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. Small steps 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. Start your day with most important task
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.
By doing so you set a good tone for your day. You get that quick 5-10 minute win in first thing and you’ll be a lot more motivated to keep going on that path during the rest of your day.
4. Turn of escape routes
Just sitting down at for example your computer and trying to do fully focused work for 5 or 20 minutes may not result in any work of importance getting done.
Not if you don’t remove those things that you usually use to procrastinate.
So ask yourself: where do I usually escape to instead of doing my work?
For me it’s for example often my smart phone and checking Reddit, Twitter or random internet browsing.
So I put my phone in silent mode and I put it at the other end of our home when I work. By setting up that small physical obstacle I avoid the phone trap maybe 95% of the time.
If you:
Have the same issue with gaming then put your controller far away in your home while working.
Escape to Facebook or other websites on your computer then block that for a little while.
Watch TV then pull out the cords to it. Or remove one of the cords completely and put it at the other end of your home.
5. Be OK with stumbling from time to time
The fear of failure can hold you back in a state of doing easier things and in what you may see as being lazy.
But everyone that go for what they truly want and outside of their comfort zone stumbles and fails from time to time. That’s just a part of a life well lived (even if we don’t hear about people’s setbacks as often as their successes).
See a setback as a learning experience and as a way to be more constructive and kinder to yourself.
You can do that by asking yourself these two questions after you’ve stumbled:
What is 1 thing I can learn from this situation?
How would my best friend/parent support me and help me in this situation? (Then talk to yourself and do things like she or he would).
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