and work in new environment, change your shits or working hours, or for that matter change the kind of clothes you wear.
Set better Goals
Many a times people set highly unreasonable goals for themselves, which are too intimidating. Let’s say, you decided to go for a 10 mile run in the afternoon of a hot summer day. This is something which can scare even professional runners. Therefore, it is natural to feel the need to procrastinate or pass. But, if you set goals in a better way like running for just 2 miles that still better than running 0 miles.
Use techniques like Pomodoro to fight laziness
Focus Timers are essentially used for time management by a lot of people. It improves productivity by ruling out the scope of distractions and helping the practitioners focus better. Most of the users break down the total time into intervals, followed by a break. These sessions rotate regularly, and after some time the user can take a longer break (usually 30 minutes).
The technique typically uses a timer for the user to keep track of time and break the time into several intervals (traditionally 25 minutes in length). Each of the intervals, separated by brief brakes (of typically 3-5 minutes). Such intervals called a Pomodoro, Latin word for ‘tomato’.
Get an accountability partner
It is much better to have someone by your side that can help you stay motivated. They won’t just prevent you from being lazy by reminding you of your goals but also be a much needed source of positive energy. In case, you fail to find an accountability partner to stick along, you may call your friends or family to through the challenges you face. Many a times just the positive words from some one you care are enough to lift you from laziness and motivate you.
Set a reward for your self
Rewards definitely help if you know they exist at the end of your goal. The mere thought of a reward can fuel the engine through the daunting track. Next time you feel lazy when facing a difficult task, set a reward.