“I will do this task tomorrow. I am not feeling like doing this today”. Did this happen to you? If so, this is an example of laziness. When the time comes, you will again defer it and the cycle will continue. For example, let’s say your college examinations are starting next week. You think that there is still one week to go and you feel quite satisfied. Few days passed and you still did not start preparing and soon you see only a couple of days are left for the exam. You get anxious and start preparing for the exam. How do you think your exam will go? The exam will not go well mostly as in those couple of days, there is quite a chance that you missed preparing on some topics.
From the above example, we can learn when you keep delaying things until the very end, the outcome is likely not going to be well. However, what causes us to procrastinate? Let us look at some of the factors below.
1. Lack of willingness
Where there is a will, there is a way! However, when you don’t have the will to do well, how would you put your best effort towards the task you are supposed to do? That’s when you defer the task. When you don’t have the will, you will likely participate or do the task half-heartedly let alone performing well in that assignment.
2. The task is of least importance
When you think that the task you are supposed to do is not important, you try to postpone that. You defer it so much that one day it becomes of huge importance. You may regret at that point why you delayed so much but you won’t be able to do anything about it as the damage is already done.
3. You never get results
In the past, when you have worked hard for something, you never got results and that can be one of the reasons you postpone your tasks thinking that you will not get results this time as well. You are probably scared to face it this time because of your experience. However, you never knew you might have got the result this time.
4. Lack of interest
It might happen that the task you are supposed to work on is not interesting and you don’t get the urge to finish this on time. For example, you have an interest in Maths but you don’t feel like reading Biology and your Biology exam is coming soon. These types of situations often come across not only in school life but also in professional lives. One needs to understand that not everything he will work on is going to be interesting all the time but the work is very important to the organization. You would need to force yourself sometimes to get the work done even if it’s not interesting to make sure others are not getting impacted.
5. Lack of motivation
Sometimes, people are not motivated to perform their tasks on time. It might happen that in the past they did extremely well but their efforts were not recognized. So, they will feel less motivated to perform this time and they will end up delaying their tasks.
Now that we got to know some of the causes why people procrastinate, let’s see how they can overcome those issues and stay always active.
1. Improve your willingness
You will have to figure out how you can increase your willingness for the task you were planning to defer. Think from a different perspective. Try to think about the end goal. I am sure the task you are going to perform will benefit not only you but also others. If you can realize the benefits, it will give you an extra boost to finish the task on time without delaying it.
2. No task is less important
Let me give you an example here. You are supposed to sweep your floor today but you thought there is no harm in doing that tomorrow and therefore you postponed the task. Now if someone in your house has a dust allergy, he or she may fall sick. So, your one day of negligence can have a severe impact on others. The task might be of lesser importance to you but it can be very important for others. So, always try to think from another person’s perspective before defining whether the task is less important.
3. Never give up
Because of your past failures, you tend to delay the task as you are likely scared of failure again. However, you need to know that failures are part of one’s success. All the successful people faced a lot of failures. You should be determined to bounce back from your failures. Once you have the ‘never give up’ attitude, you are bound to get success. So, push yourself and don’t delay the task.
4. Find your interest
I have written above that sometimes you have to force yourself to do your work even if it does not sound interesting to you. This is true. However, if this happens regularly, then something is wrong for sure. You will have to switch your career to the field which you are quite passionate about. Once you get into that field, you will automatically find yourself not delaying or procrastinating your tasks.
5. Remain motivated
Last but not least is how much you are motivated to perform well. Motivation depends on a variety of factors such as your interest level, your willingness to learn, etc. If you can keep yourself motivated, you will never postpone any task. For example, you want to reduce your weight but you are kind of lazy to follow an exercise routine regularly and you will give some excuses to yourself. However, if you can visualize yourself about the end goal such as the benefits of keeping yourself fit, you will find your inner motivation.
Conclusion
To conclude, I would like to end with my own story. I used to weigh around 86 kilograms back in 2019. I was kind of overweight by 16-17 kilograms. I saw some pictures of myself and I used to hate myself. I was determined to turn this around and visualized how fit I would look if I can reduce that extra weight. I started going to our society gym without fail. After 6 months, I reduced around 10 kilograms. However, during the beginning of the pandemic in 2020, things went out of control and I gained some kilograms back as gyms got closed.
I realized that it would be difficult for me later to reduce the extra weight if I don’t take any action soon. Hence, I enrolled for a fitness and diet course around September 2020 and have been continuing the same now. I weigh around 65 kilograms now. I have been able to reduce so much with home workouts only. I feel good if I look at my photos now. That was my motivation to stick to the diet and exercise regime.
Hope this post would help you overcome your laziness and be active.
How did you overcome your laziness? Do you like to share your story below?
