5 Smart Actionable Tips to Overcome Laziness

Do you read laziness memes and find them relevant? Do you feel like all the funny comics about procrastination are written for you? Do you always postpone work?

“Lazy people are always eager to be doing something.”

-French Proverb

If your answer is yes to any of these or all of these (let’s be real here!) questions, then you know that you should get over this habit of yours. Tell me how many times have you thought about doing something about it. Tell me how many times have you postponed your “how-to-not-postpone-work” strategy.

“A lazy person, whatever the talents with which he starts out, has condemned himself to second-rate thoughts, and to second-rate friends.”

-Cyril Connolly

It is surely more than the times you could count. I have been in the same place, and I know how much it can add to the stress when the work keeps piling on. I tried tons of things to learn how to be productive and not busy so that I still had time to myself but also got work done. A lot of the strategies is what I still use.

Trust me; once you stick with the changes you make, it gets easier. Using productivity tools, strategic breaks, and even a reward system can help you stop sitting on your ass and actually make something happen.

Here are some tried, tested, and sworn by techniques to overcome laziness.

1. Start Small

Starting is the most difficult step. Once you start, your work will flow with the momentum, but how do you start?

In the beginning, start by envisioning a really insignificant amount of work that doesn’t take much time. Suppose you have to write a 10-page report. A 10-page report might make you feel like not doing it, but what if it was a one-page report? Would you keep dropping it as much as the 10-page report? Probably not.

Aim to do only a page, and then you can continue watching Netflix or playing games. When you convince your mind that you have to write just one page, it is easier to get on with it. Once you start, the flow of the work gets you to work more than the intended one page.

Starting small is a great way to get that initial push to begin the work you have been putting off. It’s only about opening the laptop in the beginning. Do the most difficult task that triggers laziness and then you have not much to worry about.

2. Start with the most important task each day

Talking about the most difficult things or most important things – I know how much the thought of a difficult task hanging over your head can make you feel stressed out. The important work gets put off a lot because we want it to be perfect or do a good job at it.

“Towards evening the lazy person begins to get busy.”

-German Proverb

But putting the work off often keeps the work poking our minds. The shadow of that task overpowers all the other work you need to do. For this to not happen, you should begin each day by working on tasks such as the ones we are talking about.

When you begin your day, the chances of you wanting to not do anything are lesser compared to the remaining day. Use the energy and positivity of the morning to tackle the most difficult work you have. When you tackle that, the mindset of getting things done is carried throughout the day. That mindset can help you not put off other works and also help you stop being lazy.

3. Break down big tasks into smaller tasks

When you look at a task as a whole, the thought of it can demotivate you. This is similar to the starting small point, but here we focus on breaking down the task into small manageable tasks.

Let’s take the same example of having to write a ten-page report. Now, report writing needs research, note-taking, planning, writing, citations, editing, proofreading, plagiarism checking, etc. These different aspects, when looked at as one thing, make the task of report writing, overwhelming.

“The lazier a man is, the more he plans to do tomorrow.”

-Norwegian Proverb

Start out by looking at them as separate tasks. Research is a task in its own. Work on that and don’t worry about the rest. When you are done with research, you can get on with the other step. When you actually look at smaller tasks as steps that will lead to the completion of your work, it becomes easier to take the first step.

4. Include breaks/lazy time into your work schedule

I have talked about this is many articles. If you are a regular reader, you know how much I endorse techniques that require you to take regular breaks in between work, especially the Pomodoro technique.

Being productive continuously is sort of a myth. Your brain needs a moment to breathe and so do you. By using a technique that makes sure that you get enough work done before you get a break, you are far more productive. Taking constant breaks makes the work not feel overwhelming which according to me is one of the leading reasons for people to be lazy.

Breaking down the hours make it seem less daunting. In the Pomodoro technique, you work for 25 minutes and then take a break of 5 minutes. When you do this four times, you get a bigger break of 15-30 minutes. If you can’t hold yourself accountable or don’t trust yourself to get back to work after your breaks, use timers or apps that help you follow it. There are a lot of apps based around the idea of work/break productivity. I use Be Focused on my Mac. It integrates a task manager along with a timer that you can customize.

5. Set Rewards

When we were little, our mothers bribed us to do our homework by allowing us to go outside only if we finished our homework. It was sort of a restriction too but worked mostly like a bribe. Use that same ideology. No matter how old we are, we love rewards.

Rewards are a sure way of getting work done. It is a sweet driving force. When you can see something for yourself in the end, you feel more motivated to complete the work. Say you want to watch a new episode of your favorite show, then use that as motivation.

Say to yourself that, “I can watch the episode after I finish writing two pages of this report.” Trust me; it works like a charm. This motivation is the most lucrative one to oneself. The thing you do in your lazy time is something you can use as a reward instead.

“Laziness erodes a person of his enthusiasm and energy. As a result, the person loses all opportunities and finally becomes dejected and frustrated. The worst thing is that he stops believing in himself.”

-Sam Veda

There are a lot of other things you can do, like reciting affirmations, learning from the stories of successful people, thinking about the consequences of not doing your job, etc. but those won’t help you take actual steps. Taking actual steps is what our focus is here.

You can use the other techniques you read about to motivate yourself but don’t forget to actually get up and put those learnings into practice.