Feeling lazy? Adopting a few new habits can help boost your productivity. It’s normal to occasionally feel unmotivated, but if laziness plagues your everyday life, it may be time to adopt new habits. In honor of National Lazy Day on August 10, Medical Daily spoke to a handful of experts about productivity; here’s four tips to help you stop being lazy at home and work. Create To-Do Lists It’s no secret that to-do lists can be helpful in many different areas of your life. Creating the list is a step in the right direction, but the nature of the list is what’s vital. Dr. Carla Marie Manly, a clinical psychologist, shared a few suggestions on how to create a great list. First and foremost, she advises to keep the list short and doable. She also suggests to add in fun tasks between the tasks you might not be so thrilled about. “Any list can be a downer if it’s filled with too many difficult or undesirable items,” she said. Lastly, once you complete your task, reward yourself with a television break, cup of tea, or a snack. Invite Friends Over For Dinner If you think friends and food will be a distraction to completing your to-do list, think again. Hosting a dinner party can serve as a motivation to clean up your messy home and restock your empty fridge. Setting a goal and timeline of cleaning your home and having dinner ready for when your guests arrive will help get you moving toward completing your chores around the house, suggests April Masini, a relationship and etiquette expert. Regularly Assess Your Career If you find yourself constantly surfing the web at work or disappearing for long periods of time, it may be a sign that you’re bored and disengaged. To beat the boredom, engage in regular career assessments to see how your interests, goals, and values are aligned with how you’re spending your time on-the-job, suggests Roy Cohen, a career coach and author of “The Wall Street Professional’s Survival Guide." “If you like your job, then you want to spend more time doing it. Passion always trumps indifference," he said. Take A Moment To Breathe If there’s days at work when you can’t find the slightest bit of motivation to get anything done, consider incorporating certain habits, like meditation or light exercise, throughout the day. “Getting up to take a short, brisk, 10-minute walk, stretching, or engaging in mindful meditation during a work break can help improve your mood and give you the jumpstart and energy required to remain both motivated and productive,” Dr. Nesochi Okeke-Igbokwe, an attending physician at NYU Langone Medical Center, said. Source
