It’s summertime! The perfect time to get it done or maybe just watch weeks of reality TV. My list of To Dos (and pack of small boys) rule the day, but I tell you what! the temptation to let it all pass me by out of sheer fatigue and laziness is pretty powerful these days. Sure it’s great to kick back, but here are a few ways to prevent a little too much relaxing.
1) The Two Reasons Rule
I came up with this one in middle school. I noticed laziness oozing to the top of my vices and though I genuinely wanted to be motivated, I recognized that I didn’t have the determination to follow through. Looking back, this is just embarrassing – I’m lazy and I know it. I don’t like it, but I don’t feel like fixing it. Yikes. So I figured if I could come up with two reasons to do a dreaded task, then I’d proceed. Let’s say your charger is across the room from you and your dying iPhone and you don’t feel like getting up; but if it’s next to the remote and you need to change the channel, you’re golden. I realize this is a pretty ridiculous example, but you get the point; and you know what? This minimalistic, no-sweat approach to uprooting vice is ideal for those of us with a “maybe later” take on tasks. It’s a little childish and stupid, but then again, so is laziness.
2) The Power of 5 Minutes Rule
This is a fantastic trick I learned from my sister-in-law and mother-in-law, and it’s pretty self-explanatory: plenty of productivity can happen with some focused momentum and a kitchen timer. With 5 minutes on the clock, stick your nose to that grindstone, and get it done! Those little irritating tasks that hover at the top of your To Do List will be gone in no time (well, five minutes’ time) and you’ll feel fantastic from your brief burst of effort.
3) The “If Your Life Depended On It” Rule
Another form of laziness (aside from avoiding a task because you don’t feel like doing it), is copping out because you don’t have help or it’s just too hard; but if you give it the ol’ college try based on the idea that your life depends on your success, then succeed you will. Andrew was tearing out dead bushes from our yard a couple weeks ago and one pretty deeply rooted shrub held fast against his efforts. Resistance was futile, however, because Andrew put his back into it like he’d have to get it out or die trying and now we have to find a new bush to fill the massive gap of the dead one. The moral? Put a little more muscle into a given task and watch it yield impressive results.
4) The Stay Focused Rule
photo by susivinh
People get so psyched about multi-tasking and how much you can achieve in the seconds between opening browser tabs. And hey, I thrill in a well-oiled machine just as much as the next guy, but all things in moderation right? Even since starting this post, I’ve checked my email, Facebook, the week’s forecast, loaded photos onto Picasa, worked on a Father’s Day project, and then came back to this. I’m shocked at how much I haven’t written. I swear for as long as I’ve been sitting here, it should be done by now.
Ah, there’s the rub.
Multi-tasking is great as long as I can remain focused on my primary to-do. Admittedly however, this goes against “Easy Ways to Combat Laziness” because multi-tabbing, -apping, -tasking is what we Americans do best. Check me out while I drive through and order lunch while calling into a meeting and topping my high score in Angry Birds. Moral: It’s hard to keep your eye on just one ball, but if you do, you’re sure to hit it out of the park.
The Spiritual Side
Of course these are good remedies for anyone with persistent hesitation toward the average chore, but more importantly, they work for prayer: Everyone can think of at least Two Reasons to pray; sometimes we don’t pray because we feel like the time isn’t available, but everyone has 5 minutes they could offer – start with 5 minutes a day to check in with God and ask Him what He wants from you; we should pray like our lives depend on it…because they do. There is so much grace that God wants to pour upon us, but we have to be open to receiving it first and for that to happen, we have to pray; and lastly, staying focused is a tough one when it comes to quiet, meditative prayer, but using holy visuals like a crucifix or spiritual reading can prevent mental meandering. Any and all of these approaches help me stave off laziness in general, but especially in matters of the soul. Life is too short to waste time on avoiding tasks (or prayer!) because I don’t feel like it.
I needed this today because I was feeling particularly lazy.