5 Ways to use Habits to Stop Being Lazy
We all are inherently lazy to some degree. Whether it is watching Netflix the whole Saturday afternoon, or skipping workouts to sleep in a little longer, it is totally normal. But when these moments start lasting longer or becoming more frequent, then it might be a problem if you have specific goals you want to achieve. Your goals suddenly become less important, and might even fall in the trap of saying “This is too hard! I’ll never be able to do it!”. But as mentioned in my previous article, the key to sustaining motivation to curb laziness is to build habits. And that is why you see some people who are able to train hard even on days with low motivation and energy!
But the question is how do we use habits to stop being lazy? Read on to find out these 5 ways!
I would definitely choose to lazy around at home than head out for a 1-hour long walk!
Prioritize your Tasks
In the 70s, there was an experiment done on students, investigating the correlation between them turning in their assignments promptly, and wearing clean socks. Most people probably think that the correlation will be positive, i.e. students who turn in their assignments promptly will wear clean socks, because disciplined students will wash their laundry. But the results of the experiment was actually the opposite! Seems like students could either get their assignments done, or change their socks daily, but not both.
There was another experiment done in malls where simple math problems were given to people. It turns out that the ones who have been shopping for a longer time will give up solving the problems much faster.
But what do the results of these experiments actually mean? Understanding that can actually help you to be less lazy and change how you plan out your daily activities. And here are takeaways from these experiments:
You have a finite amount of willpower each day. It gets depleted as you use it.
You use the same amount of willpower for all tasks.
You probably heard things like “I don’t have enough willpower to exercise after a long day at work!” So it’s not that you need more willpower to exercise, but more likely that you’ve depleted all your willpower at work and now you’re just exhausted, and have no more willpower left to exercise.
This is the same thing for the socks and mall experiment. If you do your laundry for a hour, it’ll be harder to work on your assignment compared to if you just went straight to focusing on your assignment. If you went to grocery shopping for an hour first instead of working out, you may have decision-fatigue from choosing every little thing you buy. Compared to someone else who works out first thing in the morning, he’s probably going to get a better workout.
Thus, it is important to understand how to prioritize your tasks. You’ll be more effective in your training and nutrition habits than those who don’t. If you’re spending 3 hours a week on household chores and choosing that over working out, you should consider hiring a part-time cleaner to help you with your chores, so you can use this time instead to workout. You may want to save that $50 and do the chores yourself, but that’ll deplete your willpower and won’t be able to dedicate quality time to doing things you value more - your health and body. And if you look at it from a long-term financial perspective, neglecting your health is a lot more expensive than spending $50 a week!
So if your focus is to hit the gym, don’t start your day with opening Instagram and wasting willpower thinking whether to watch that meaningless video or buy that pair of shoes. Don’t wake up thinking about what to eat, or what to wear, even if that means preparing it the previous day. Instead, go straight to the gym. Every unimportant thing you do depletes your willpower which you could have dedicated to the most important task you have for the day. Remember - the most important thing comes first!
Coming up with a daily to-do list can be helpful to prioritize more important tasks for the day.
Join a Community
We are creatures of habits, and many of these habits are socially reinforced. You go into a lift and you face the front, although you can face the sides or back, because that’s not what people do, so you do what everyone else does. Or you see a long queue for a certain stall in the food court, and you join the queue, because you have an expectation that the food is good. Or even simple things like wearing a suit to a wedding, or a tie to an interview - just because you know that’s the expectation of people have.
All kinds of things - the things we do at work, the way we dress, the things we do at school, even the things we eat - they are all reinforced by the people around us. So what does this mean? If you join a community or a group that the normal behavior is a positive and desired behavior, it’ll give you a strong reason to stick to it. Because if you’re not practicing that behavior, you’ll probably be the odd one out, and feel awkward instead. And if you keep practicing that behaviour, you fit in, you’re part of the community, and with enough repetition of that behavior, you form the desired habit. Even simple things like telling your friends and family that you’re trying to lose weight is forming a community - people around you will ask you to join them for a hike or a walk, and you can even make them routine!
A community can help reinforce good behaviours until it becomes a habit.
Master the Entry Points/ First Step
I have been going to the gym 4 to 5 times a week for more than 4 years now. You may think that I am just someone who loves to workout so much that I don’t find difficulty harnessing the motivation to do it. But frankly, most days I get so tired from training other people, that I lose the willpower to workout. So how do I maintain this routine for so long? I don’t actually focus on the exercise habit. The habit that I focus on building is to put on my workout attire, make my way to the gym. And if I’ve done that, then I’ve completed the habit. And things just falls in line from there.
Through this, I realize that habits are often the entry point, not the end point. They’re the process of getting to the gym, not the gym. They’re like an entrance ramp to the bigger routines in your life. And if you focus on completing that little decisive moment that determines what happens in the next chunk of time, then you’ll be able to conquer the harder part of it. If I choose to switch on my TV instead, I’ll probably spend the next hour binge-watching some series. So the hardest part is not restricting myself from watching TV, but to not switch on the TV.
And if you really think about it, there’s actually not that much to change. There may be a few of these entry points throughout your day that determines if the next chunk of time is productive or not. But if you can design your environment, join a community, or restructure your habits, so that you’re able to master those entry points, you’re much more likely to have a productive day.
Find it hard to go for a 30 min jog? Start with the habit of putting on your workout attire, and getting out of the house for 5 mins. The rest will flow.
Use Variable Rewards
One reason why bad habits stick so easily is because of how immediate and favourable the reward is. The immediate reward of eating a piece of cake is the sweet and great taste. It’s only the delayed reward, that when you repeat that habit for months or years, that is unfavourable. Meanwhile, good habits are exactly the opposite. Eating a salad for lunch is not tasty. Going for a run is tiring, or even painful. Your body looks the same, your weight doesn’t change much. It’s only the delayed reward, that when you repeat it for months or years, that is favourable.
So one of the biggest challenge here is to figure out how to bring the delayed reward of your habits forward, so you feel the pain of the bad habits and the rewards of the good habits at this present moment. By doing so, you’ll have more reason to stop the bad habit and stick with the good habit, as difficult as it can be. One way is to give small rewards for the good habits. Say if you’re able to workout or prepare your meals for the day, roll a dice. If you hit 6, then give yourself a treat in a form of say an hour of Netflix, or a new piece of clothing, or whatever you think is suitable for you. This way, you not only will be giving yourself an element of surprise, but also immediate gratification. So for the first week of exercise, it may be hard, but at least you can look forward to that immediate gratification while waiting for the longer term rewards to accumulate.
Treat yourself to something small if you’re able to complete certain tasks consistently. That can help with habit formation.
Design your Environment
Your environment here refers to the things around you - your office at work, your table at home, or your kitchen. And they can influence your behaviors. If you can restructure these things in a certain manner, you are more likely to create the right habit. As an example, many people snack too much. But if you walk into their house, you see packs of chips and biscuits placed all around the living and dining room. It just seems like the house is designed for them to snack. I’m not saying that you have to stop buying snacks because it is used to host your family or friends, but there are a range of choices you could make. You could keep the snacks in your cupboard so it’s less visible. You could also increase the friction of the action in the environment by placing it in a high cabinet which you’ll need a stool to reach. And that’s an example of curtailing a bad habit with environment design.
But you can also use it to promote good habits. One example is instead of placing your fruits in the chiller below your fridge where you wouldn’t see it, place it on your dining table, or in the front row of your fridge, so it causes inconvenience to move it out of the way and you’re more tempted to eat them instead.
You’ll tend to eat healthy snacks such as fruit over unhealthy ones if they are more accessible. So leave them around your work area!
Conclusion
It is totally normal to feel lazy once in a while. But being excessively lazy can be dangerous. If you can make use of habits to solve this problem, then you have so much more you can achieve in life. But remember - a habit has to be established, before it can be improved. Master the art of showing up, and things will fall in line as a result.
Need help on forming habits for weight loss and/or muscle gain? Check out my online coaching program!
