Tips to become less lazy

[Bluegown]

I’m fed up of having poor motivation and being lazy! I feel like in all aspects of my life, I am lazy.

In my job, when I WFH I become really lazy. When I’m in the office, if I have a task needing done I do it well and do it on time, but tend to leave it closer to the deadline rather than just getting it done straight away.

At home, I am lazy with the house work. I wish I could be the type of person who will do little bits every day but I’m not. I’m quite messy then by the end of the week I decide to do all the tidying and the cleaning.

I’m not lazy when it comes to the dog, I look forward to his walks and it energises me.

I’m interested in applying for a promotion at work and I’d like to get in to good habits of being more productive and motivated

Any tips would be much appreciated!

I've heard countless women say they always thought they were lazy and then they got tested and found out it's ADHD. Something to consider.

Thanks @junbean it is something that has crossed my mind over the past couple of years. I imagine a diagnosis would take a very long time. I wonder if there are any tips for making my mind less ‘busy’ and to make me more proactive and motivated

Atomic habits. Ie small changes. For work, write a tick list at the start of the day/ review and update yesterdays list. Before you take your lunch break look at it and tick something off. Ditto before clocking off at the end of the day. That’s 2 work things a day now (or progress on them if they are larger items). Start with that, let it settle for a few weeks. Then do similar on the home front.
I have adhd in the family and a lot of similar issues myself although I’ve always managed. But I have to work hard at it!

I am going to jump on here too if okay OP?

Only the other day I was thinking about asking if anyone has lost their motivation and is now just lazy.

Im not sure how old you are OP but I do wonder if the lockdowns and peri have shifted my way of living and I wonder if I will get out of this rut.

Following for tips

Hopefully we will pick up some good tips. I am 32 @StellaGibson2022.

thanks @Codlingmoths, the tick list definitely does help me. I have tried it before. It sounds terrible but I often don’t even have the motivation to do one! I am so easily distracted so I know that it does keep me on track. I will definitely try harder to get a tick list done at the end of each day, for the next day

Getting up earlier in the morning should help. I’m up super early to do 30 mins of housework eg tidying, dusting, cleaning bathrooms, quick hoover or hanging out washing if I’ve put the washing machine on overnight.
I also write lists of daily tasks that need to be completed at work and I have a list of tasks eg post letter, pick up meds etc for home.
A little bit everyday really helps - set a timer for 10 mins, whack on the music and you’d be surprised at what you can get done.
Also, look at your diet. Too many carbs and processed foods can make you feel sluggish. Drink lots of water and try to move more

I'm a huge fan of a list, and crossing jobs off as you do them. Very satisfying

Can you see getting tasks done as a gift / treat for yourself rather than a chore? When you get stuff done, it's done - you don't have to think about it any more. Getting those jobs done today mean that you will be very grateful to yourself tomorrow!

I find that I have to care about the tasks on the list in order to get anywhere. So with cleaning, I am motivated with the washing and ironing because I care about looking nice and the kids having nice things. So I do them willingly. Dusting the skirting boards, not so much! But if I know someone is coming over, then those skirting boards will be added to the list and done.
I have a daily/weekly/monthly list printed off with a grid of tick boxes and as I am a finisher/completer personality it does bother me if boxes aren’t ticked. This may not be for everyone! But having the list readymade for routine things does help as I don’t need to do the thinking as well, the list is there.

I have a similar list for work with tasks in priority order, but my work has a lot of routine daily elements so it fits well. Other jobs might not work so well.

You mention dog walks being positive and not negotiable, I wonder if you could piggyback making the lists onto that? Send yourself a WhatsApp voice message (or similar) making the list while you’re walking. Then you just need to write it down when you get home. It gets the thoughts out for you.
Also I’ve read many times about people finding that listening to music or audiobooks while cleaning or doing mundane tasks distracts their brain enough to allow them to crack on.
I also play a silly game with myself that I am a cleaner for a famous person or family and narrate my tasks as if it’s a reality camera following me around. This is bizarre I know, but it can be fun!

I hope that might help someone, I’m far from perfect and would easily spend the day Doomscrolling or playing stupid games online, but these things have helped me get motivated. Good luck op x

One tip I picked up from CBT was to have a list divided into 3 sections and have at least 3 things in each section.

1 - Routine - laundry, responding to emails, typing up notes - anything that you have to do regularly and repeatedly.
2 - Necessary - one off jobs - book car in for service, submit job application, research new job role
3 - Pleasure - reading, calling friends, watch a film - these are not usually work related for me but sometimes, I do add something if there is a piece of work that really interests me over and above the day job.

I use this when I feel myself slipping into lazy habits.

Re leaving things until close to a deadline, I don't necessarily believe that's a bad thing if the work output is still as good. I know I work better the closer to a deadline I get.

Are you lazy though, or just a normal person who finds most of your paid work and all those daily household chores repetitive and boring? (Why they are called chores and not treats? Who says 'I'm going to treat myself to some ironing tonight? Why do we pay other people to do all those jobs if we can?)

Why is it wrong to leave housework and then do it all in one go? By the end of the week you have a clean house, so how can anyone tell whether you did half an hour every day or blasted it all off in a couple of hours? The end result is the same. Similarly with work, the report is issued by the deadline and you're not going to get a pay rise if you did it all in the first hour.

This reminds me of those extroverts who think everyone would be happier if they jsut put themselves out there and socialised the whole time, which just leaves introverts feeling inadequate instead of being happy in their own skin.

If some people are happy to get up half an hour earlier to do housework, then crack on, but it is not some golden standard we should all aspire to.

Someone suggest to be recently that I may have ADHD when I said I felt I was lazy. I feel like I have a hundred tabs open in my head and at work, my jobs involves a lot of organising and switching roles and doing lots of things at the same time, which I'm good at. But at home I seem to get so distracted all the time. I like my house to be tidy but I never seem to get anything finished before I start doing something else. I annoy myself!

Some really good tips and different points of view, thank you! I especially like the idea of setting a 10 minute timer and seeing how much I get done, and also listening to music/podcast/audio book while I do the more mundane tasks. The thing is, I’ve tried all these things before and they definitely do help. It’s just getting in to the routine of actually doing them that’s the problem!

I definitely am lazy. I will sometimes sit and do nothing, mindlessly scrolling through my phone, whilst thinking of all of the things I need to do for work. I feel better about myself when I am motivated and getting jobs done

Following with interest. I am very much the same and through ASD diagnosis process with dd2 I have started to consider that i might have ADHD.
Not sure it's inhibiting enough to go down diagnosis route for me but feeling lazy, disorganised, ill disciplined with house stuff and doing amazing work at the last minute hugely resonate.

Re Housework- agree with a pp- set a time for 10 mins, blast music for that time and get as much done as poss. Seriously run around! You will be so surprised how much you can achieve!

Just going to leave this here in case anyone is interested. I don't have this issue personally but I have found the sleep episodes very useful.

https://www.hubermanlab.com/topics/adhd-drive-and-motivation

If walking the dog energises you would you consider a gym session first thing. Get the blood flowing and wake up your brain!

I don't think it's lazy, it's just a lot of expectations people put on themselves and others and never quite getting the good quality time to relax and do nothing. I write a task list, highlight one thing that's urgent and forget about everything else. Once that's done, do the same again and eventually it gets done. There is no right or wrong way to clean your house, as long as it gets done at some point.

I find the busier I am, the more I get done and conversely the lazier I am the less I get done if that makes sense.

If I'm tired and I sit down and get my phone out then it's game over. So I try not to sit down when things need doing...just make myself do the chores that are necessary and then I can rest. It works better as I'm motivated to get things ticked off the list then chilling out feels like a proper reward rather than being spoiled by constantly thinking "I should be doing XYZ."

I found that if I was sitting thinking "I must clean the kitchen" or whatever I'd do that multiple times so I could easily have spent half an hour of time added up over the day thinking "the kitchen really needs cleaning". If I'd just spent that half hour cleaning the kitchen in the first place it would have been done and I wouldn't have needed to think about it.

If you enjoy walking the dog you could use that motivation to come back home immediately afterwards and get something finished and ticked off your list whilst you're already up and about. If you sit down and flop straight away it's ten times harder to get motivated.

I’m a formerly lazy adhd-er so my tuppence worth is trying to understand how your brain works and then going from there. I’m sure that would also apply even if you’re neurotypical.

I’m actually permanently busy but I struggle to direct my focus appropriately and I can be effectively paralysed at times but my brain is still busy.

Things that work well are time blocking (like secondary school timetabling), focused daydreaming (creating a fantasy scenario to make the mundane task I’m doing a life threatening emergency), dopamine priming (getting myself in a more effective state of mind with music, a good audio book, chocolate), classical conditioning (having my “reward” while I’m working not afterwards), underscheduling to leave time to work on something interesting (bonus points if it’s also useful).

For the longest time my main strategy was mentally berating myself for my failures and calling myself words like lazy, and worse. Turns out not to be the most effective strategy!

Some more really helpful comments, thank you!

I have to say, even making this post today has made me more motivated. I have had a productive day WFH, I managed a bit of housework on my break and got lots of work tasks done. It’s almost as if having the accountability helps me.

I do spend an awful long time berating myself for being lazy, unmotivated etc etc but it gets me nowhere. I really should just use that time being more productive rather than lazing on the couch scrolling my phone thinking about the bathroom that needs cleaned etc.

One thing I do that definitely helps is if I keep my shoes on when I come home from being out and if I don’t sit down. I definitely get more done when I do that.

My main focus is wanting to do better with my motivation at work as I do love my job and want to progress

OP try putting your phone in a drawer or leaving it in the car (hidden) so you don’t get distracted by it. When I’m getting thru my work tasks I have my phone in a drawer in a different office

Eat the frog - do the worst job first.

Also really think about how it makes you feel when you've completed tasks you have to do. Does it fill you with pride? Do you feel accomplished or that you're on top of things? What would it look like? How would others know you felt this way? Say things out loud so you hear the words.

How long would it realistically take? Can you do it, or a portion of it, while the kettle is boiling or adverts are on?

Telling yourself how you feel when it's done links completing it to triumph rather than berating yourself for not doing something. Success loops feed themselves.

I'm like this too. I'm so lazy. I always do the bare minimum and worst is when I'm lazy with the kids. I.e let them watch their tablets instead of playing with them.
I'd love to
Get up early to get some mundane house tasks done but my kids are up at 5:30 so the idea of getting up at 4:30 does not appeal.
I might start some lists or something.

I do the timer thing. 10 mins doing something followed by 10 mins doing nothing. My dc laugh at me because at home my alarm goes off at 10 minute intervals but they understand that is how I manage things and I need it to cope.
Whilst writing this message my alarm went off so I put my phone down and emptied the dishwasher, swept kitchen floor, made my bed and took my make up off - all in 10 minutes. Now I have 10 minutes on here 😂 It may sound stupid to some people but it helps me to focus. If I am doing a ‘big’ job (ie sorting out dc bedroom or the shed or something) and I feel able then I increase my time to 20 or 30 mins doing and 10 mins not doing. But even if I just keep it to 10 mins I amaze myself with what I can achieve and feel good about myself. This solution might not be for everyone but it really works for me.

Oh and in 10 minutes time when my alarm goes off again I will get my work clothes ready, lunch out the freezer (that I have cooked and frozen previously within my 10 minute rule 🙈) tidy up the lounge, put a load of washing in and tell myself I how fab I am for achieving it. All the 10 mins add up!