How to turn your laziness into productivity

If I could I would probably snooze and watch Netflix all day. I’m not the type of person who leaps out of bed eager to go on a 10mile run or discover the cure for cancer (although I would love to be able to do either). You might say I’m naturally pretty lazy.

 

I also love making things, and when I’m on a roll I’m on a roll. I also spend a fair amount of time writing about productivity, which feels a little bit hypocritical a lot of the time. That’s the struggle.

 

But is there a way the two can work together? Laziness can be a great motivator. If you can’t be bothered to do something you’ll find the quickest or easiest way to do it, and quite often that can lead to you finding hacks to improve things or identifying pointless steps in the things you do. One of the reasons I love reading about productivity is that the more efficient I am the more time I can spend napping. But that shortcutting can also go too far, which is where I’d go to recently. I’d yielded to my inner sleeping puppy and ended up cutting off so many corners that what I was working on had lost all shape. I wasn’t creating the content I wanted to or making the pieces I knew I could, which just ended up demotivating me even further.

 

So, I turned to my laziness to help inspire my productivity and here’s how you can too.

 

First off you need to work out what it is you’re lazy about and what you’re not. For me, I’m super lazy about:

• Making decisions, if I can procrastinate having to choose if I have to wear socks I will
• Getting out of bed, it’s warm and cozy and wonderful
• Napping, see above
• Watching Netflix, it’s so darn easy to binge
• Getting started working

 

But I’m not so lazy about:

• Planning, I love to put together a plan if I can prep something I will
• Working, when I’m started it’s hard to stop

 

Take that list of things you’re lazy about, and the list of changes you want to implement, then make a plan. For me, this meant that I set myself up with a really diligent schedule for my weekday evenings, in part because I know that I’m the kind of person who works well in a time box, and in part because one of the things I always procrastinate is decisions. But you might also put specific structures or blocks in place.

 

Once you’ve built that structure, the ultimate way to utilize your own laziness to be more productive is to turn it into a habit. It takes at least 21 days to form a new habit, so that means sticking to your plan for three weeks, and doing it properly. But if you can commit to it, you’ll end up making the behavior your default. You’ll do it on autopilot. That means that you’ll be indulging your laziness and doing what you need to do, win-win, cake and eat it too.

 

Natalie