How to Stop Being So Lazy

“How soon ‘not now’ becomes ‘never’.”
Martin Luther
This week I’d like to share 10 simple habits that have helped me to make that change. To stop being so lazy and get what really matters done by working smarter. While still having room for guilt-free lazy time to spend as I like.
1. Be kind to yourself.
When you feel that you’ve perhaps been too lazy lately it’s common and tempting to beat yourself up about it and to hope that will lead you to start taking action.
Sometimes it does. But I have found that beating yourself up most often just leads to feeling guiltier and like a failure. And so you feel less motivated to get going and you procrastinate because there seems to be little point in even trying.
2. Start with just a small step forward.
The hardest thing is often to simply get started.
So make that as easy as you can to reduce the inner resistance and to actually take action. Start with just taking a small step forward:

• Go out running for only 3 minutes.
• Do the dishes for 5 minutes.
• Write on that report you’ve been procrastinating on for 10 minutes.

3. Do a small part of what matters most first thing in your day.
To feel like you can enjoy your lazy/rest time fully and without guilt it’s important to actually get what truly matters in the long run done each week.
So start your day with that. But make it easy on yourself by breaking down that task into smaller steps and then focus on just the first one.
Get on it right away to get into an effective and focused mindset.

4. Cycle fully focused work with small breaks of rest/lazy time.
To lighten up your daily work inject small breaks between doing short but focused burst of work.
Say to yourself: I’ll do 20 minutes of work on this task now and then I can take 5 or 10 minutes of lazy time.
By breaking down your hours like this the work seems less daunting. And you’ll feel energetic and motivated longer and do work of better quality if you allow yourself these pauses of rest and time to lazy around on Facebook, with a game or with just relaxing in the grass or with short walk in the park.

5. Unclutter your life.
When your life’s too cluttered and overwhelming then you may shut down and procrastinate by lying lazily on the couch and just watching the TV or your smart phone.
When that’s the case then start uncluttering both your work hours and your private time. Two questions that have helped me to do that and to find what is most important are:

• What would I work on if I only had 2 hours for work today?
• If I had just 1 hour of free time today then how would I spend it?

Written by Henrik Edberg