Part-2
Laziness is the enemy of productivity. If we were lazy, there is no way we could accomplish meaningful things. We may procrastinate doing things, or - even if we do them - we may do them only half-heartedly. There is no way we can produce high-quality results that way.
So we need to overcome laziness. While I can’t say that I’ve been completely successful in overcoming it, I’m happy with my progress. Here are 16 tips I find useful to overcome laziness:
1. Exercise
You could feel lazy if you do not have enough energy to do your activities. Exercising is a good way to increase your energy level so that you feel energized and alert throughout day.
2. Have a good rest
Not having enough rest could also make you lazy. How can you feel enthusiastic if you are sleepy? So make sure that you have good rest.
3. Set a minimum time limit to get started
The most difficult thing is to get started - the rest will be easier. So set a small amount of time, like 15 minutes or even 5 minutes, and decide to work on the task until the time is up. After that, it would be easier to decide to continue.
4. Create a sense of urgency
This is among the most effective ways to defeat laziness. If you have a sense of urgency, it will be much easier to get up and do what you need to do. One way to create a sense of urgency is by setting a deadline.
5. Look at the benefits
One reason we become lazy is because we only see the difficulties of the tasks ahead without thinking about the benefits we will get when we finish them. So focus your mind on the benefits instead of the difficulties.
6. Set a reward for yourself
If the benefits are too far in the future, they might not be strong enough to motivate you to act now. In such cases, you can give yourself a more immediate reward. You may allow yourself to eat your favorite meal or watch a movie as your reward for completing the tasks.
7. Think about what will happen if you don’t do it
While thinking about the benefits can motivate you, thinking about the disadvantages if you do not do the tasks can also motivate you. What are the consequences if you do not do what you are supposed to do?
8. Find partners
Partners can motivate you to overcome laziness. While inner motivation is the best, sometimes we also need motivation from the outside.
9. Aim to minimize idle time
Make it your resolution to minimize idle time. Try to be in the state of doing as often as possible. If you have this mindset, it will be easier to overcome laziness.
10. Divide the task into manageable chunks
We could be lazy if we feel overwhelmed by the scale of the task. In such cases, divide the task into manageable chunks, and then tackle them one by one. Remember, the way to eat an elephant is by taking one small bite at a time.
11. Decide what the next physical action is
We may procrastinate because we are not sure what to do next. So look at the task and decide what the next physical action is. Once you know exactly what to do, it will be easier to start.
12. Do one thing at a time
It may seem obvious, but we could be lazy because we try to do more than one thing at a time. That makes us feel overwhelmed. So select just one thing at a time, do it, and ignore the rest.
13. Challenge yourself
Make the tasks fun by turning them into a challenge. Can you accomplish those tasks? Many people can, so why can’t you?
14. Write down your progress
You will be more motivated if you can easily see the effect of laziness. One way to do that is by tracking your progress daily. Put a mark whenever you complete a task. Laziness will give you an empty sheet, and you can easily see how bad it is.
15. Watch other people’s progress
Knowing how far behind you are compared to other people could also motivate you. Watch good performers in your field and let their performance inspire you.
16. Align yourself with what matters to you
While all the tips above can help you, it will be much easier to overcome laziness if you do something that matters to you. You will have the burning fire within that make you want to act. So find a cause that matters to you and align yourself as much as possible with it.
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Overcoming Laziness To Get Things Done
September 9, 2007
We are all lazy people. We love to procrastinate, we find comfort in sleeping, we idle away time as though it were a useless commodity, and we have all built our personal utopias where we do everything except work.
It’s perfectly natural to be lazy. I imagine that if it wasn’t for the deadlines and binding commitments that force us to do work, none of us would go back to those dungeons, aka offices.
Thankfully though, we realize that laziness should be overcome in order for us to be successful and be useful to the society.
So, what to do to beat laziness and reclaim the lost inspiration?
Take action
If you don’t feel like reading, read. If you don’t feel like writing, write. If you don’t feel like doing exercise, do it. In short, action is the best motivation. The only thing that stops us from getting sucked into a task is not doing it, so do it now!
Take one bite at a time
Does the idea of taking your whole meal in one massive bite sound repulsive? Luckily, you can take it one bite at a time, enjoy it, and still consume the whole meal.
Likewise, if you try to do everything together, you lose motivation to do anything at all. Therefore, it’s best to split a bigger task into smaller ones and concentrate on only one part at a time. The less formidable the work, the more you’ll enjoy doing it.
Remove the distractions
When being lazy, we are often attracted to the distractions. Bloggers are found browsing others’ blogs when they are supposed to be writing theirs, and students are found watching TV when they should be studying. These are all distractions that serve no good purpose. If you remove the distractions, for example, by disconnecting from the Internet and by locking the TV room, you’ll notice that it becomes easier to get back to the work.
Find motivation
Why are you doing work? It is easy to forget the purpose of work with time. Remind yourself of how important your work is for you, for your personal satisfaction, for your life, family and so on. If you feel you are not clear about the purpose of what you are doing, it’s time to recap the goals you set down when you started.
Reward yourself
Discipline and schedules are all good and well, but do we want to become robots? This the very thing we dread and that is what leads us to lose motivation. You’ll be more enthusiastic to complete a task when you know you are going to reward yourself at the end.
We usually agonize over the fact that we are being lazy, yet continue to procrastinate for hours. It becomes difficult to get out of this condition unless we force ourselves to take action, which is, admittedly, the most difficult part. Though once we set about doing a task, the laziness disappears like a magician’s trick.
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