Feeling Lazy? Me too. Here's How I Plan to Change That

Today, I wanted to write about laziness. 

Now that we’re sheltering in place, it’s a trait I’ve begun to notice more frequently in myself and attitude. I’m sure it was always there, but with no distracting outings or dates with friends, the laziness didn’t feel as potent. 

Or maybe it has to do with the fact that I’m now on social media more than ever and have chosen to fill my feed with people who inspire me. People who seem to have the opposite problem, unable to ever sit still and do nothing. Instead, they’re out there in the world off on adventures or trying to make it a better place (all while socially distanced, of course). 

I know better than to compare myself to what I see posted on social media. After all, we’re only sharing the best parts of ourselves on there, right?

Still, I also know people who are like that in real life. Friends who find it hard to sit through a movie marathon because they want to be doing something. Friends who are so motivated by their passions that they find ways to complete degrees, write books, start side-businesses, all while working their full time jobs. 

I, on the other hand, find that I’m almost always up for a movie marathon—this obsession with films started when I was young—or reading all day or simply dusting the visible spots of my house as opposed to doing a deep clean of the space.  

It feels like I’m in a constant battle with laziness…

Before I go on, let me define what I’m calling laziness: doing activities that are relaxing and do not involve physical exertion while knowing there are other activities that would benefit me in the long run. Other activities include but are not limited to writing, working out, cleaning, creating, cooking. 

I know that there is so much that I can be doing, but I’d really rather sit on the couch and watch TV. 

I know it’s laziness rather than disliking the alternative because I actually enjoy some of the activities I don’t do. Cooking, heading outside for a walk or run, reading some articles that I bookmarked for after work. I don’t even mind washing dishes. 

I want to point out really quickly that I don’t have ADD which can cause the brain to stop firing in certain places when it is forced to concentrate on some tasks. I don’t have that problem. If I can get myself to do something, I don’t have trouble focusing on it. It’s really getting over the starting line/battling with the desire to just lay around and watch TV.

I guess it’s that law of inertia: An object at rest stays at rest. 

But what I’m wondering is how some people don’t seem to have this problem. How are some people able to be in motion as soon as they wake up in the morning? What is it about this type of person that seemingly removes laziness from their systems? 

Maybe it’s the fact that they never let themselves get addicted to vegging out in the first place. We know that our brains get a dopamine hit when we binge-watch shows. And not just a single hit, but a continuous hit that can make the act of watching an entire Netflix series in one day (is this what I did yesterday? Yep!) addicting. Like really addicting. 

So perhaps these friends who seem immune to laziness never give themselves a chance to be lazy from the start. Maybe it’s a productivity/active habit that they’ve had in place for a while now and that’s why it’s seemingly so easy for them.

To test this theory, I think I’ll try to create a lifestyle structure for myself. 

I previously wrote about increasing my productivity by tackling tasks that I didn’t want to do first. That was actually really helpful, but I have since stopped doing this. I’ll definitely incorporate this into my combat laziness battle plan. 

Here are the avoid-laziness goals that I’m setting for myself:

• Start every morning with a stretch

• Limit movie/show time to 6:30–9:00 PM (weekdays & weekends)

• Turning off all social media notifications between 9:00 AM–5:00 PM on weekdays & 11:00 AM–2:00 PM on weekends

• Get my heart rate up (even if it’s only for 20 minutes) every day

• Post something for the blog once a day (short-form content)

• Post something for the blog once a week (long-form content)

• Cook for myself Sunday–Thursday; Friday or Saturday are okay for pick-up

I’ll try to complete these goals throughout the month of October (apart from the four days of PTO that I requested during which I plan to be lazy as hell).