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Thursday, June 24, 2010

Bumming Around

Bumming can be tiring. And I am sick of it. I've been trapped inside the house for a week now. The air's making me dizzy already. All week I was on the net, browsing all sorts of stuff. I'm supposed to work on my readings, but somehow I cannot find the energy to concentrate. I know this is self-destruction warmed up. So I need to find a way to push myself into productiveness. 


I decided to write about this laziness and spend the bum hours thinking of ways to stop bumming. So it's like productive bumming. 
I'm still feeling a bit lazy to make a full-blown research on laziness, so I'm going to start small. Here are some tips I gathered on the net:

1. Set Goals

This is where I fail big time. I don't have clear goals inside my head when I begin a task. So when the going gets tough, I break down easily. Stephen Covey suggested that when venturing on any endeavor, begin with the end in mind. 

A concrete, achievable goal in your head makes a job easy. I put emphasis on achievable because most of the time, my goals are far too big to be motivational. The key is to come up with something realistic, say an ice cream after every finished reading or a Glee episode after a completed write up. 

2. Stop Making Excuses

Denial is the first stage of human response to negativities. And acceptance is way beyond it. I should admit that I have been lazy for the past few days. It takes a lot of courage to tell yourself that you made a mistake. Coming up with excuses would delay acceptance and progress. I should be accountable to all the time I wasted.

3. Start Small

Wikihow suggested this quick fix: start something no matter how small. It helps to give myself at least five minutes to do a work. Just five minutes. Nothing threatening. The author said that you would eventually surprise yourself by exceeding that time limit. Once you've warmed up and get out of the initiation bog, you will be up and running in no time. You have to start small and rid yourself of feeling overwhelmed.

4. Get a Habit

Following a routine sets you apace. Sure, it can be mindless, but it is productive (of course, we're talking about healthy habits). Routines do not make life stale. It puts life on the right track so one can attend to activities that actually demand creativity and critical thinking. Good habits that kills laziness may include the following:
  • Starting the day with prayer and positive talk
  • Washing your face and freshening up as soon you wake up in the morning
  • Taking early morning jogs.
  • Eating healthy, hearty breakfast.  

5. Believe in Yourself.

This sounds painfully Hallmarkish, but low self-esteem causes laziness. I often procrastinate because I feel that I cannot do a good job. Actually, I fear that I won't come up with a perfect job. Every time I put off a work, I feel guilty and less confident to take on other tasks. So the work eventually pile up and I end up even more depressed and pitiful. 

Pushing through a task, no matter how imperfect it is going, can boost your self-esteem. Once the job is done, you're confident to start another one. And as you progress steadily, you get better and better until, surprisingly, you achieve that perfect job. It all begins with confidence, a firm belief in yourself that you will be able to finish what you started.

When all else fails, try these easy steps by Anon For Everything:

1.Put needles, points up, on all the seats in your home so that when you sit down,well, you know.
2.Sleep on the kitchen floor so you don't over sleep.
3.Run laps around your neighborhood screaming "I WILL NOT BE LAZY!!" over and over again.
4.Hire someone (or two or three someones) to slap you in the face with a fly swatter every time you don't do a chore. (Make sure to pay them well, and make them Promise to slap you.)
5.Duck tape all the screens in your house (computer, TV, etc.).
6.When you eat, put the food on the floor, and do push-ups. Down, bite,chop,one. Down, bite, chomp, two! And so on.
7.Think positively. "I can do this, I can do this!"
8.Only eat health foods, throw out all the potato chips and soda. Time for trail mix and water!
9.Make sure to breath. Inhale through the nose, "heee", exhale through the mouth,"hooo".
10.Just do it! Do it!
11. Oh, and drink lots of water."


I'll give the push-up meal a try later. Hope it's not Sinigang for lunch.

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