Word for not being lazy

What is the opposite of lazy?

What is the opposite of being lazy?

The opposite of lazy is hardworking. A lazy person does the bare minimum while a hardworking person go the extra mile.

hard-working	diligent
industrious	conscientious
assiduous	hardworking
ambitious	committed
dedicated	devoted

What are synonyms for lazy?

other words for lazy

• apathetic.
• careless.
• inattentive.
• lackadaisical.
• passive.
• sleepy.
• tired.
• weary.

How did I get so lazy?

Lifestyle causes of laziness For example, a poor diet, too much alcohol and lack of good quality sleep can all leave you feeling tired and unmotivated. Make small changes to your lifestyle to try and improve how you feel. Stress can also lead to poor sleep, which in turn can make you feel tired and lacking motivation.

Can a lazy person change?

The NCBI found out that habits need at least 10 weeks to form. This means that a lazy person can change his behavior in approximately 70 days. Some people find it easier if you keep a record of the things you did, so you can watch it get easier and easier with time.

Is there any cure for laziness?

There’s no simple cure for being lazy. The only way to overcome it is by setting your mind to the task and getting up and completing it. Start right now to develop the self-discipline you need to reach your goals.

Is the mind lazy?

This is not true. As a matter of fact most of us are mentally lazy. We know our brain is going on automatic most of the time, but we hardly stop to think about it. What this means is that only 10% or less of our thoughts are generated from our conscious mind based on what we’re experiencing now.

Why do our brains want us to be lazy?

Some people are often called lazy, because of their brains, say researchers who found that our brain is innately attracted to sedentary behaviour. “The exciting novelty of our study is that it shows this faster avoidance of physical inactivity comes at a cost — and that is an increased involvement of brain resources.

What is a lazy thinker?

Lazy thinkers assume a bunch of stuff. Many of the things they do they do because they have always done them. They don’t stop to think about what they do and why they do it. Some people, like me for instance, don’t challenge their thinking because they are always right. Except of course when they aren’t.

What part of the brain makes you lazy?

Slow thinking happens in your pre-frontal cortex (PFC), the most evolved part of your brain.

How does laziness affect the brain?

The exciting novelty of our study is that it shows this faster avoidance of physical inactivity comes at a cost — and that is an increased involvement of brain resources,” Boisgontier said. “These results suggest that our brain is innately attracted to sedentary behaviours,” he said.

How do you keep your brain active?

7 ways to keep your mind active as you age

1. Keep learning. Experts think that learning new things keeps us in the habit of being mentally active.
2. Use memory aids.
3. Read more books.
4. Paint, draw or doodle.
5. Do puzzles.
6. Listen to music.
7. Exercise.

What age are you the smartest?

Overall brain processing power and detail memory peaks around age 18.

What time of day is your brain the sharpest?

morning

What foods increase brainpower?

Foods linked to better brainpower

• Green, leafy vegetables. Leafy greens such as kale, spinach, collards, and broccoli are rich in brain-healthy nutrients like vitamin K, lutein, folate, and beta carotene.
• Fatty fish.
• Berries.
• Tea and coffee.
• Walnuts.

How many times do you need to memorize something?

According to this technique, “you’ve got to actively recall the memory 30 times,” Cooke says. So when you meet someone new, you might want to repeat her name 30 times. Create a mnemonic. Use whatever a new word sounds like or makes you think of, and you’ll remember it more.

What is the trick to memorizing?

Use mnemonics. Mnemonics are systems and tricks that make information for memorable. One common type is when the first letter of each word in a sentence is also the first letter of each word in a list that needs to be memorized.

What is the best time to memorize?

The Best Time to Learn Something New Learning is most effective when the brain is in acquisition mode, generally between 10:00 am to 2:00 p.m. and then again from 4:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m.

“My big problem is that I’m SO lazy.”

How many times have you heard someone say that? How many times have you said it? I know I’ve gone through phases of my life where I just couldn’t seem to get off my butt to get stuff done, and I’m definitely guilty of calling myself lazy.

But eventually, I stopped. Because labels like “I’m so lazy” are incredibly negative and become part of your identity. Worse, they hide the real problems preventing you from achieving what you really want. Changing the way you talk about yourself is an important self for both self-love and personal achievement.

When you use a label like “I’m so lazy,” you’re taking a specific thing that you’re struggling with—be it your work, a side project, getting fit, or just doing your laundry—and applying it to your entire identity as a person. It’s tempting to think of this as just a thing people say. It’s easy to write off our problems as a personality trait, and for some reason, that’s made calling ourselves lazy (or “a disaster” or “such a klutz”) socially acceptable.

But the words you use to describe yourself matter. They change the way you think about yourself and the things you do.

3 Reasons to Stop Saying You’re Lazy

1) Labeling makes your problem part of who you are

Making “laziness” or any other negative trait a part of your identity means that you have to fight yourself anytime you want to do anything!

If you define yourself as lazy, you have to confront that fact every day, with every action. The label you’ve given yourself based on a small number of experiences becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. It’s hard to stop being lazy.

2) You need to change your identity to change

If being lazy is part of your identity, you need to change who you are as a person in order to change anything.

That’s so intimidating! I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to change who I am every time I set out to accomplish something new. It’s much harder to do that than it is to change the little actions that are causing my problems.

3) It’s wrong!

Ask yourself: are you really lazy?

I told myself I was lazy when I was struggling to keep up with my writing. But at the same time, I was working out 4-6 times a week and cooking healthy meals every night.

The last person I heard call themselves lazy (because she put off doing chores around the house) was a solid 50 pages of script into writing her first solo screenplay. Does that sound lazy?

There are probably plenty of times where you’re a motivated, driven person! Figuring out what makes those times different can help you stop being “lazy.”

2 Steps to Stop Being Lazy

Defeating your laziness label and taking action isn’t always easy, but it can be done by interrogating the label and taking a small action.

Step 1: Interrogate the Label

First, attack the label itself. For laziness, find areas of your life where you aren’t lazy. If you’re “such a disaster,” when are you NOT a disaster? Your labels probably aren’t as universal as you thought.

Then, look at the specific action you’re having trouble with and ask: “why?” What makes this different? Keep asking that question until you get to the real answer.

In my writing, for example, every time I procrastinated was really because I wasn’t sure what to say. If I didn’t have a good grasp on the subject or didn’t have a subject at all, the task of writing a whole article was incredibly daunting. My problem wasn’t laziness; it was uncertainty.

Have you ever put off going to the doctor or calling for test results? For me, I tend to delay because I’m worried about the results that will come back. I have stuff to do! I don’t want to be told that I need some expensive treatment or need to take time off the activities I enjoy. Again, the problem wasn’t laziness; it was fear.

Step 2: Take a Small, Immediate Action

Once you know the real problem, it’s so much easier to solve!

If your problem is uncertainty, how can you make your task less uncertain? If your problem is fear, how can you make the task less daunting? If your problem is self-confidence, what can you do to convince yourself that you’re capable of this task?

In my writing example, I set a smaller goal than “write my article on this topic.” Instead, I focused on finding one good source on the subject. Once I did that and had a better understanding of the topic in general, I would make a detailed outline. Turns out, having an outline is enough to make me stop procrastinating and write.

When I was new to fitness, I was both scared and lacking self-confidence. So instead of saying “I’m going to get super fit and have abs,” which I didn’t believe I could do, I asked “what are the programs that people like me have success with?” By reading online success stories, I was able to convince myself that it actually is possible to get fit. That I wasn’t an exception to the rules of human biology. With that knowledge, I focused on starting smaller, being consistent while slowly scaling up, and staying motivated over the long haul (and finding ways to do that).

Instead of saying that your problem is a result of who you are, know that it’s a result of what you do. Suddenly it becomes much easier to change. Understand your labels and the problems almost solve themselves.

“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.

Bonus: Download a free step-by-step checklist that will show you how to stop being so lazy (including 2 bonus steps that are not in this post). It’s easy to save as a PDF or print out for whenever you need it during your day or week.

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.

Here’s the next step…

Now, you may think to yourself:

“This is really helpful information. But what’s the easiest way to put this into practice, actually stick with it and not be lazy even when I’m really unmotivated?”.

Well, I’ve got something special for you…

A free step-by-step checklist that includes all the steps in this article… plus 2 additional bonus steps. Save it or print it out so you have it for your daily life and for the next time when you get stuck in laziness and inaction.
Download it now by entering your email below.

For the most part, people want to stop being lazy. Everyone always wants to know how to improve their lives, make more money, and how they can be healthier. There is nothing better and being lazy on the weekend but do not make it into a habit. Studies have shown that people actually do not want to be lazy, and we they are, it often ends in guilt because they have got nothing done and wasted their day.

The most important thing to say to yourself, in the beginning, is “I am going to stop this behavior, I am going to stop being lazy.” You have to find strength from within otherwise it will never happen.

Laziness and procrastination are good friends but are not the same things. You should be surprised to know that laziness is a habit, a bad habit that needs to stop. It’s not really a personality flaw or depression, it is a bad habit that has formed over time.

Laziness and procrastination should not be confused. To procrastinate is to postpone a task and replace it with others which are easier and more pleasurable. When we procrastinate we usually do things that are less urgent and not really important. When you put something off and it results in poor planning, poor results, that can result in stress, loss of productivity, anxiety, and extreme guilt.

A person who is lazy and is a procrastinator both lack motivation. But at least the procrastinator is getting something done whereas a lazy person is just existing I’m not doing anything. The procrastinator is productive in some way by doing small tasks that are easy but the lazy person just does nothing.

To stop being lazy we need to carry out an activity that we need to finish, instead of doing nothing, we need to figure out a way to find motivation.

People get frustrated because they can never get anything done and they start to use negative self-talk, putting themselves in a deeper hole by saying things like, “I will never get this done,” or “This is way to hard,” or “I am too lazy for this.”

It is good to know that this lazy thinking and behavior is a habit that can be broken. Laziness feeds off itself, when you are lazy it keeps compounding and builds bigger and bigger. If you’re always taking the shortcut in life when it comes to small things they transfer into to the big things in life.

Recognizing and stopping lazy behaviors.

When you get up in the morning to make your bed? If you skip this you have already failed for the day. Highly successful people, the first thing that they do in the morning is make their bed. This is the first task that they have conquered in the day. When you do not make your bed it is like cutting corners and taking the easy way. Then throughout the rest of the day, you will continue to take the easy way and be lazy.

Being guilty of something that you should be doing not a productive emotion. Stop being guilty, get over yourself and just get things done!

Procrastinating in school is the classic example of being lazy, think about all the times you put off writing a paper or were working on a project the night before.

Being lazy in school sometimes sneaks into our habits as adults. We tend to put off work-related tasks and wait till last minute, this just leads to more stress and anxiety.

If you need help with stress and anxiety you can check out our two articles here: 28 Ways to Reduce Anxiety and 24 Ways to Manage Stress.

Let’s just look at some words that are the opposite of being lazy.

Active.
Industrious.
Energetic.
Diligent
Busy.
Desirous.
Brisk.
Enterprising.
Sprightly
Lively.
Vigorous.
Alert.
Ambitious.
Self-motivated.
Quick.
Spirited.
Peppy.
Workaholic.
Curious.
Agile.
Dynamic.
Frisky.
Nimble.
Springy.

Now that we have looked some words that are antonyms the word lazy. See if you can take one of those words and apply them to what you are doing right now, take a word and let that word become you. Be the opposite of lazy.

Instead of being lazy I am energetic.

Instead of being lazy I am busy.

Instead of being lazy I am self-motivated.

The mind is a very powerful tool and if we visualize we can change our mindset.

Instead of being lazy I am frisky! 🙂

18 ways to stop being lazy.

Stop “being” lazy

You are not your bad habits. Your bad habit right now is being lazy, you have slowly made laziness one of your habits. All you need to do is stop identifying yourself as lazy. Stop saying, “I am lazy.” Stop making yourself become the “lazy person” you envision in your mind.

To do lists.

To do lists are extremely important. To break the habit of laziness you have to write down all the tasks that you want to accomplish during the day. If you made progress on your list, cross out completed tasks. At the end of today go back and look at your to-do list. You will slowly find motivation for the next day because you will see all that you have accomplished today.

Prioritize.

Yes, you should make a to-do list, but you need to prioritize tasks on your to-do list. Accomplish the task that has been hanging over your head for the longest time. The more tasks that have been around the longest, are the ones that cause the most stress. Once you have gotten rid of these things that have been lingering for a long time, it always feels like a weight has been lifted off of your shoulders.

Sacrifice.

Sacrifice when it comes to laziness, it is a lot like investing. If you do something early you can relax later and reap the benefits. Most Americans minds think like this, “Let me relax right now and I will just do what I have to do it later.” When we are in this mindset we do not get anything done, we perpetuate the problem and then feel guilty when nothing gets accomplished.

Ask why?

It is important to understand why you are feeling lazy in this moment. Are you taking on a task that is overwhelming? Do you have to do everything perfectly? Are you not starting the task because you are afraid to fail? Get to the center of why you do not want to do the task it’ll make you more effective and it will help you to stop being lazy.

Do you care?

I think one of the most important things when comes to productivity is being passionate about what you are doing. Do you actually care about what you’re doing? Give the small tasks that you are doing some ‘meaning’. If you do not want to make your bed in the morning, then make a game out of it. Make it a game to see if you can do it perfectly like someone in the military and take a picture of it and send it to your friends. Stop taking everything so seriously.

Efficiency.

If a task that you are doing is hard to complete, take a step back and look at a different way, see if you can achieve the task in a more efficient way. Stop stressing, and stop doing the same things over and over. The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over with the same result. Find the most efficient way to get the task done and do it.

Get help.

People are more than willing to help us but we are always afraid to ask. If you are stuck, ask a friend for help or find somebody that is very knowledgeable about what you’re doing. Think about all the times that someone has asked you for help, were you willing to help them out right away? Of course!

Force yourself.

Sometimes you just have to buckle down and force yourself to do it. It’s always hard to start, but if you push through the first 15 minutes of the hardest part of your task, then you can finish it no problem. Try doing the hardest and most annoying part that you don’t want to do right away.

Time.

The most useful method I have found is the Pomodoro Method, with the Pomodoro Timer.

If you’re stuck, or you being extremely lazy, tackle your task anywhere from 15 to 25 minutes at a time and then take a break. There are different methods online and different apps for your phone that set a timer where you work in 15 minutes or 25 minutes intervals and take a 5 to 10-minute break in between. You cannot simply work on the task straight through for an hour or two hours, your brain gets tired and needs a break.

Here are also some good Pomodoro apps:

Forest – Stay focused
Seconds Interval Timer HIIT
Timer+

Consequences.

Usually, when we are dreading the task or have some sort of fear, we are usually doing it last minute. Think about the consequences of not getting this task done. Are we going to get a bad grade because we are lazy? Are we going to get fired from a job? Is someone going to get mad at me because I did not finish what I’m supposed to be doing? When you use fear as motivation it uses a different part of our brain and helps us to get things done.

Deadlines.

Create a deadline for yourself and stick to it. This is one of the most efficient ways to stop being lazy. You have to say to yourself, “I’m only going to work on this for 30 minutes, I’m going to get it done, and after that, I’m done with it.” Make up your mind, set a deadline, and get it done.

Do it now.

Just stop and do what has been bothering you right now. Find out what is most daunting to you and do it right now. If you have an email on your computer and it needs a response, respond right away so you don’t have to worry about it for forget it. If someone calls you and leaves you a voicemail, pick up the phone and called them right back. By doing this your to-do list will not have a lot of small things on it. You have more important things that need to get done, get the small things out of the way.

Small Habits.

Small habits always translate into big things in our life. If you have a habit of not making your bed the morning you have already failed. That is the first thing that you should accomplish for the day. If you put off doing that then you will put off big things when it comes to work and school. This is why people in the military stress making your bed because you have already accomplished one goal now you can tackle bigger ones throughout the day.

2-minute tasks.

I’m sure that on your to-do list you could probably get a lot of those things done within two minutes. A lot of it has to do with you calling somebody, paying a bill, or making plans. Look at your to-do list and see when you can do the quickest and get it off your list. Your stress will be relieved.

15-minute tasks.

In 15 minutes a day, you can do small things that will end up helping you overtime and help to make you feel less overwhelmed. Working 15 minutes time you can clean house, organize desk drawers or your closet, study for an exam, do a little bit of homework, or read a difficult book. If you do a task for 15 minutes every day within the week you can probably have the task accomplished.

Follow through.

If you say something you need to honor your word. If you want to stop being lazy you need to let your ‘yes mean yes’ and your ‘no mean no’. Your word to other people is very important when it comes to integrity. If you tell someone that you are going to complete something, then you should honor your word and do it. If you do not have integrity in this life then you have nothing.

Do not be afraid to fail.

A lot of the times we do not start the task because we are afraid to fail. We need to get this out of our minds because we failed matter what every day. As soon as we get over this we can allow ourselves to fail and forgive ourselves. Stop being lazy and stop fearing failure. Also, give yourself a break when you do fail, it’s not the end of the world, Stop beating yourself up over nothing.

Usually, if you are lazy then you are probably stressed out and have anxiety. Check out these two posts that may help you: 28 Ways to Reduce Anxiety and 24 Ways to Manage Stress.