Believe it or not, I’m a really lazy person. I think it’s biologically hardwired into me. It’s at least partially true for other members of my family.
But the difference is this – I’m deeply aware of it, and work to overcome it. And this awareness of laziness and effort to overcome it is what’s key for me to achieve the success I desire.
What do I mean by that, and how does habit play into it?
Read on and find out.
My lazy baseline
Like most people, I’ll usually choose the easy option. It’s an evolved choice our brains prefer as it saves energy and effort better put towards surviving or reproducing.
In the past, certainly as a youth, I did the bare minimum to get by. I’d do only what was necessary and no more, unless there was a strong desire or interest in the activity. As such, I didn’t develop a work ethic until my second to third year of university – and then not even properly until I got my first job, where I realised the value of having one for achieving my goals.
It’s very easy for me to procrastinate, to prefer hedonistic activities like video games, TV, etc. If I have sugary or tasty snacks in, they’ll quickly disappear. I have a tendency to binge and a somewhat addictive personality.
But I’ve developed systems and approaches that effectively manage these flaws. Thankfully, I’m very self-aware and switched on, so I’m able to recognise these flaws and work to overcome them.
I’ll avoid TV altogether where possible, unless it’s a show I really like, because I know if I start watching a show, it will completely consume my life until finished. Otherwise, it’s niggling at me in the back of my head, urging me to watch. I view unfinished TV shows as a distraction when there are episodes unwatched – I find this uncomfortable. This is not true of weekly releases, since I simply cannot binge.
I’ll avoid video games by not having a console, not having any games installed on my computer, and setting up time limits on other devices (phone, tablet, etc). I used to spend all of my free time gaming as a teen, so the appeal to play games is strong. Having a computer not built for gaming such as my Mac helps.
I avoid binge eating and consuming all my snacks by simply not bringing them into the home. I’ve tried buying snacks in individual packs, which works maybe 10% better, but 1) isn’t worth it and 2) creates more waste, which is bad. I’m currently experimenting with eating larger meals, and more frequent meals, but I’m afraid even this won’t make that big of a difference.
I overcame my addiction to PMO and so removed the Porn Demon’s pull on me.
But all of these are example activities rather than the base behaviour of laziness.
We can understand my baseline as pulled towards unproductivity. That in any moment, were I given a choice, I’d opt for the easier and less effortful option.
Compound this over 24 hours, 7 days, 1 month, 1 year, etc, and you have the conditions for a life of little self-created success.
So here’s how I want to approach it, and what I can do to improve.
How to overcome laziness for success
The solution is simple but not easy. Create habits, routines, and systems that we can stack together and use to overcome our laziness.
When on autopilot (i.e. when carrying out established habits), laziness is not present. There is no real desire for hedonism since everything is automatic. Most conscious thought is absorbed into the routine. The trouble is when this desire for hedonism does pop up and disrupts our routines. In such scenarios, the best thing we can do is get back on track ASAP. Or, if you don’t have the time, such as if you’re late for work, cut the least important habits from your routine (and try to pick them up later).
Having a morning routine or evening routine is a really good starting point. Once you’ve got a solid base of routine habits to work from, you can begin habit-stacking and growing your routine. For example, I’ve recently added the habit of writing to my morning routine, allowing me to increase productivity and work towards my goals. That’s why you’ve seen an increase in published articles.
In a seemingly ideal world, we could destroy laziness by simply making our entire day a series of habits and routines, flawlessly pursuing them back-to-back. This is great in theory; you could do positive habit after positive habit and become a superhuman productivity and wellness machine.
But that’s not how reality works. We are not robots. We need variety and novelty. We can, however, include that variety as part of our daily routines.
In a realistically ideal world, one in which we have complete control of our time and work pursuits, we could stack our daily pursuits until our essential activities have been completed, then include time for variety.
This is a concept I’ve been playing around with. It’s a mindful, long-term approach to daily time management.
Think about it – if we’re viewing our optimal day as a series of positive habits that help us make progress towards our goals, then we, seemingly paradoxically, both cannot and must focus on one day at a time.
We cannot, as we have to look at the day on a habit-by-habit basis. It’s extremely difficult if not impossible to form many habits at once. It would be exhausting to try a new daily routine with 10 new positive habits sequentially when you don’t currently do any; the likelihood of success would be minimal, frustration would kick in, and we’d lose motivation to try again.
That’s why it’s called habit stacking. You add a new habit to an existing habit.
As such, we have to take a long-term view of success. You have to pick one positive habit to create, add it into an existing habit stack, and do it repeatedly for several weeks or months. Then, once it’s successfully a part of your daily routine, add another habit. Adding these habits to existing habit stacks speeds up the process, and often means you can add multiple habits at once – even more if you’re adding to separate habit stacks, such as one new habit to your morning routine and one to your evening routine.
This all takes time. The average time to form a habit is 66 days. If you were to focus on one habit at a time, you’d be able to create 5.5 new habits in a year. This shows us two things:
- When creating habits, we should pick those that help us achieve our long-term goals the most
- Our view of daily success has to be long-term. We won’t achieve success overnight, or in several months, since success is a result of our habits, and we’re able to create an average of 5.5 new habits a year.
And at the same time, we must approach it on a day-by-day basis, as completing the day by running our habits allows us to make progress towards our goals.
Summing this all up and bringing it back to laziness, we can overcome our laziness and achieve the success we desire by forming habits and taking a long-term view of success. The more positive daily habits we have, the less time we have to be lazy. We can counter our natural tendency to stray towards unproductivity by creating systems and routines. The more systems and routines we have, the less we can be unproductive; you can’t eat the junk food if you don’t have it.
Now all that’s left is to begin forming habits and creating systems. What will you start with?