No one wants to believe they’re guilty of being lazy. But the trap of laziness and stagnation is one that is very easy to fall into. You will never be able to see growth in your life if you aren’t willing to work hard to pursue it. Your growth journey should be active and moving. [bctt tweet="You will never be able to see growth in your life if you aren’t willing to work hard to pursue it." username="dukematlock"] Easier said than done sometimes, right? It’s not enough for me to tell you to stop being lazy. I wish it were as simple as turning off the lazy switch in your brain so that you can grow and be more productive each day… sadly, it doesn’t work like that. But what if I told you there was a way to “leverage” your laziness. The key is to apply the “more-or-less” friction method, as described in the Fast Company article How Incredibly Lazy People Can Form Productive Habits. “Reducing or increasing friction, then, is a way of preventing ourselves from squandering our mental energy on less meaningful decisions.” When the article mentions reducing friction, it uses the example of setting your gym gear out the night before you plan to work out. Making sure everything is ready to go means you aren’t wasting mental capacity and willpower finding your socks and shoes in the morning; instead, you just get straight to the treadmill! The same can be said about your daily tasks. If you know there’s something big you need to plan, brainstorm, or execute, don’t let procrastination or laziness convince you to put it off til later. Get started on it first thing. Use your brain power before you run out of it towards the end of the day. And then make sure everything is ready to go before you stop so you can jump back in the next day. You can apply this to all tasks you are too unmotivated to do. Whether it be working out, completing a project, or making a big decision. Prepare so well for it before you have to do the task that you have no excuse not to do it when it comes time. Another suggestion the article had when developing these habits is to actually increase friction. Their example was putting unhealthy snacks in a place that is so out of the way, it would take a lot of effort to get to it (I guess that’s when laziness comes in handy!). If checking your phone is an enabler of your laziness and procrastination, put it so far away that it would be inconvenient to go check it while you’re working on important tasks. Sign out of Netflix and Facebook so that every time you want to log on, you have to do it manually. Make it harder to do things that aren’t related to what you need to be getting done. And at the end of the day, you just have to do the work. You can set yourself up for success through preparation, but it means nothing if you aren’t willing to put the work in! You can overcome laziness if you just start — and keep — moving. [bctt tweet="You can overcome laziness if you just start — and keep — moving." username="dukematlock"] How will you start leveraging your laziness?
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