Often, what makes it difficult for us to move forward is not so much the lack of time, resources or skills, but simply laziness . Those moments when we know that there are certain responsibilities that we must attend to and that we end up leaving for later are perfect examples of the extent to which we are capable of self-sabotage.

We know that we must do something, we also know that not doing so will have negative consequences, and yet we chose the second option. What happened?

Several tips to stop being lazy

There are certain projects where it’s all a matter of getting started. Unfortunately, the discomfort of getting started can be such an unpleasant idea that we never really get around to it. In these cases, we often look for all sorts of excuses so as not to recognize where the real problem lies: laziness.

Next we will go over a series of tips to make clear how to stop being lazy and attend once and for all to those projects and responsibilities that require our work. To do this, we will modify both our objective habits and our belief systems.

1. Sleep well

This is a fundamental step. No one can put effort into projects that are seen as “extra” work if the quality of sleep has been poor or if you have not slept enough . In these cases, the normal thing to do is to do the minimum to get rid of the obligations that do or should be attended to immediately, and then go to rest or sleep.

So, even if you think that sleeping is a waste of time, think that doing it often can be the difference between losing the whole day and not losing it at all.

2. Determine exactly what you should do

There are times when we rationalize our desire to do nothing by building a fiction in which what we have to do is such a difficult and convoluted task that it deserves to be dealt with at a more suitable time, and not in the present. We take advantage of the ambiguity about what we have to do to invent something very complicated .

For example, if I need to go and buy some speakers, I can imagine that first I have to spend several hours informing myself about the operation of these devices, and then I have to compare the products, choose the store where they give the best offer, and find a moment to go and buy them that suits us well enough to be able to buy other things.

This can be avoided if we determine from the outset what we should do . The essential, the main thing, with some very specific limits. In the case of the previous example, this would be, in case we don’t want to spend too much, researching a small number of speaker models, reading their characteristics and consumer opinions, and going to buy them at a nearby store.

3. Divide your objective into several subobjectives

One of the most important things in overcoming laziness is to eliminate any possibility of making excuses for ourselves. To do this, the best thing to do is to consider very simple tasks that, in a chain, form the path towards the general objective we want to reach. In this way, we achieve two things.

On the one hand, the feeling of “obligation” will be much stronger, since the perceived cost of doing such a negligible action will be much lower.
On the other hand, when we start a project or work, we naturally tend to want to complete it. This phenomenon is known as the Zeigarnik effect.

4. Stay away from distractions

Turn off the TV, leave your smartphone hidden and get to work away from the fridge. If you have to work with the computer, it’s not a bad idea to ask someone to change your password for Facebook or any social network you use a lot, so that you can get it back only after you’ve finished what you want to accomplish.

In the end, you must do the right thing so that there is nothing around you that can tempt you with the idea of giving you a reason to neglect your responsibilities. If these distractions can have that effect on your mind, you can also fight back by making those “powers” disappear, at least for a while.

5. Look back and see your progress

This is one of the most rewarding parts of beating laziness, and it consists of stopping to think about the fruits of your effort , what you didn’t have before and what you enjoy now. Of course, any effort also has a negative side, but at this point you should only look at the positive, since in normal situations we tend to let the bad eclipse the good just because it is good (even though objectively it is less important).

This is an important stage, because it allows you to associate those actions and thoughts that have led you to advance, on the one hand, and the positive fruits of those initiatives, on the other. It is thanks to this that although at the beginning it was more progress, as we get results it costs less.