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
“Laziness was born before me. It was vary hard to make myself do something since childhood, especially the things I didn’t like. I often postpone the tasks, thinking I will do them when I have more time and energy. Nothing bad will happen, I say to myself, there’s plenty of time. I often plan a lot of things and end up doing none of them. Afterwards, I blame myself for wasting time, not doing something important or useful all day. How do I fight my laziness? I try different ways, yet it still gets the best of me.
I postponed writing my thesis until the very last moment, constantly in fear that I will not be able to submit it in time, yet I couldn’t make myself sit down and write it. I got distracted with interesting movies, videos, series, small chores, anything that would make me not do my work. I came up with loads of reasons and excuses: bad mood, no inspiration, other business, important meetings, feeling sick. I knew it was irresponsible of me to act like this. I was so ashamed of letting everyone down, including myself. But I don’t like pressure. I need a certain mood, inspiration to start doing my work. I have no idea how to fight my laziness and lack of organization.”
– Alena, 24
Every person probably had a similar experience to a story above. We all are lazy sometimes: we postpone important business, spend our day doing nothing useful. It is perfectly normal, until this becomes a bad habit that affects our life and we become unable to fight it.
Sometimes it can be good for us to sabotage our work, because laziness is a natural protection from exhaustion. If you don’t consider yourself to be a lazy person, you need to listen to what your body says and have some rest. It will save you from serious disorders that appear due to drain, like depression, heart diseases, nervous breakdown. However, if you feel that your laziness has become a habit, then it is most likely not a protective reaction anymore, but rather an established behavior pattern. [1] Let’s learn more about the psychology of laziness and ways to defeat this beast that stops us from living to the fullest.
Contents:
Let’s find out if your laziness has become a habit by taking a short test. Mark the statements you agree with.
If you have agreed with the majority of the statements, your laziness has most likely reached the stage where it interferes with your life and work. The consequences of such laziness can be extremely grave: health problems, losing a job, inability to establish close relationship with other people. This habit can actually destroy your life. In order to prevent that, you have to pay attention to this problem and learn to overcome your laziness.
Laziness often stems from exhaustion, but it can also have many other causes coming from internal conflicts or lack of motivation. What is laziness from psychology point of view? It is a reaction to a unbalance between “need” and “want”, discrepancy between person’s needs and their life circumstances. Once we know the true cause of laziness, we can find the way to defeat it.
Unfortunately, many of us are not so lucky to have their dream job that makes them want to wake up in the morning. No surprise that a person can quickly lose interest in a job they don’t love, they simply lose their motivation to finish the tasks properly. If we make ourselves do something we don’t need personally for a very long time, our brains naturally begin to resist, as they don’t understand why we have to spend so much energy on a useless activity. If the content of work goes against a person’s moral principles, it becomes even worse: it can grow into a serious internal conflict which can cause mental disorders in more severe cases. Fighting laziness in such cases becomes hard: you either need to change your job or try to find meaning in the current one. [2]
This cause is linked to the previous one. In essence, lack of goals, both short-term and long-term, equals the lack of motivation. Any person needs to have certain goals. Pointless actions eventually make us resist doing them, even if the activity itself looks interesting and fun. Moreover, if the tasks we need to perform do not correlate with our true goals, it is perfectly natural to be reluctant about spending time on them. Therefore, if you wonder how you should “heal” yourself from laziness, ask yourself this simple question: why do I have to perform a task I am now postponing?
Sometimes laziness appears due to our fear of large volumes of work or an incredibly difficult task. A person might be afraid that they will not make it, that the efforts spent will not bear fruit and that others will criticize them. People may even not notice their fear, they will just be reluctant to start working. Perfectionists are especially affected by this fear, as they need everything to be done perfectly. Also, people with low self-confidence may have the same fears. Such people can normally be hardworking, but increase responsibility may induce fear. How can an adult fight their laziness in this case? They must understand that an imperfect result is also acceptable.
Laziness can be a protest against uninteresting or difficult work, but it can also be a weakness of a character. A person with weak will cannot simply make themselves perform a task, even if they realize its significance. Such people tend to aim for quick entertainment. They cannot overcome their lack of will, finish their business and enjoy a well-deserved rest. Such people prefer to obtain pleasure immediately, postponing their work.
Here is an article about treating weak will, as well as overcoming fatigue and laziness.
Finally, laziness can simply be a habit established early in childhood. Probably you had no duties and chores at home, parents made all the decisions for you and disregarded your neglect of studies. That might have led to a specific behavior pattern that you couldn’t change after reaching adulthood.
There is another cause, which stems from a situation in which you were overburdened with responsibility. In that case you have probably learned that you wouldn’t be able to complete the task, so there was no point in trying. Such conditions lead to learned helplessness, which becomes the ground for chronic laziness. [3]
This cause of responsibility neglect deserves special attention. Chronic laziness that appeared quite suddenly can be a symptom of depression, as well as physical disorders, from coronary heart disease to cancer. If you think that none of the causes above described your specific situation, you should pay attention to your physical and mental health. Simply knowing how to fight laziness won’t do: you will have to fight the cause, not a symptom of a disorder. Consult a doctor to identify the cause of your pathologic laziness and receive proper treatment.
How can we defeat laziness and make ourselves work and engage in other activities? In certain cases you can handle the problem on your own, if you have the desire. Here are some pieces of advice to help you overcome laziness at home or work by losing this laziness habit:
If the methods above could not help you defeat your laziness, and you feel like you have no more energy to fight it, then this habit has probably become pathologic. It will be extremely difficult to get rid of it on your own. You will have to change your usual mode of behavior completely. This is what our registered 7Spsy behavior modification technique is about.
Our method will help you discover and eliminate the mindset that promotes your laziness, develop new and positive mindset, and learn to apply it. The course is taken remotely with constant support from a psychologist. You will only need a bit of your time and internet access. In just 2-6 weeks you will be able to defeat your laziness and begin acting. You will find the time and energy for career advancement, sports, meeting with friends and other interesting activities you used to put off because of your laziness.
References:
