How to Stop Being Lazy (3 Practical Steps)

Sometimes it feels downright impossible to get up and do what you’re “supposed to do” if nothing and no one is forcing you to do it. Whether it’s waking up earlier, going to the gym, learning a new language…It can be tough to stop being lazy and start being productive.

The problem is that you have dreams and goals and things you want to accomplish in your life! And you know none of that is going to happen if you can’t learn how to stop being lazy and procrastinating. Although, I hope to convince you it may not exactly be laziness that’s standing between you and your dream life.

To learn how to stop being lazy, you’ll first have to learn to cultivate more energy in your life—you can’t pour from an empty cup.

To learn ­how to do that, read on!

Why is it so hard to learn how to stop being lazy?

Although mainstream media wants us to believe it’s easy, most people go their whole lives without learning how to stop being lazy—or at least what our society calls “lazy.”  

Humans are evolutionarily designed to conserve energy and use the least amount of brain power possible in deciding how to spend our time. Thinking, reasoning, and weighing options are huge calorie-burners for our brains. “Autopilot” is actually a very clever evolutionary tool that we developed just to conserve brain power when conducting our daily habits like what to eat, when to sleep etc. That’s why it’s so hard to break our habits, whatever they may be. Your brain is just doing its job by defaulting to the patterns you’re used to.

Another huge roadblock for learning how to stop being lazy is that we tend to go way too hard too fast in our attempts to stop being lazy and we end up burning ourselves out. We simply don’t have enough energy to completely change our eating, sleeping, exercising, learning, socializing and relaxing patterns in the matter of just a few days.

We keep asking ourselves how to stop being lazy and procrastinating, but what we should be asking ourselves is how to get the energy to be more productive.

How to Stop Being Lazy:

1. Build Up Your Energy Reserve Before Tapping It

Have you ever heard the phrase “a body in motion stays in motion, a body at rest stays at rest”? This is a law in the physical universe—including inside your own body. If you’re in the habit of doing something, your body is much more comfortable to continue NOT doing that thing.  

If you want to become a more productive person and stop feeling so lazy, you’ll be much more successful starting with activities you actually enjoy rather than with activities that are going to leave you feeling more drained. (Check out this article for 3 ways easy ways to relax and get energy that you may have forgotten.)

Before you go all out trying to become “less lazy” by doing things that are extremely challenging and use a lot of energy, prove to yourself you’re not lazy by carving out time to do things that will add to your energy reserve. This could be anything from going for a walk, working on your bike, cleaning the oven, creating a piece of art, etc. Only you know what brings you energy.

By doing this, you’re beginning to prove to yourself that you’re not as lazy as you think and you’re physiologically increasing your energy level so that over time, you can begin to add those higher milage activities that will move the needle in your productivity. Don’t try to create your dream life from an empty tank.

2. Figure Out And Always Come Back To “Why” You’re Trying To Change A Habit

We are excellent at convincing ourselves of things. The more we ponder any topic, the more sure we’ll become about our position on it. If you don’t craft an extremely strong argument for why adding this new thing to your routine is important, you are going to lose the argument every single time to the part of your brain that doesn’t want to get up and do it. That side already has a lifetime’s worth of ammo ready to go in the argument. Once won’t gonna make a difference anyway, I probably won’t achieve my goal anyway, I deserve time off, etc…

If you truly want to be successful in whatever you’re trying to accomplish, you need to sit down and consider why this thing is important to you. What will it bring to your life? How will you feel different once you’ve achieved it? Why do you want that? How will it feel if you never achieve it? If you don’t come to the fight in your head totally prepared, you’re going to do what you’ve always done—surrender to the side that’s evolutionarily designed to make you lazy.

Another excellent reason to think about your “why”? We live in an energetic world. Your “why” is connected to an infinite reserve of energy that you can tap into use anytime. “Because I want to be skinny,” “Because I’m supposed to,” “Because everyone else is doing it,” are not good “why’s.” These are not energetically deep pools to draw from. They’re shallow pools (and shallow reasons) that will run dry and leave you feeling exhausted before you’ve even had a chance at beginning to rewire your brain.  

3. Train Your Subconscious To Switch Gears By Building Cues Into Your Routine

As we discussed earlier, our brains are really good at using shortcuts in decision making. This trick, straight from the book Atomic Habits by James Clear, is to hijack that system for good instead of evil. You can do that by creating your own cues throughout the day that trigger your subconscious mind to switch gears.

In trying to make major changes in our habits and learn how to stop being lazy once and for all, we have to do things differently than we’ve done before.

We already rely on subconscious cues all day long for what it’s time to do. For example, you may wake up and know it’s time to use the restroom. Afterwards, when you pass by the sink, you know it’s time to brush your teeth. When you put your toothbrush back in the cup it becomes time to make a pot of coffee. If you’re like most people, most of your day may be triggered by cues you don’t realize you have!

By building in your own cues, you can begin to create more intentional habits and routines over time.

For example, if the first thing you do in the morning is drink a glass of water, make finishing the glass you cue to get up and put your gym gear on. Next week, tying up your laces becomes your cue that it’s time to find your headphones. Eventually these micro-habits will lead you all the way to the gym and back each day.

Do These Three Things And Be Free

Learning how to become less lazy and more productive is just the result of cultivating more energy and building up habits over time. Don’t make things harder on yourself than they need to be!

Do things you enjoy to stoke your energy, figure out your “why’s,” and stack your habits over time.

Procrastination will become a thing of the past and nothing will be able to stop you from reaching your goals!

(Check out this article for more tips on Self-Discipline)