How to Stop Being So Lazy: 10 Simple Habits

“How soon ‘not now’ becomes ‘never’.”
Martin Luther

When I was younger, in my early twenties, I was often lazy. Too often actually.

And so I didn’t:
Get my school work done in a good way and had to cram and stress out a few days before an exam.
Work out or cook healthy food because it felt too hard and I gained 30+ pounds of weight while my fitness levels went down.
Take care of my personal growth and dreams but mostly just let all that slide to “someday” as those things remained daydreams.

10+ years later I still love lazying around and not doing much at all. But I’ve also learned how to keep that lazy time to a moderate and healthy amount instead of letting it hold me back and stuck in the same place of excuses for years like it used to.


This week I’d like to share 10 simple habits that have helped me to make that change. To stop being so lazy and get what really matters done by working smarter. While still having room for guilt-free lazy time to spend as I like.

1. Be kind to yourself.

When you feel that you’ve perhaps been too lazy lately it’s common and tempting to beat yourself up about it and to hope that will lead you to start taking action.

Sometimes it does. But I have found that beating yourself up most often just leads to feeling guiltier and like a failure. And so you feel less motivated to get going and you procrastinate because there seems to be little point in even trying.

Instead of getting stuck in that self-esteem sucking place I recommend to gently nudge yourself towards the next tip in this article whenever you feel like you want to beat yourself up.

2. Start with just a small step forward.

The hardest thing is often to simply get started.

So make that as easy as you can to reduce the inner resistance and to actually take action. Start with just taking a small step forward:
Go out running for only 3 minutes.
Do the dishes for 5 minutes.
Write on that report you’ve been procrastinating on for 10 minutes.

I use this habit almost every day in some way. I’m for example creating a new course and my daily aim over the past months has usually been to write 1 page a day. And now that the writing is done the aim as I start my day is often to edit 1 page.

That’s it. But it has never stopped at only 1 page in these months, I have written or edited a whole bunch more each day.

3. Do a small part of what matters most first thing in your day.

To feel like you can enjoy your lazy/rest time fully and without guilt it’s important to actually get what truly matters in the long run done each week.

So start your day with that. But make it easy on yourself by breaking down that task into smaller steps and then focus on just the first one.

Get on it right away to get into an effective and focused mindset.

By doing so you set a good tone for your day. You get that quick 5-10 minute win in first thing and you’ll be a lot more motivated to keep going on that path during the rest of your day.

Instead of starting with busy work like checking emails – this may be vital to do first thing for some but for many it’s probably not – or checking Facebook etc. and then 30 minutes later getting started with today’s work.

4. Cycle fully focused work with small breaks of rest/lazy time.

To lighten up your daily work inject small breaks between doing short but focused burst of work.

Say to yourself: I’ll do 20 minutes of work on this task now and then I can take 5 or 10 minutes of lazy time.

By breaking down your hours like this the work seems less daunting. And you’ll feel energetic and motivated longer and do work of better quality if you allow yourself these pauses of rest and time to lazy around on Facebook, with a game or with just relaxing in the grass or with short walk in the park.

Then, after some time, you may want to work for 40 minutes before you take a 10 minute break. But go easy on yourself at first.

And if you have trouble with sticking to your time-limits then use an app on your phone or a simple egg-timer from your kitchen.

5. Shut down the escape routes temporarily.

Just sitting down at for example your computer and trying to do fully focused work for 5 or 20 minutes may not result in any work of importance getting done.

Not if you don’t remove those things that you usually use to procrastinate.

So ask yourself: where do I usually escape to instead of doing my work?

For me it’s for example often my smart phone and checking Reddit, Twitter or random internet browsing.

So I put my phone in silent mode and I put it at the other end of our home when I work. By setting up that small physical obstacle I avoid the phone trap maybe 95% of the time.

If you:
Have the same issue with gaming then put your controller far away in your home while working.
Escape to Facebook or other websites on your computer then block that for a little while by using for example StayFocusd.
Watch TV then pull out the cords to it. Or remove one of the cords completely and put it at the other end of your home.

6. List the downsides and upsides for renewed motivation.

Asking yourself better questions tend to give better answers.

Two sets of questions that I have sat down and asked myself with closed eyes and that have refueled my motivation many times are:
How will my life look in 5 years if I just continue to stay on the same path as now?
How will life likely become worse for me and maybe even for the people around me?

This is not like beating yourself up but rather a sober examination of where it’s realistic that you’re heading. And it may be uncomfortable but try to see the negative consequences as vividly as you can in your mind to kickstart your motivation to get going for that positive change.

Then ask yourself:
How will my life look in 1 year if I get started, stick with it and keep going with this change?
How will life improve not only for me but for the people that I love if I stick with it?

7. Unclutter your life.

When your life’s too cluttered and overwhelming then you may shut down and procrastinate by lying lazily on the couch and just watching the TV or your smart phone.

When that’s the case then start uncluttering both your work hours and your private time. Two questions that have helped me to do that and to find what is most important are:
What would I work on if I only had 2 hours for work today?
If I had just 1 hour of free time today then how would I spend it?

Use these to get out of an old rut, to question your normal day a bit and to find your top priorities.

Then see what you can eliminate, minimize or perhaps delegate of the things that are not contained in your answers.

8. Be OK with stumbling from time to time.

The fear of failure can hold you back in a state of doing easier things and in what you may see as being lazy.

But everyone that go for what they truly want and outside of their comfort zone stumbles and fails from time to time. That’s just a part of a life well lived (even if we don’t hear about people’s setbacks as often as their successes).

See a setback as a learning experience and as a way to be more constructive and kinder to yourself.

You can do that by asking yourself these two questions after you’ve stumbled:
What is 1 thing I can learn from this situation?
How would my best friend/parent support me and help me in this situation? (Then talk to yourself and do things like she or he would).

9. Let the enthusiasm, energy and motivation of others in.

Whatever you let into your mind and life will influence you. If the people you hang out the most with are generally a bit lazy about work or school then it’s easy to just adapt to that mood and way of thinking and go with it.

But if you spend more time with motivated people in real life and via books, the internet, podcasts and audio books then that will start to influence your thinking and mood too.

So think about what you let into your mind on a daily and weekly basis and if you want make a few changes to that.

10. Truly appreciate and enjoy your lazy time.

Time spent on just lazying around helps me to relax and recharge and it makes me happy.

But if I do it too much then it does become less healthy for me. It:
Starts to frustrate me because I’m not moving forward towards what I want.
Creates stress instead of relaxing me because I’m not getting what’s important done and that could have negative consequences quite soon.

Still, at a moderate amount spending some time on being lazy is truly beneficial for me.

And I’ve found that when you think a little about how you want to spend your lazy time – no matter if it’s a 10 minute break or a lazy Sunday – and use that time on something you really enjoy like reading a book you love rather than aimlessly watching TV-shows you’re just OK with then that time does not only brings more happiness and fulfillment.

I’ve also learned that when I spend my lazy time in this more conscious way I’m more motivated and energized to go back to work again later on.

So I make sure to appreciate and fully enjoy the lazy time I have and create for myself because I know that it will benefit me in several important ways.

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6 Great Techniques for Staying Focused At Work

Do you struggle to focus while you work?

How often does it happen when you’ve been sitting at your desk for hours only to look back when the day is over and feel like you’ve accomplished nothing?

Or maybe you’re trying to work on something only to constantly be interrupted by email notifications, your smart phone beeping, or yet another interruption by a team member.

6 Techniques for Staying Focused At Work

Every day feels like a never-ending battle to keep your attention on what’s important, but more often than not distraction is winning the day.

This is a shame.

Because in many ways what we choose to focus on is the most valuable resource we have. We should treat it accordingly.

The good news is that if you set things up to maximize your focus, you’ll be able to get more done in any given day than you ever imagined. Below are 6 great ways to develop laser-like focus while you work:


1. Build Your “Focus Muscles” Like a Weightlifter

The same principle that weightlifters use to get stronger can also be used to develop your ability to focus. The only way for a weight lifter to get stronger is to stimulate his or her muscles with more and more weight. If not, the person’s strength will stagnate.

Studies show that we only have the ability to do a maximum of four or five hours of focused work per day. This is what we should aspire to work up to. However, just like a weightlifter’s strength does not come overnight, you slowly work up to your four or five hours per day of focused work.

When starting to build your focus muscles, doing an hour of focused work is a good starting point. But start at whatever point would be a challenge for you but still doable. So if an hour is too much start with 15 minutes and build from there.


2. Work In Focused Blocks of Time

Tony Schwartz and Jim Loehr helped popularize the idea of “periodization” for entrepreneurs in their book, the Power of Full Engagement. Periodization in this context means we should work in a series of focused “sprints” throughout the day followed by periods of recovery.

A popular application of this strategy is the Pomodoro Technique, which advises us to work in a 25-minute burst followed by a 5-minute break. This 30-minute block is known as a “Pomodoro session.”

After four Pomodoro sessions you would then take a longer break.


My personal preference is to work for longer focused session of around 55 to 60 minutes followed by a 10-minute break (I use a kitchen timer to time my sessions). Experiment and see what works best for you.


3. Have a “Break Ritual”

Have you ever planned on having a quick 5-minute break to check something on the Internet only to come back from an “Internet black hole” 45-minutes later and have no recollection of what you just looked at?

You’re not alone.

Many well-meaning entrepreneurs struggle to stay focused because they don’t manage their breaks properly.

In addition to spending too much time surfing the Internet and checking our smart phones during our breaks, other culprits include getting distracted on long eating breaks and taking too much time talking to our friends and colleagues.

So how to fight against these ‘time robbers’?

By implementing a “break ritual.”

This means you’ll decide ahead of time exactly what you’re going to do during your breaks. I highly recommend you stay away from technology during these break rituals.

In fact, my preferred ritual is to “just sit there.”

Meaning after my timer goes off I’ll simply walk to the room next to me and sit down and relax for 10 minutes. No checking email, no looking at text messages, nothing. I find this is a great way to relax and clear my mind.

Another benefit: the 10 minutes seem to go by much slower than before when I would get lost in Internet-land during breaks. Other good things you can do during break rituals include stretching and going for a walk.

4. Schedule Your Distraction Time

In his book Deep Work, Georgetown University professor and MIT graduate Cal Newport presents the novel idea that instead of scheduling breaks from distraction to focus, we should schedule breaks from focus to distraction.

Meaning we should block out specific times when we’ll allow ourselves to check our smart phones and emails, but we should avoid these distractions at all other times.

We want to make not being distracted our “default” state.

This is one of the true secrets or “hacks” to being more productive. Numerous scientific studies show that the constant switching between stimuli has a negative effect on our ability to focus. When we force ourselves not to do this, we take our “attention power” back, which makes focusing much easier.

To do this, we need to schedule our “distraction sessions” into every work day. Preferably later in the day to allow time for us to get our focused work done earlier. It is during these distraction sessions where you can check email, your smart phone and your favorite social media sites (if you really have to).


5. Manage Your Energy For Maximum Focus

Managing your energy is one of the best ways to improve your ability to focus. We do this primarily through proper diet and exercise. A diet designed for productivity will not only give you the energy you need to stay focused throughout the day but will also give your brain a boost.

The keys to a productive diet are:
Eat plenty of healthy fats (including avocados, fatty fishes and nuts).
Eat plenty of greens (including leafy green vegetables like kale and spinach and broccoli)
Stay away from all processed sugars.

Similar to diet, exercise not only will give you energy throughout the day, it’s also been shown to improve brain function as well. And what type of exercise you do is much less important than the fact that you do exercise at all.

At a minimum, you’ll want to engage in 20-minutes of moderate exercise at least three times per week. But also look for opportunities to move your body whenever possible: take the stairs, park your car a little farther when you go to the store, carry a hand basket at the grocery store instead of pushing a cart around if you can. All of these things make a difference for both your energy levels and your health.
6. The 3,515 Year-Old Secret For Improving Mental Focus

Did you know that one of the most amazing “hacks” for improving your mental focus has been around for over 3,500 years?

What’s more, this secret is completely free and can do wonders to improve your focus in as little as five minutes a day.

I’m talking about meditation.

Meditation has been called a “mental workout” for your mind and that’s exactly what it is. We talked above about building your “focus muscles” while you work. Think of meditation as a way to further train your focus muscles so you really “stretch” them during work time.

Many top running coaches have their athletes train their legs with weights in addition to their strenuous running workouts to prepare them for their races. Think of meditation as “weight training” that will help you perform even better at the race that happens everyday at work.

A great way to get started with meditation is to sit comfortably and simply focus on your breath: take a slow deep breath through your nose and say the word “in” to yourself while you do this. Then slowly exhale while silently saying the word “out.”

Repeat this for five minutes. Once you can do that, slowly build up to 10 then 20-minute meditation sessions.


Summary

To summarize, we just covered six great ways to develop laser-like focus while you work:
Building your focus muscles
Working in focused blocks
Having a break ritual
Taking breaks from focus
Managing your energy
Meditating

If you implement these strategies one by one, your days of struggling to focus and get things done will be over forever.

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6 Strategies That Millionaires Use to Guarantee Success

Do you want to be a millionaire?

Sure you do! Who doesn’t?

We know that money can’t buy happiness, but in saying that, money is still useful. Money gives you the ability to continue doing what you love. The work that you are doing on a daily basis should be what you love doing. To be able to continue doing what you love, you need to be able to earn an income from doing it.

This is why I think money is actually really valuable and does have its place in happiness. The key is to earn that income from doing what you love, instead of earning that income stressing yourself out doing something you dislike.

This leads us to our first point below. In this post, I’ve distilled the 6 things that all millionaires do to ensure they succeed.



Millionaires Do What They Love

This is a key attribute of millionaires. You can become a millionaire from doing something you do not like, but you’ll never reach happiness. On the other hand, becoming a millionaire from doing what you love is what it’s all about… your whole journey will be wrapped in happiness.

The thing about doing what you love is that it’s not just a saying that you keep hearing over and over. It actually has a number of benefits.

Doing what you love will enhance your productivity, it will increase your motivation, it will enable you to be more focused and you will be more energised. This then has a flow on effect to all other areas of your life… that energy that you create within yourself will be fed to the world and those with a similar energy will be drawn to you.

I can’t stress it enough, but doing what you love and earning an income from something you are passionate about is fundamental to success, particularly if you want to be a millionaire.



Millionaires Set Goals

I’m surprised that most people do not actually set goals. I know a lot of people will think they have set a goal because they have a rough idea of an outcome in their head, but it’s not really a goal that has been worked through and really thought out. I sometimes continue to do this myself… and it’s pretty obvious when it happens because the goal is never achieved.

All millionaires set goals. They don’t just stumble onto success and their fortune (we’re talking self-made millionaires here). Millionaires have a clear vision for what it is that they want to achieve and how much they want to make.

If you’re wondering why you haven’t been seeing results like you thought you would, perhaps ask yourself whether your goal is really clear, written down and well thought-through.



Millionaires Make Themselves Accountable to Others

Millionaires surround themselves with supportive, engaging and energising people whom can keep them accountable.

Being accountable to others has been proven to be one of the most effective ways of staying on task and continuing to be productive.

Do you notice that when you have something in your diary, perhaps a meeting to attend, a social function to attend or an assignment that is due, that you become much more highly focused, disciplined and productive to ensure you are on time and delivering to your best abilities?

This is because you are accountable to someone else. It’s human nature that we do not want to let someone else down or to embarrass ourselves in anyway, hence why we show up and give it our all.

This is a core reason why I’m about to create a private community to keep each other accountable.

Surround yourself with a great team. Find a group or another person that can hold you accountable to your goals. Your success will be set to skyrocket.




Millionaires Take Massive Action

This is a pretty straight-forward one. Millionaires take action. In fact, millionaires take massive action.

When the above 3 elements are all present (doing what you love, clear vision and goal, being accountable to others) it’s hard not to take massive action.

The key thing is that if you do today what you have always done, then tomorrow you will get what you have always gotten. It’s about taking the steps in a new direction and moving towards your goal.

I really don’t want my articles on The Start of Happiness to become ‘shelf-help’. These articles I provide are to help you take action… so please, stay accountable to me and let me know that you’re going to take action on something that’s important to you.



Millionaires Get Coaching

Similar to staying accountable to others, millionaires get coaching.

Coaching is one of the most effective strategies for anyone looking to rapidly shorten their learning curve and accelerate their results. Millionaires love to learn and they love to test their limits. Coaching can be one of the best tools for helping them to do this.

I know from my own personal experience that the times I have been coached are the times that I have dramatically accelerated my learning and enhanced my results. There’s always a right time for coaching, and that time is always now.



Millionaires Invest in Their Own Education

Education is king when it comes to success in any area of life. Millionaires know this and millionaires realise the importance of investing in their own education to ensure they have the knowledge and capabilities to succeed.

As mentioned above, coaching is a great way of investing in education, however there are other avenues that millionaires also embrace when it comes to education such as books, courses or seminars.

Thinking about your own life, how do you invest in yourself? What (and who) are the sources of information you learn from? What new opportunities might there be to educate yourself and ensure you are successful in your pursuits?


Your Thoughts?

What are your thoughts on the 6 key things that millionaires do to ensure they succeed?

What strategies or behaviours do you think millionaires do to succeed?

What are you currently applying in your life?

Please, leave your comments below… I’d love to hear your thoughts!
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5 Ways How To Get Motivated To Get More Done

5 Ways How To Get Motivated To Get More Done

Want to learn how to get more things done? Feeling no motivation to do what supposed to get done? If these are the problems that you are facing right now, don't worry as you are about to discover the 5 ways how to get motivated to get more done.


Motivation is what gets things started. Without motivation, you will never want to work on your dreams. Without motivation, you will procrastinate and never produce much result in your life. Thus, you need motivation to get things move. Below are the 5 ways how you can create motivation...

1. Listen To Uplifting Music

Music can lift us up. It has happened to everyone, regardless of who you are. When you are in a romantic restaurant, they would use romantic songs and music to enhance the environment. When you are in a business seminar, they will use fast-pace music to drive you.

Even when you are watching movie, the background music actually contribute a lot to create the desired effect and ambiance. So use music to motivate you. When you feel like no motivation, listen to songs that will drive you and music that uplift you.

2. Pep-Talk

Pep-talk is one of the easiest methods you can use to get motivated. Most people are not motivated and procrastinate on doing their tasks because they talk to themselves in the negative way. They tell themselves that they are too tired, they don't know how to do it or they can just delay the task.

If you talk to yourself this way, trust me, you will never get motivated to do what you need to get done. In sports, you can see that the athletes will gather in circle and motivate each other before the match starts. That is an example of a pep-talk. Hence, always talk to yourself positively to get driven. Sometimes you just need to tell yourself, "Yes I can do it."

3. Revisit Your Purpose

Your purpose and your reason behind what you do will drive you. If you don't feel motivated to do the things you set out to do, probably it is because your reason is not strong and emotional enough.

It is difficult to quit smoking. Until one day the health becomes an issue only then people have a strong and emotional reason to stop smoking. So always revisit your purpose. When you know exactly why you want to do something, nothing can stop you.

4. Break It Down

A huge task is difficult to tackle. Imagine if you need to write a section of a book of 10 pages, would you feel overwhelm? Most likely you will feel overwhelm. The easiest way to get motivated is to break the task into smaller items that you can act upon right away.

Ask yourself, "What is the one small thing that I can do right now?" And start doing it immediately. For instance, you can just write one single paragraph. And when you do, you will create the momentum and wanted to write more.

5. Motivation Through Fear

Imagine 3 years down the road and you are still right where you are, accomplishing nothing, is this the kind of life you want to have? Most people never feel a pinch when they think short term about procrastination. They prefer to watch TV and checkout Facebook than to work on their dreams.

It is fun to watch TV than to work on your goals. However, if you think about the long-term effect, you will notice that procrastinating on your work will create more destructive effect than positive ones. So use the fear to motivate yourself. Think long-term and look into the future to see what would happen if you did not work on your dreams now.

These are the 5 ways how to get motivated to get more done. You don't have to use all the 5 techniques here. Just apply those that you feel will work for you. As for the rest, try them out and see if they work for you.



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What Do You REALLY Want?

The statement, “You can do anything you put your mind to,” leads us to believe that all you must do is imagine what you’d like to accomplish, set your mind to the task, and wait for success.

To a certain degree this is true. Focused intention combined with action is a powerful force. But the statement is misleading because it fails to mention the difficulty and necessity of focusing your mind on a specific goal.

Most of us don’t know what we want. We think we do, but we really don’t. We only know what we don’t want. We don’t want a boring job. We don’t want to be poor. We don’t want to disappoint our loved ones.

Knowing specifically what you want is much different than knowing what you don’t want. When you only know what you don’t want, your intentions aren’t focused. Consider this example.

Pete doesn’t want to be poor. He’s sick of earning less than his friends, and he’s determined to raise his status. To accomplish this goal, Pete could take many different paths. He could train for a high paying profession, such as doctor or lawyer. He could start his own company, go into real estate, or do many other things that would lead to acquiring wealth.

But Pete isn’t sure what he wants to do. He doesn’t know which path best fits his skills and personality, so he doesn’t resolve to follow any particular path.

Hoping to answer this question, he investigates a dozen possibilities, but as soon as he runs into adversity he decides that path isn’t for him and moves on to a new solution.

Pete’s actions aren’t focused. Although he works very hard, his efforts don’t build on each other. Rather than building one giant impenetrable sand castle, Pete has built twenty smalls ones that are easily toppled. He ends up confused and discouraged. Ultimately Pete’s lack of focus leads to failure.

Now, what if Pete had chosen a specific path? Suppose he decided on the law profession. His actions would have been clearly defined:

• Get a high score on the LSAT
• Attain letters of recommendation
• Get accepted to a good law school
• Decide on a field of law
• Earn a law degree
• Find a high paying job with a good law firm

A set of specific goals is much easier to achieve than a vague end goal like becoming wealthy. Being focused on a path gives Pete a logical set of actions to follow. Each accomplishment is one step closer to the final goal.

I think we can all agree that committing to a clearly defined path, regardless of which one, gives Pete the best chance of becoming wealthy.

But how can he choose a path if he doesn’t know what he wants? Maybe money isn’t his only goal. Maybe he wants to do something he loves at the same time. Maybe he can’t afford to go back to school. Reality is complicated, and Pete doesn’t want to commit too soon.

And that’s why he fails.

But I don’t think that’s necessarily a bad thing. Most people don’t fit neatly into a predefined path. Forcing yourself into one may lead to success, but it probably won’t make you happy.

This is the point. If you want to be conventionally successful, to attain wealth and status, you need to choose a specific path (preferably something mainstream) and follow it to the letter.

On the other hand, if you aren’t particularly concerned with wealth or success, you can take your time searching for that perfect niche.

Just don’t wait too long to decide. Each moment you deliberate, your already committed competitors sprint further ahead.

But, then again, maybe life isn’t a race, and maybe the most interesting people follow a path all their own.

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