‘1 in 4 people feel that they are chronic procrastinators or lazy’, says a recent analysis on laziness, which can be found here. This statistic shocked me at first, later I felt its plausible. Because on a given day, good or bad, I find myself struggling to meet self-set standards in productivity due to the below discoursed three kinds of laziness, which I faced and eventually overcome with the help of Legendary John Grisham’s advice, which I came across randomly one day. Dear reader, either you want to know about the advice or want to know if you go through similar setbacks that reduce your productivity game, read on.

Usual lethargy: Experienced day in and day out by anybody and everybody, it at first feels harmless, later turns in painful guilt. Just the thought of waking up to work out or to start working on a blog piece made me burrow more cozily into my bed and start making grand plans of procrastination. In general, to convince yourself that this needs to be done today/now is difficult, then I resolve to dallying, easiest thing to do.

First advice- Set up a daily routine: Decide on a time and place in your mind for the task. Also prepare for the task, be it your study table or work-out clothes. Things will get easier when you prepare for the task than just planning about task in your mind. Preparing made it easier for me to get out of the bed. Setting deadlines for goals is another trick that worked out well for me. But, how are you going to stick to the routine? By achieving daily goals.

Initial friction: One of the reasons I procrastinated are fear of failure and lack of self-belief which held me back from starting the task at hand even when I am at the start line. At the end of the day along with the regret of not being productive, fact that I procrastinated again established that I am not confident. Trust me it is not a good thought to harbor.

Second advice- Set daily goals: Setting and accomplishing goals consistently, eliminates great amount of unknown fear of taking up the task. Additionally, when a routine is established, mind is prepared beforehand. In the beginning I took up small tasks, eventually little bigger ones. What feels like huge climbing Mt Everest later turns out to be jog uphill which quickens breath. If not, anything it is a challenge done well and being a little bit stronger than ever. It will take certain days to get into the rhythm also helps not to lose interest half way.

Constant distractions: Owing to work from home distractions like a YouTube tab or phone notification beckoning me to relax for 5 minutes, which turns into half an hour break session. This disrupted the work flow. Ironically, I had watched a you tube work related video half an hour before. Acknowledge this made me realise that my problem lies in my head not the technology.

Third advice-Remove distractions: Create a distraction free environment. Turning off notification does not work for me. Because when task at hand gets difficult and I am tempted to scroll for 5 minutes. In a tough way I learnt that our environment influences us. Once that is taken care of, you can mold your surroundings and your mindset according to the need.

Dear Reader, write to me in the comments below which advice you found to be most useful. I will be looking forward to it.

Until next time. 🙂