Picture this, you wake up at 8am, and you know that the best time for you to be productive is between 8am and 12pm each day, you also know you have 3 assignments to finish up before their impending deadlines. You know you should get up and get at the assignments, but you tell yourself “there’s 24 hours in a day, I’ll do it later” and you go back to sleep. Everyone has found themselves in this situation at some point in their life and thought about how to break this loop, the loop or Laziness and Procrastination.
Laziness is not always lack of ambition or the refusal to take initiative. It’s also just the absence of motivation, drive or energy to do anything. Procrastination meanwhile is knowing that you should do a particular thing and actually wanting to do it but repeatedly delaying it, sometimes till it’s too late. The search and desire for motivation in order to get to work on something plays a big role in Laziness and Procrastination but one has to realise a simple truth, you don’t have to be motivated to start, you actually have to start to be motivated. This article will explore the reasons behind Laziness and Procrastination and give tips on how to build consistency.
Now there are a number of reasons for why these things happen, ranging from psychological to physical and even emotional causes. The fear of failure is perhaps the most common reason for laziness and procrastination, thinking to yourself “what if i don’t get it” or “what if it’s not good enough” might be why you’re procrastinating. Another reason is over-ambition, it’s okay to set big goals for oneself but at the same time, they should be realistic to some extent. Not doing this will oftentimes make one overwhelmed, feel lazy and procrastinate.
Physical factors like low energy or burnout also contribute to feelings of laziness. As a matter of fact, what we often call laziness is really a signal from the body or mind that something deeper is wrong. When you’re constantly tired or sleep-deprived, your brain naturally avoids demanding tasks to conserve energy. Poor diet and lack of movement also play a part, too much sugar and physical inactivity causes sluggishness and makes it harder to focus. Emotionally, stress and anxiety drain motivation just as quickly as physical fatigue and when the burnout sets in, even simple responsibilities feel overwhelming. Laziness, in this light, isn’t necessarily a flaw, it’s feedback that your body or emotions need adequate rest.
It’s common for one to tie laziness and procrastination to a lack of motivation but the truth is that motivation is unreliable, fickle even. Instead of motivation(although it’d certainly help to have it), one should strive for discipline. Discipline pushes one to act even when you don’t necessarily feel like it and you don’t have to progress in leaps and bounds from the get go, you just need to consistently put in those little amounts of work from time to time and they are bound to compound over time. Little drops of water as they say, makes a mighty ocean.
Here are a few tips to win the personal war against Laziness and Procrastination. First off,
practice the 2-minute rule, it is simply starting a task for as little as 2 minutes. Those 120 seconds can trick your brain into action and once you’ve started, you can build momentum and continue for a considerable amount of time.
As earlier mentioned, it is easy to get overwhelmed when the task or goal you have before you is very big. It’s advisable to break this overall goal into bite-sized actions with clear timelines you’re sure you can meet. This way, you’re less likely to feel choked up and overwhelmed by the task and you can also build momentum with the completion of each mini task.
Another way to defeat the enemy is to create an environment that helps you focus on the task at hand. This can be done by reducing and even completely removing distractions like noise or your mobile phone if you don’t need it for the task. It can also come in form of preparing whatever materials you need for your task beforehand, charging your laptop,
keeping your study materials neatly arranged and visible. The idea is that you are removing those seemingly small barriers that often add up to lack of motivation. Also, seeing these things arranged or prepared can serve as a visual cue that can and should prompt you to act when you see them. The reward system is also important, give yourself tiny rewards for each job well done and remember that you’re rewarding progress and not perfection. You don’t always have to wait till you’re done with every single one of the mini tasks to reward yourself. These mini rewards encourage and reinforce consistent efforts.
Now it’s not enough to just beat Laziness and Procrastination alone, one has to be determined to build a long term consistency and make it part of one’s identity. It’s not just about forcing yourself to work harder, it’s about changing how you see yourself. When you start identifying as the kind of person who shows up, a consistent learner, a disciplined athlete, or a focused creator, your actions begin to align with that image. You’re no longer just trying to finish a task you’re living up to who you believe you are. This mindset shift is powerful because identity beats motivation. Motivation is fickle and can fade quickly, but identity creates habits that stick. Each mini task you perform reinforces that self-image and over time, you stop battling laziness and start proving your identity true, one consistent choice at a time. It’s also important to remember that you’re not infallible and you’ll slip up every now and then but the key thing is to make sure you get back on track almost immediately as you slip up, try as much as possible to never miss twice in a row.
Laziness and Procrastination aren’t permanent traits, they’re habits and while it won’t be all peaches and roses, it’s very possible to change them, it is also key to remember that success is a result of consistent efforts and action and not occasional feelings of responsibility and the first step is having the determination to start, so start and start now, not later, because your consistency today shapes your success tomorrow.
