320 Serangoon Road,
#13-05 Centrium Square,
Singapore 218108
#13-05 Centrium Square,
Singapore 218108
Daily
09:00 to 18:00
09:00 to 18:00
“My work runs me ragged. Or, rather, I run myself ragged. I keep the main goal in focus, but simply can’t get myself together and start on it. I break in small and immediate tasks that require less effort and time and drag out their execution. Of course, I tell myself that I just want to get rid of these little problems first, so that they stop putting pressure on me. And shouldn’t I solve them to my best ability even though they’re small? No, of course not. And so I work on them slow and steady, trying to make everything perfect. Now and then I get distracted by social networks and Pinterest. In these moments I am convinced that I am not being lazy at all — I am simply looking for inspiration and fresh ideas. By the end of the day I blame myself for not managing to accomplish anything. I’m exhausted and feeling like I’ve wasted my time. The deadline is approaching closer and closer, and I’m floundering. I start hastily breaking a big task into small ones and barely finish in time to meet a project schedule. Then I take a new task and everything repeats once more.”
— Victoria, 25, graphic designer
Have you ever felt like Victoria? We think yes, because every person is sometimes lazy at work. We can set ourselves a goal, but for a long time we can’t find the strength to get down to business. We can start a business with joy and enthusiasm, but then feel tired and lose interest in the middle of the path. But what is more important is not the fact that we feel such things, but how often we encounter them and how we cope with them.
If we are lazy a lot, it inevitably affects the results, quality and timing of our performance. In the worst scenario, the inability to cope with laziness can lead to job loss and poor resume recommendations. In this article we talk about why we tend to be lazy and how to deal with laziness at work.
Contents:
It is generally accepted that laziness is a serious flaw in personality, and it arises from the weakness of character and lack of will. The fixed expression “laziness is the engine of progress” is more often used sarcastically. From early childhood we have been afraid of the example from the fairy-tale hero Emeli and forced to memorize proverbs about work.
It would seem that with such upbringing we all had to get a “vaccine” against laziness. Then why do many, being already conscious adults and valuable specialists, struggle so hard to overcome laziness? Waking up in the morning, they catch themselves thinking: “I don’t want to get up and go to work.”
In fact, various physiological and psychological factors can hide under the mask of laziness – from physical fatigue to the lack of stable life guidelines and depression. Before you start blaming yourself and try to eradicate this flaw with all you might, it is necessary to understand the true causes of its manifestation.
The irresistible desire to do nothing, even when the deadlines are approaching, could happen due to the peculiarities of the structure of the brain. This conclusion was reached by neuroscientists at the University of Oxford. Because of the lack of connections between certain areas of the brain, it is difficult for some people to make decisions and move from reflection to active action. Of course, this does not explain the laziness of each and every one. But science cannot deny the fact that some people are naturally less strong-minded and, as a result, less productive. [1]
At work, more tangible physiological causes of laziness are physical fatigue, malaise, illness and discomfort, which can be created by uncomfortable clothes and shoes. The body, experiencing the need for rest, treatment and comfort, sends appropriate signals to the brain. When we do not react to these signals — have out-of-bed colds, refuse to leave work in favor of a new project, sit all day in tight jeans compressing the abdominal cavity — we try to “silence” them. Most of our brain activity is spent on “disabling” discomfort factors. Hence the problems with concentrating on work tasks and difficulties in decision-making. We may not even be aware of this “struggle” that directly affects our performance.
Similar processes occur with us when we work in conditions that do not meet the required standards: not comfortable enough air temperature and humidity in the room, insufficient lighting, increased noise level, etc. [2]
Think of yourself in your first working week at your current job. Surely you were very active, inquisitive, tried to show the full range of your skills and competencies. What happened a month later? Three months later? Six months later? Perhaps there was a feeling that more tasks were assigned to you than expected, and the desire to work has dramatically decreased?
When people get a new job, they strive to do as much work as possible, even when it is not part of their responsibilities. The new employee tries to prove that he deserves his post and receives a response from the management, which, in turn, initially encourages his activity and purposefulness.
But when the manager stops giving positive reinforcement, the employee begins to feel that he is doing too much work. Once upon a time he willingly worked overtime, and now he has difficulty coping with what is within his area of responsibility.
Laziness in this case is a form of protest. It arises as a consequence of intra-personal conflict when instead of satisfying a true actual need a person tries to satisfy another one. In the beginning, the employee focused on the need for recognition and went beyond his area of responsibility. When he stopped receiving recognition, fatigue accumulated and laziness appeared.
When you take a new job, keep your focus on the need to earn a decent salary for the clear and timely performance of duties that are written in your employment contract or job description. Then you won’t have to think about how to get rid of laziness.
Burnout is a state of physical, emotional and mental exhaustion that can occur due to prolonged stress and routine work. People who are unable to set up a clear work and rest schedule and engage in monotonous work for a long time are prone to burnout. If your work involves systematic operations and you are not satisfied with its results, you may lose interest in it. By forcing yourself to do things you don’t like over and over again, you gradually move towards a subconscious inner protest that is expressed in the form of laziness.
Read more about the emotional burnout and its impact on work and other areas of life in this article.
Laziness can be a reaction to the lack of well-understood values. For example, if your performance is rising but your wages are still the same. Or if you execute a sales plan for several months in a row, earn generous bonuses, and finally start enjoying your results. But suddenly the boss decides to double your plan, and you realize that you won’t be able to fulfill it.
But it also happens that the loss of motivation is directly related to the peculiarities of work and not to the level of earnings:
“My main job in my past work was to provide feedback on customer complaints. I constantly apologized on behalf of the company, provided compensation, promised that we will definitely take the necessary measures and this would not happen again. In this, I followed the job description and transferred the information on each complaint to the relevant units. Months and years passed. Typical complaints were repeated. It became difficult and even embarrassing to tell people that such situations are extremely rare in our company. I began to understand that the company already knew everything about the problem, but it was unprofitable to solve it in favor of customers.
I felt like a useless link in a system that had no impact on anything. My salary was increased every three months, I received additional tasks and projects to distract me from the main one for a while, but I lost any desire to fulfill them.
When I realized that my productivity tends to zero, I quit the job. Now I live on what I earned and did not have time to spend. I have no desire to get a new job or even just look for vacancies; laziness does not let me go.”— Evgeniy, 23, former call-center employee
It can be extremely difficult to muster up the will and professionalism to work productively before leave or dismissal. How could you force yourself to think about work when all thoughts are about warm seas or fun with friends? Such a mood can overwhelm the whole group, for example, before the New Year or May holidays. On such days, laziness arises because of low self-discipline and a tendency to follow the majority. Laziness can also be a consequence of fatigue if you have worked hard before your leave.
Every day we all have to postpone something for later, comparing the expectations of others with our capabilities, determining the importance and secondaryness of some things in relation to others. But at some point, we may lose the line between the objective impossibility of “not waiting for tomorrow to do what can be done today” and the habit of procrastinating.
Procrastination poisons the lives of many people. Procrastination and laziness are not always associated with a lack of willpower and self-control. Failure to make decisions and act here and now can be a consequence of chronic fatigue. [3]
In this case, you need rest to get back to active work and be productive. You can determine this by the following signs:
“How to make yourself work if you are lazy? How to pay attention to what you want to do when you are too lazy to work?
My phone distracts me from work. It often happens that I “stumble” at certain tasks, when I don’t have enough knowledge, information, or when I know that it would take a lot of effort. I immediately start thinking about having a break. My hand involuntarily reaches towards the phone with its “magical marvelous instaworld” with stories of beautiful and successful people…Lately, I’ve been very good at catching myself in these moments. I found my own recipe for how to overcome laziness and start working: I place the phone in the bag and remove the bag away from myself. I don’t get calls during the day. All messengers were installed on the computer, and I’m answering only work messages. I set aside the time when I can take a break. I decide what can be a reward for myself: chocolate, a book or a walk… and the job starts!
Since I started practicing this “gadget detox” at work, productivity has increased by many times.”– Elena, 29, accountant
Elena did a pretty good self-examination and found out what was really stopping her from working. You can do this kind of analysis on your part and come up with ways to block distractions.
Alas, it is impossible to completely exclude laziness from our lives. Sometimes we just need to go into “energy-saving mode.” But it is in our power to prevent the formation of a bad habit of being lazy and work more productively.
Here are some simple tips on how to overcome laziness when it’s really needed.
You must not allow all methods of dealing with laziness to be reduced to self-deprecation: “I had to do it yesterday!” and “It can’t go on!” and “I have no money, and I’m sitting there doing nothing!” First, give yourself the right to be lazy. Then take responsibility and decide whether you should succumb to it or not. Move on to the subsequent steps.
Don’t allot too much time for the most difficult task. In such circumstances your brain will “look for loopholes” in order to engage in other, less important activities at best. At worst it will persuade you to “have fun”: read the news from the show business world, play games, spend time on empty chatting and the like.
Are you afraid of a new large-scale project? Are you afraid to start it because there are still a lot of things you don’t know? Take time to think. Make a preliminary plan, break the big task into small ones. Find a starting point and solve the first small problem, such as writing a letter requesting information or making the first call. This way you’d get feedback, see that you’re not alone in this and understand which direction to go next.
Did you find a non-standard solution or came up with how to optimize the work? That’s cool. Did you get through the case on time? Ok. You sure you didn’t forget to praise yourself? We tend to blame ourselves more often for failures than to reward ourselves for successes — we take them for granted. Think of small rewards for yourself for every action done on time. Pay attention to small victories more often and it will become easier for you to achieve more.
When you suddenly feel too lazy to work, sober yourself up with the answer to the question: “Why am I doing this?”
Do you want to pay your mortgage ahead of time? Do you want to save up for a new car? Do you want to show Paris to your mom? If you have a big goal, you will always know how to overcome laziness and keep working.
Do you find it surprising and unthinkable that a colleague, having just returned from vacation, is already talking about where to go to rest in six months? Do the same. Delaying the planning of a vacation for later and going “where you have to” (or even nowhere, because you have not scratched up enough money) is not the best strategy. Start planning your vacation in advance and you will have more incentive and motivation to work. You still need to earn enough for the vacation, and there be a lot of organizational issues. But you’re not too lazy for a vacation, are you?
What to do if you can’t fight laziness on your own? If it is difficult for you to go to work even after a vacation? If you’re in a bad mood by the end of the weekend, feel angry, sad and even desperate that you have to go to the office again tomorrow? Don’t be in a hurry to change jobs. Perhaps your internal mindset interferes with it, and everything will repeat again at the new place.
To understand yourself you will need the help of a psychologist,
The problem of pathological laziness and reluctance to work can be solved by a course of the 7Spsy behavior modification technique. It is a patented, scientifically proven method based on theories of the founders of behavioral psychology: I.P. Pavlov, B.F. Skinner, A.A.Ukhtomsky. This method will allow you to change the learned behavior and develop important qualities: hard work, initiative and proactivity.
Lessons are carried out remotely under the guidance of a psychologist. You can practice at a convenient time in a comfortable environment. The duration of the course will be from 2 to 6 weeks (depending on the psychological characteristics of the personality). Throughout the course, you will be able to communicate with a psychologist through any convenient communication channel: by phone, online chat or by e-mail.
Learn to take pleasure from your work and rejoice in the results; then any work will be within your scope of abilities!
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