Procrastination and Laziness

There are times, not only several but many instances where procrastination and laziness overcome people, and I am one of those suffering from these unproductive attitude. I observed these two attitudes go together. I had a hard time achieving things. I compensate by doing work in bursts but I feel I should really be doing something about these feelings.

So many things were written about procrastination and laziness, some offering simple explanations while others even provide professional services. I tried to look around and find out why procrastination and laziness occur among people. Here are some major reasons that I learned in my search for the causes of this generally regarded negative attitudes and some which appeared to help me understand myself and do something:

The Reasons

1. Lack of motivation

If nothing motivates a person to do something, he tends to laze around. This usually happens when someone has targetted easily achievable goals. Experts recommend setting high goals, especially goals that are near impossible to prevent achieving those goals and keep you working at it.

Lack of motivation has deep roots. Remez Sasson explains that lack of motivation denotes absence or deficiency in desire, interest and driving force. He enumerated negative outcomes.

2. Lack of sleep

Lack of sleep can get over you. Our body needs rest to regain lost energy during the day. If not enough sleep is made, such as due to working hard in the night, most likely the next day will cause one to be lazy.

3. Lack of proper nutrition

Lack of insulin in the body because of diabetes can cause fatigue and eventually laziness. Insulin controls blood glucose levels, thus provides the necessary energy to the body when needed.

4. Genetic predisposition

Even though how hard people try to get motivated, some findings point out genes that cause laziness. Time magazine explores this subject.

5. Lack of exercise

I resumed exercising on a regular basis to get rid of my feelings of laziness and give me more energy. Exercise has always been recommended to people as a way to get over that lazy feeling. That is, if one is really motivated to do something about being lazy. Lightfoot, a kinesiologist, with his team discovered that there are strains of mice not predisposed to exercise. And this may be true to humans.

The Recommended Solutions

Of course, understanding the reasons for procrastination and laziness would lead to antidotes to neutralize those feelilngs. I enumerate them in order of the causes above.

1. What motivates you? Find out what really matters to you, what things interest you and make you and others happy.

2. Get enough sleep. Avoid bringing work at home and sleep at a designated time. People differ in their sleep times, so find out how much time you need to feel refreshed.

3. Eat the right kinds of food. Eat right, avoid too much sweets that can make your drowsy. Have a check up to find out if you have diabetes. To avoid a drowsy after-lunch syndrome, experts recommend limiting or even eliminating carbohydrates in your lunch. But not too much of protein either. In general, a small lunch will do.

4. Do something about your genes? Probably a pill to make you want to exercise? Hah, I hope one comes out soon. We always have a choice to do something about our genes. One way to effectively motivate you to do something about your body is to look at a full-body mirror everyday and ask yourself if you like what you saw. I did it and disliked my appearance (I look FAT!!! and ugly) so I did something. Well, maybe for some being fat is desirable.

5. Exercise regularly. I did return to my usual exercise routine by applying Kenneth Cooper’s point system applying aerobics principle. Listing my progress and seeing it on record motivates me to do regular exercise. Exercise reduced my sleepiness.