To stop being lazy, first work out what the "laziness" is, because it's usually something else. Most often it's avoidance: the task feels unpleasant or unclear, so you put it off. Sometimes it's tiredness from poor sleep, stress or illness. And sometimes it's a goal you don't really want any more. Avoidance needs a smaller, clearer first step with a set time and place. Tiredness needs rest before effort. A goal you don't want needs an honest decision to change it or let it go. Calling yourself lazy tends to make all three harder to fix.
Why do I feel so lazy?
You probably feel lazy because a particular task feels unpleasant or unclear, because you're tired, or because the goal isn't really yours. Laziness in the plain sense, being content to do nothing and not minding what happens, is less common than it feels from the inside.
A useful test is how you feel while you're not doing the thing. If you're on the sofa feeling guilty, checking the time and promising yourself you'll start on the next round hour, you care about the task, and you're avoiding it. Research on procrastination finds that the strongest predictor of putting a task off is how unpleasant it feels (Steel, 2007), and that putting it off works as quick mood repair: the bad feeling goes away for a while, and the cost turns up later (Sirois and Pychyl, 2013). The guide to what procrastination is compares procrastination, laziness and rest in more detail, and why you procrastinate covers the common causes.
A quick self-check: avoidance, tiredness or the wrong goal?
The quickest way to find the cause is to answer six questions about one specific task you've been calling yourself lazy about. Be honest, since nobody else is reading.
- Do you have energy for other things, such as games, chats or tidying, but not for this one task?
- Could you describe the very next physical action in one sentence?
- Do you feel worn out most days, even after things you enjoy?
- Have you slept less than usual, or been under more stress, for the past week or two?
- If someone took this task away for good, would you feel mostly relieved?
- Did you choose this goal yourself, or is it something you feel you're supposed to want?
A yes to question 1 or a no to question 2 points to avoidance. A yes to 3 or 4 points to tiredness. A yes to 5, or "supposed to" for 6, points to a goal that may not be yours. More than one can be true at once.
| What it feels like | What it probably is | What to try first |
|---|---|---|
| Energy for everything except this task | Avoidance | A two-minute first step at a set time |
| You don't know where to begin | Avoidance of an unclear task | Write the next physical action in one sentence |
| You want to start but freeze | Task paralysis | An even smaller step and a 3-2-1 countdown |
| Tired most days, even after fun things | Tiredness | Sleep and rest first, then the smallest possible step |
| Relief at the thought of dropping it | A goal you don't want | Decide whether to change it or let it go |
| Weeks of low mood and no interest in anything | Possibly depression or another health problem | Talk to a doctor |
If it's avoidance: make the task smaller and clearer
Avoidance responds well to a smaller, clearer start. "Sort out my finances" gets avoided as one big unpleasant lump, while "download last month's bank statement" is small enough that the bad feeling doesn't have time to build.
- Write a first step that takes about two minutes and starts with a verb. The guide to the two-minute rule has a dozen examples.
- Give the step a time and a place: "At 10:00, at the kitchen table." Plans like this had a medium-to-large effect on reaching goals across 94 independent tests (Gollwitzer and Sheeran, 2006).
- Run a five-minute timer and let yourself stop when it rings.
If you want to start and still can't, even with a tiny step, that's closer to task paralysis, which has its own guide.
If it's tiredness: fix your energy before your effort
Tiredness needs rest before effort, because no method makes starting easy when you're exhausted. The NHS lists not getting enough sleep, stress, an unhealthy lifestyle and depression among the common causes of tiredness, and suggests keeping regular sleep times and aiming for 6 to 9 hours of sleep (NHS, Tiredness and fatigue).
While you sort out the sleep, lower the bar. Pick the single most important task, shrink it to the smallest possible step and do it at the time of day you usually feel best. If you've felt tired for a few weeks and can't work out why, or it's affecting your daily life, see a GP.
If it's the wrong goal: decide whether to keep it
Some "laziness" is a sensible reaction to a goal you don't actually want. People put more sustained effort into goals that fit their own interests and core values, and are more likely to reach them (Sheldon and Elliot, 1999).
Ask yourself whether you'd choose this goal today if you were starting fresh. If yes, keep it and plan the first step. If it's partly yes, reword it to the part you want: "get fit" might really mean "stop getting out of breath on the stairs", which points to walking more and not necessarily to a gym membership. If no, drop it or hand it on, and you'll have more energy for the things you do want.
How to stop being lazy and procrastinating
Once you know the cause, a few habits make starting easier day to day. They help with most kinds of avoidance.
- Pick one thing. A list of twelve tasks is easier to avoid than a single one. Choose the thing you've been putting off longest and leave the rest for today.
- Prepare the night before. Leave the file open, the trainers by the bed or the bin bag on the counter, so the first step needs no setting up.
- Put distractions out of reach. Impulsiveness was one of the strongest predictors of procrastination in Steel's review. With your phone in another room, you don't have to keep resisting it.
- Start on a countdown. At the planned time, count 3, 2, 1 and begin. It gives you a clear moment to act and less time to argue with yourself.
- Track your start delay. Write down how many minutes after the planned time you actually started. Watching 40 minutes become 10 is more convincing than a vague sense of doing better.
- Forgive missed days. In one study, students who forgave themselves for procrastinating before their first exams procrastinated less before the next ones (Wohl, Pychyl and Bennett, 2010).
For more methods and the research behind them, read how to stop procrastinating.
How to stop being lazy and unmotivated
If you feel lazy and unmotivated about almost everything, look at the bigger picture first: sleep, stress, health and whether your goals still feel like yours. The guide on how to get motivated covers how to start when the feeling isn't there.
If it has lasted more than a couple of weeks and comes with low mood, no energy or losing interest in things you used to enjoy, talk to a doctor. The NHS lists "having no motivation or interest in things" and "lack of energy" among the symptoms of depression, and advises seeing a GP if symptoms last most of the day, every day, for more than two weeks (NHS, Depression in adults).
Why calling yourself lazy doesn't help
Calling yourself lazy feels like holding yourself to account, but it mostly adds another bad feeling to a task you're already avoiding. Since procrastination is largely a way of escaping bad feelings (Sirois and Pychyl, 2013), extra guilt tends to make the task harder to face. The self-forgiveness study above points the same way. A more useful question is "what's making this hard right now?" The answer usually points to the fix: a smaller step, an earlier night or a different goal.
Questions people ask
Is laziness a real thing?
Some people are happy doing less, and that's fine when nothing important suffers. If your own laziness bothers you, though, you care about the result, which points to avoidance or tiredness more than a lack of interest.
Why am I suddenly so lazy?
A sudden drop in energy or drive often follows a change, such as less sleep, more stress, an illness, a new medicine or low mood. If it hasn't lifted after a few weeks, see a GP.
How long does it take to stop being lazy?
There's no fixed number of days. Track how many minutes late you start each day and look at the trend over two or three weeks. A shrinking start delay is a clear sign that things are changing.
Startr is a procrastination app built on the ideas in this guide. You type the thing you keep putting off, it writes a first step that takes two minutes, you pick a time and a place, and at that time it counts you down and starts a 5-minute timer. If you get stuck, an "I'm avoiding it" button asks where, including "not sure I want it", and gives you something to try that takes about a minute. There's no sign-up, and the web app works on any phone or computer.
Get my first stepSources
- Steel, P. (2007). The nature of procrastination: A meta-analytic and theoretical review of quintessential self-regulatory failure. Psychological Bulletin, 133(1), 65–94. doi:10.1037/0033-2909.133.1.65
- Sirois, F. & Pychyl, T. (2013). Procrastination and the priority of short-term mood regulation: Consequences for future self. Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 7(2), 115–127. doi:10.1111/spc3.12011
- Gollwitzer, P. M. & Sheeran, P. (2006). Implementation intentions and goal achievement: A meta-analysis of effects and processes. Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, 38, 69–119. doi:10.1016/S0065-2601(06)38002-1
- NHS. Tiredness and fatigue. nhs.uk
- Sheldon, K. M. & Elliot, A. J. (1999). Goal striving, need satisfaction, and longitudinal well-being: The self-concordance model. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 76(3), 482–497. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.76.3.482
- Wohl, M. J. A., Pychyl, T. A. & Bennett, S. H. (2010). I forgive myself, now I can study: How self-forgiveness for procrastinating can reduce future procrastination. Personality and Individual Differences, 48(7), 803–808. doi:10.1016/j.paid.2010.01.029
- NHS. Symptoms: Depression in adults. nhs.uk