How can I be less lazy?

[InwardlyBusy]

Work part time from home, mid fifties and live alone, have paid off the mortgage and am getting by. However I feel like I need an infusion of energy so I can work longer hours and accumulate a little wealth to leave my adult children, it’s even tougher out there for them than it was for me at their ages and stages of life.

Any tips for being a bit less laid back and a lot more motivated, materially?

What line of work are you in? How many hours do you currently work.

Don't forget your kids will get the house - hopefully.

It’s not much of a house but yes, it’s something.

I work a few hours most days, writing content for a large finance website. Work gets me thinking about how much better prepared I could be for the future if only I could be bothered to do more!

I totally understand OP.

My DC are early/mid twenties and are paying just under half their net pay on rent. No chance of saving, despite being well qualified and earning above average salaries already.

I am still working FT and am thinking about getting an additional PT job so I can save for them towards a flat deposit. Although obviously they would have to leave London/SE and then salaries are lower. They’ll inherit my house but could be nearly sixty themselves by the time that happens.

Could you increase your hours? Take on a side hustle?

Lodger?

The problem is - you might do all that extra work and end up needing to spend it on care. thats the thing to think about.

How about if they move in with you to save for a deposit. that way you've helped them without having to build up a lump sum which could in theory be taken to pay for care

Find a new job where you are required to go in to the office for at least half the time. When I was WFH full time I became increasingly lazy, just stagnating at home.

Do something you love, so it’s more about the love of it and the money is the byproduct.

Do you like writing? Could you write some ebooks that might make you a passive income once they’re written?

No lodger for me, after thirty years of single parenthood I love living alone!

I take a long lunch break and walk dogs for money as a side hustle and also hoping the exercise will perk me up a bit. It would make most sense to take on more writing gigs as the hourly rate is good and I enjoy it, but I run out of energy and take ages to recharge. I feel so lazy.

I have a couple of other income streams that I could boost - royalties from a book I illustrated (great at first but now it is drying up) and sales from a print on demand online store. Maybe I need a work coach or something?

Ebooks are a great idea! I could probably churn out quite a few in not much time.

I’m going to try working in an office space tomorrow, I hope that helps. It all just seeps into one with no separation between work and home.

Try reframing the laziness too - ‘lazy’ attaches your worth to your productivity and how much money you make which is a resistant energy. So that in itself could be making you tired! What we think of as ‘lazy’ is often simply a need for rest - emotional/physical rest.

What’s making you tired? Is it a physical thing (lack of sleep, poor diet, lack of exercise) or emotional? (Fighting your feelings, putting on a mask for people, always thinking about others’ needs and not your own etc)

PS I can imagine after years of being a single parent you might be needing a lot of rest, play, free time not answering to anyone

My sister is doing exactly what you describe for her son, I just don’t think I have it in me to work full time plus a part time job.

I thought she was exceptional but maybe it’s a thing now?

That’s how it feels! I’ll try reframing it as you suggest and think about ways to boost the quality of my sleep and diet too. Thanks

This is a really good idea although doesn’t work for us geographically, I’m in the middle of nowhere in a very tiny house. They were quite keen to escape to urban areas with more opportunities.

I’m not convinced by home ownership as a goal but I’d like them to have choices.

I bought up my Ds along . He is 16 now I am just starting to think what to do next . I changed jobs - which is far more enjoyable.

if you are comfortable what would you like to do with your child

I think it’s because technically I have quite a lot of free time plus I could live for another twenty years or more, so if I spent even some of those years working harder and saving/investing it could eventually make a real difference to their lives.

The problem is that I seem to need quite a lot of downtime in order to work at all. I want to find a way to generate more energy and ideas. I thought about taking on more work and outsourcing the editing, that could be quite cost effective.

I used a dog friendly office space today and produced twice as much work as usual, despite taking lots of breaks in a lovely outdoor space. The quality of my work was boosted too, by an empirical measurement and not only in my subjective view. It was good to have a little face to face interaction with other people too.

Obviously it eats into the profits a little but I’m amazed at the difference it made. It’s as if I have had a new hard drive installed in my brain!