signs of laziness

Is being lazy something bad? Well, that will depend on how you define it. In my opinion, there is no such thing as laziness. Like what Tony Robbins, the #1 success coach says:

People are not lazy. They simply have impotent goals – that is, goals that do not inspire them.

Tony Robbins

Thus, I believe that Tony is right. There are no lazy people.

And usually, people refuse to do the work that they are supposed to do is because they don’t know how to manage themselves.

They choose instant gratification rather than doing the work until the last minute when they have no choice but to do it.

It’s all about pain and pleasure.

Most people choose to do things that are convenient and comfortable for them. They will try to procrastinate on things that are difficult or uncomfortable.

It is until a point where they have no choice but to force themselves to do the work, they will get the work done.

Change happens when the pain of staying the same is greater than the pain of change.

Tony Robbins

Hence, learn to manage yourself. Learn to manage your motivations and use your pain to push you to work for what you want. And use your pleasure to pull you toward the things that you want.

So, what has this got to do with signs of laziness? Everything.

As I said, there are no lazy people, only people who do not know how to manage themselves.

Therefore, use these common signs of laziness to change yourself. If you are showing any of these signs of laziness, you know that something is not right.

And you know that you should make a change.

In life, being successful, taking action, and sticking to your goals and plans are all about managing your pain and pleasure.

Learn to use your pain and pleasure to motivate yourself instead of letting them control you. If you do that, you’re in control of your life. If you don’t, life controls you.

So here are the 10 most common signs of laziness you should take note. If you notice that you are showing these signs, my friend, make a change.

1. You spend too much time on TV and social media

How much time do you spend on TV and social media? I bet the answer is going to surprise you.

According to Mediakix, the average person will spend more than 5 years of their lives on social media.

The study from Mediakix showed that on average, people spend about 35 minutes on Facebook and 40 minutes on YouTube on a daily basis. Please take note that this does not include other social media platforms like Snapchat and Instagram.

In other words, most people spend more than an hour a day on social media.

Spending too much time on TV and social media is clearly a sign of a lazy habit. And if you don’t take care of it right now, it may negatively impact other areas of your life and also your future.

Of course, watching TV and checking updates on social media can be fun and relaxing. The problem is to NOT overdo it. Social media is a good communication tool, but you shouldn’t become addicted to it until you allow it to use you instead of you using it.

So if you are spending too much time watching TV and playing on social media, beware, because it is a clear sign of laziness. Get rid of it.

Here’s a good guide you should check out:

10 Tips To Spend Less Time On Social Media & More Time With Humans

2. You delay doing the work and wait until the last minute

This is a common sign and it happens to everyone. If you have unpaid bills, clothes piling up, and dirty dishes in the kitchen, you know that you are someone who procrastinates.

Procrastination doesn’t mean that you are not going to do the work. It means that you are delaying the work until the very last minute.

For example, when your car is making noise, you know that you should send it to repair. But because you always say, “Later” or “Tomorrow”, you don’t do it. You delay it.

Until one day, when your car breaks down in the middle of the road, and you have no choice but to attend to the repair urgently.

I bet you still remember the days when you have homework from school but you chose to procrastinate and play games instead.

You waited until the last moment only to do the homework when the pain of NOT doing the work is greater than the pain of doing it.

Thus, if you always delay your work and procrastinate, it may be a clear sign that you are a lazy person. And you should change this bad habit.

If you are someone who procrastinates and often leave your work until the very last minute, I suggest you read this guide:

Top 10 Reasons Why Do People Procrastinate and How To Overcome It

3. You give yourself excuses to skip exercise

You give yourself excuses to skip exercise

Exercise is one of the most important activities that everyone should do. However, most people will just skip it by giving lousy excuses such as they are too busy and they don’t have the time.

We all know that exercise plays a vital role in maintaining our health, and if we don’t do it now, we may suffer the consequences later in our lives.

This is a serious issue that I strongly suggest you look into it right now. Stop being lazy and start working out. Make exercise a part of your life and live an active lifestyle from now on.

You don’t want to let your lousy excuses to turn you into a lazy person who doesn’t exercise. What’s the point if you get to live life but you don’t have the health and energy to enjoy it, right?

So stop making anymore excuse and start moving your body. This is an obvious sign of laziness that you should pay attention to.

4. You don’t set goals and plan for your future

Here’s one of my favorite quotes:

Nobody ever wrote down a plan to be broke, fat, lazy, or stupid. Those things are what happen when you don’t have a plan.

Larry Winget

Do you have goals that you want to achieve in life? Do you have a plan to reach them?

If you don’t, you are lazy. Think about it, people spend more time planning their holidays than they do planning their lives.

They spend time thinking about what to eat but they don’t really spend time thinking about what they want to achieve in life.

It’s sad to say, but it is the truth. Many people don’t bother with their goals. They do think about living their dream life once in a while, but that’s all about it.

They don’t commit to their dreams and they are not serious about reaching their goals. Perhaps, it is because they don’t believe what they want is possible.

So, set goals and make plans for the future that you want. If you are serious about living a better life and making your dreams a reality, you must be serious about it. You must make time to plan and to make it happen.

People who are lazy will not do this. They rather choose to watch YouTube and admire how others are living the kind of life that they want than to take serious action and make their dreams come true.

Be honest, how much time do you spend planning and taking action to reach your goals?

Successful and hard-working people plan for what they want and they take action.

So, if you are not doing this, it may show that you are a lazy person. And you should do something about it.

Read: 55 Useful Tips How To Set Goals And Achieve Them

5. You don’t finish the books you read

How many books or magazines have you bought that you don’t finish? I bet the answer is a lot.

Don’t worry, it’s a sign of laziness that many people are showing.

Do you know that one of the most common success habits that extraordinary people shared is reading?

According to this article from HuffingtonPost:

  • Bill Gates reads about 50 books per year, which breaks down to 1 per week.
  • Mark Cuban reads more than 3 hours every day.
  • Elon Musk is an avid reader and when asked how he learned to build rockets, he said, “I read books.”
  • Mark Zuckerberg resolved to read a book every 2 weeks throughout 2015.

Let’s put it simple, people who read because they believe that reading is either fun or they get to improve their knowledge from it.

On the other hand, lazy people don’t read because they rather choose to do something that is more convenient like watching the movie or drama.

This way, they don’t have to use their brain to think and all they do is to sit back and let the screen tells the story.

If this is describing you, make a change. Make a commitment to read at least a book each month.

Trust me, if you make reading your habit, it will positively impact your life. You will never regret all the time spending on reading books, my friend.

Read: Why Do You Need To Read Books And The Benefits Of It

6. Your workplace and living space are disorganized and in a mess

Your workplace and living space are disorganized and in a mess

Yes, this is a sign of laziness. If your workplace and your living space are disorganized and in mess, it shows that you are a lazy person.

It is not that you don’t have enough time to organize or do the cleaning, it is because you have made it a habit to make it that way.

This article from YourOrganizedLife.org shares 8 reasons decluttering is important. And here are some that I think are important to take note:

  • Clutter can cause stress. When you walk into a surrounding or environment that is in a mess, your stress hormone will skyrocket. Clutter causes anxiety.
  • A disorganized environment signals your brain that your work is never done. This can cause a distraction to your mind and take your attention away. Imagine you are writing an article and suddenly you see the pile of letters in front of you. It will also cause mental tiredness.
  • Clutter wastes your time.

Hence, spend the time to organize and declutter your life.

When things are piling up, it makes you feel lazy to take action. Nobody loves to work on a disorganized desk full of papers.

If you are at home, take a look at your surroundings right now. How do you feel? If there are too much clutters, don’t be lazy, spend time to declutter.

Read: 10 Tips How to Change Your Environment for Greater Motivation

7. You are bored with your weekends

Are you bored with your weekends? Do you feel like you have nothing to do during your weekends and all you do is sleep, play games, and watch the TV?

If this is happening to you, you know that you are a lazy person.

Weekends are great to pursue additional interests. You should plan for your weekends too, not just your weekdays.

If you don’t plan for your weekend, it means that you will likely end up mindlessly watching TV or surfing the internet.

Laura Vanderkam, the author of What The Most Successful People Do Before Breakfast wrote in her book:

Failing to think through what you wish to do on the weekend may make you succumb to the ‘I’m tired’ excuse that keeps you locked in the house.

Laura Vanderkam

Now, you don’t need to fully plan your weekend. What you can do is to schedule a few anchor activities.

For example, you can schedule an hour of jogging on Saturday morning, an hour of reading in the afternoon, and dine in the newly opened Japanese restaurant near your house with your family at night.

This way, you allow a lot of flexibility and at the same, you get to plan and do what you want to get done.

Therefore, if you are feeling bored over the weekend, it is because you are too lazy to plan for it.

When you don’t have a plan and you have no idea what to do, you become aimless, bored, and sleepy.

I strongly suggest you grab Vanderkam’s book. It is one of my favorite books on productivity. The insights from the book will make you understand how you go through your life and how you can be more effective and get more things done.

Get this book from Amazon. It will change your life.

8. You always feel that you are busy and you have no idea why

Do you always feel that you are busy but you have no idea why and where the time goes?

You may think that being busy means hard-working, but it is not. Being busy with menial things and wasting time on nonsense are not hard working.

This article from TheTalko.com nails it:

When you jam-pack your schedule with so much nonsense that it doesn’t leave you any time to get important things done, there might be a part of you that is doing this on purpose and therefore procrastinating and avoiding things that are frightening to you.

And then the writer gives a good example:

This is a similar move to going shopping instead of paying your phone bill, which of course in the back of your mind you’re fully aware that you’re going to have to deal with later.

The point is that you’re not taking the responsibility to deal with it when it actually needs to be dealt with. Sorry but your priorities are way off.

If you find yourself tired out but not actually getting important things done, it might be time to reassess your next move.

So, don’t think that being busy is always good. Unless you are busy at the right and productive things, you are not spending your time wisely.

Lazy people act to be busy. They spend most of their time on unproductive things and by the end of the day, they wonder where their time goes.

So, if you are showing this sign of laziness, perhaps, you should revisit your purpose and priority. And I have a great guide for you here:

How to Find Your Purpose in Life

9. You choose to eat junk food when you can cook or eat something nearby

You choose to eat junk food when you can cook or eat something nearby

As human beings, we have to eat every day. And the majority eats 3 times a day. And because we have to decide on what to eat each day, it can be a good indicator to show if we are lazy.

We all know that we should eat less junk food. And if you choose to eat junk food because you are lazy to cook or go out and buy a proper meal, it says something about you and your habit, right?

And if you are doing this regularly, it shows that you have developed a lazy habit.

It is true that it is more convenient to choose to eat junk food, but it also tells you about your habits and the standard that you set for yourself.

Of course, if you do this once in a while, it is acceptable akademische ghostwriter, but if you substitute junk food with a proper meal 5 times a week, you know that something is not right.

Hence, pay attention to your eating habit. How and what you choose to eat says a lot about your characters and habits.

And you can tell if someone is lazy by what they put into their mouths.

10. You don’t take care of your physical presence

If you don’t take care of your physical presence, it shows that you are a lazy person too. You may disagree with me on this ghostwriter, but I do sincerely think that someone who takes care of his or her physical presence is someone who is not lazy.

Do you comb your hair before you go out? Do you iron your clothes? Do you look in the mirror and make sure you are good to go before you go to work?

Well, you don’t have to spend an hour or two to make sure you look good ghostwriting, but you have to at least make sure you are clean, organize, and presentable.

This is what ExploringYourMind.com writes:

“Feeling beautiful as we are is a sign of good mental health. Worrying about our health, our hygiene or about the harmony and beauty of our body is not superficial: it is a sign that we love ourselves.”

Of course, this does not mean that you should be obsessive with how you look ghostwriter wien, but rather, you should take good care of your physical appearance.

If you want to feel good on the inside, it helps if you feel good on the outside.

People who are lazy will not take care of their physical presence.

Hence, if you are not taking care of your physicality, it may be a sign that you are lazy.

Conclusion

There is nothing wrong with being lazy. However, it is not helpful if you want to live a better life and achieve your goals ghostwriter österreich. Your lazy habits are not going to contribute to making your life better, they will only make it worse.

Therefore, if you are showing these common signs of laziness, you may want to seriously consider getting rid of those unhelpful habits.

As Tony Robbins says, we should learn to manage ourselves so that we are in control of our lives.

Instead of letting our lazy habits control us and lead us to live a life that we don’t want to, we should keep an eye on these signs and overcome our lazy habits when they appear.

This article may contain affiliate links. Meaning, at no additional cost to you, I will earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase. As always, I only recommend products and services I trust.

By Shawn Lim

Hi there, this is Shawn. I inspire people to achieve their goals and dreams and to reach for higher success in life. If you want to learn more about me, kindly go to the About page. By the way, have you downloaded your FREE copy of The 90-90-1 Rule? Don't forget to do so. Cheers. :)

27 thoughts on “10 Most Common Signs of Laziness and What Should You Do”
  1. This article had a million grammatical errors BUT it was so good I chose to read through them like I read through my friends FB Messenger messages. This article spoke so much to me! Every bit of this is true and really was confirmation to a lot of bad habits I have!!

    1. Hi there, thanks for taking your time to post your comment here. Well, I will work harder on the grammar. 🙂
      And it’s good to hear that this article is helpful to you. Cheers

    2. I think I am the only person in world that do every lazy thing in the followed article.
      But I am doing my best to avoid lazziness.

  2. WOW. That’s all I can say. It’s like this article was written specifically for me because it speaks of me! I am ashamed to even admit that but it’s true. Thank you for sharing. I’ll be binge-reading your articles!

    1. Hello Louise, good to hear that this article resonates with your situation. Now you know your signs of laziness, time to work on them eh 🙂

  3. I echo V.Ford’s comment – you grammar did unfortunately detract from the content.
    Regarding the article itself, I like the points you’ve chosen and elements you’ve highlighted; however your answer to each one was just “if you do this, fix it”. How? What are effective ways to improve each one? What are the possible causes behind each one?
    All in all your article felt like a really brief introduction to the subject, rather than a complete work that could actually help people.

    1. Hello, thank you for your comment.
      Well, will look into my articles and make them more ‘actionable’.. 🙂

  4. This article hit me so hard.. I resonated with 80 percent of the signs.. I wish to overcome all these habits and live the life I want. It’s like I want to be a completely different person but these habits are taking me into an opposite direction all together.. If read your article every day so that I remind myself what I shouldn’t be doing.. Thank you for this article Shawn.

    1. Hey Anushka, I’m happy that you love this piece of content… 🙂
      And yes, change begins with your thinking. The more you read, the more you know (about yourself), and the more you can improve to live a better life.

  5. I don’t know if am lazy or not because I do absolutely nothing I am just idle and unhappy sometimes I want to be hardworking but I am confronted with negativity and setback I always have low self Esteem I wish I was not like this because I always wish I was like my peers who are doing well for them self’s and I can practice Self care no matter how hard I try my hair is always unkempt I am always sleeping and I sleep so deep that I can’t hear anything when I do it’s like I died I need help

  6. Waoo this is so so inspiring, I have been lazy and I know it but now I’m determined to quit being lazy by putting to work some of the lessons learnt from here. Thanks a million Shawn and God bless you.

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