Leaving the Couch: 9 Practical Ways to Stop Being Lazy -

Within our everyday life, we can attribute ‘laziness’ to low academic effort, bad work ethic or even simply a lack of effort. However, in theory, it can be distinguished from fatigue and other psychological blocks that prevent us from performing tasks. In psychological research, laziness can be divided into three factors –

Individual performance – What is your capability of performance at your highest level of productivity?

The perceived difficulty of the task and personal abilities – How much ability do you have to perform certain tasks that you may perceive as complex?

Motivation or effort to actually conduct the task – How motivated are you to work on tasks? How much effort do you put in?

Are you Lazy?

At the end of the day, the characterization of laziness is subjective and can be boiled down to it being a construct that provides reasoning as to why someone is incapable of meeting the norm by doing a task.

The following things can be a leading cause of laziness –

Feeling mentally fatigued
Being physically exhausted
Procrastinating on work
Experiencing burnout
Leading an unhealthy lifestyle
Not eating enough food for energy

Check Out: The Psychology of Procrastination: strategies to boost Productivity

Potential Causes of perceived ‘laziness’

Many psychological conditions may also impact your productivity and can be perceived as laziness. It can always be helpful to visit a therapist to find the roots of your habits if it persist for a long period. Here are some potential psychological conditions that can be underlying your laziness.

Oftentimes your laziness may even be out of fatigue. Prolonged fatigue can be a symptom of a range of psychological conditions. It can be a common symptom of depression, anxiety and seasonal affective disorder.
It can also be a result of physiological conditions such as chronic fatigue syndrome, autoimmune disorders or even thyroidism.

9 Ways to Overcome Laziness

While it can be easy to term oneself as lazy, there are some potential ways to combat laziness if you identify yourself as being lazy –

Create manageable goals: Setting unrealistically high standards for yourself can trap you and make you feel like you are not achieving anything. By creating small achievable goals by breaking complex tasks into smaller ones, it can be easier to navigate them and be consistent.

Do smaller tasks first: It can be intimidating to look at your checklist of work and responsibilities. Try doing the smaller tasks first since it can help you gain confidence to achieve bigger tasks. It can also be beneficial to rank tasks based on their importance and do the most essential small ones first.

Asking for help from others: Studies have shown that not taking help from others can potentially lead to overwhelming yourself with work. If you ask for help from others, chances are that that task can finish faster and you will be able to work on it more efficiently.

Routinely reward yourself: When working on creative or logical tasks, it is beneficial to provide incentives to work better. By rewarding yourself consistently, you can increase your motivation to work on future tasks and make the process of working more enjoyable.

When you find a task tough, try visualising it: Visualisation of the tasks you want to execute can help execute it. Try brainstorming different potential ways to execute things and map out how to conduct the task exactly. Planning your steps can also help with breaking them down making it less taxing.

Give yourself positive reinforcement to work: The reinforcement theory by B.F Skinner is highly applicable in increasing your motivation to work. By giving yourself positive reinforcement to work, you can make tasks seem more appealing and conduct them with greater ease.

Practice being mindful: Practising mindfulness can be extremely beneficial when experiencing high amounts of stress dealing with the task at hand. It is a practice of shifting attention to the present consciously that can help you ground yourself and increase productivity.

Remind yourself why you want to achieve these goals: Focusing on why these tasks can benefit you in the long run can help remind you of their importance. By connecting your short-term goals to long-term goals you can achieve a greater sense of direction and motivate yourself to work on the task.

Take breaks: Results have shown that taking breaks is increasingly essential while working on tougher tasks compared to smaller ones. The bigger the task you take on, it is important to give yourself small routine breaks to avoid feeling burnt out and give your absolute best.

To conclude, laziness can highly depend on personal characteristics, environmental conditions and even physiology. You can follow simple steps to motivate yourself and get a task done. However, if laziness has taken over your life and you aren’t able to control it, it may be rewarding to visit a mental health practitioner or physician.

References +

Healthline. (2012, September 10). Fatigue: Causes, Diagnosis, Treatment & More. Healthline. https://www.healthline.com/health/fatigue#when-to-see-a-doctor
Healthline. (2019, April 2). How to Stop Being Lazy: 17 Healthy and Practical Strategies. Healthline. https://www.healthline.com/health/how-to-stop-being-lazy#mental-tips-and-ideas
Heylighen, F., & Vidal, C. (2008). Getting Things Done: The Science behind Stress-Free Productivity. Long Range Planning, 41(6), 585–605. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lrp.2008.09.004
http://www.diva-portal.org/smash/record.jsf?pid=diva2%3A800698. (n.d.). DIVA. Retrieved March 1, 2024, from https://www.diva-portal.org/smash/record.jsf?dswid=-9285&pid=diva2%3A800698
Madsen, T. (2018). The Conception of Laziness and the Characterisation of Others as Lazy. Human Arenas, 1(3), 288–304. https://doi.org/10.1007/s42087-018-0018-6
Thompson, P. S., & Bolino, M. C. (2018). Negative beliefs about accepting coworker help: Implications for employee attitudes, job performance, and reputation. Journal of Applied Psychology, 103(8), 842–866. https://doi.org/10.1037/apl0000300
Vugt, M. van. (2019). Mindfulness as a Potential Tool for Productivity. Rethinking Productivity in Software Engineering, 293–302. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4842-4221-6_25
Wei, L. T., & Yazdanifard, R. (2014). The impact of Positive Reinforcement on Employees’ Performance in Organizations. American Journal of Industrial and Business Management, 04(01), 9–12. https://www.scirp.org/journal/paperinformation?paperid=41885
Wikipedia. (n.d.). How to Overcome Laziness. WikiHow. https://www.wikihow.com/Overcome-Laziness
My Well Being. (n.d.). Am I depressed or lazy? | MyWellbeing. Mywellbeing.com. Retrieved March 1, 2024, from https://mywellbeing.com/therapy-101/am-i-depressed-or-lazy#:~:text=Laziness%20is%20often%20associated%20with

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