Some Thoughts on Laziness and Procrastination

Do you ever feel like you're lazy? That you should be doing more productive things, but you instead procrastinate or idle time away on unimportant things? If so, you're not alone. According to a Forbes article, 99% of Americans admit to procrastinating tasks!

Image Source: GPT

In other words, it's extremely normal. But just because it's normal doesn't mean we should be complacent with this bad habit. The same article mentioned that 78% of those procrastinating feel anxious while doing it, and let's be honest, procrastinating just makes things worse later down the road.

I was talking about the problem of laziness with some students recently. In our self-cultivation class, I require students to keep a daily journal. In the journal, they have to write at least one thing they intentionally improved on and one thing they could've done better each day. At the end of each month, we reflect on the patterns from this month and do a monthly review.

Interestingly, many students said the problem of laziness came up a lot this past month. Problems are like illnesses. Illnesses have symptoms, but the same symptom can have different causes. For example, if someone has a headache, that's a symptom. But the cause of that headache could vary. Perhaps they caught a cold, or they have too much stress, or they drank too much alcohol. We can't assume everyone's symptoms are caused by the same reasons.

Only when we know the root cause can we truly eliminate the problem. Thus, I  questioned each person deeper to try to find the root cause of their "laziness", and interestingly, each person had a different cause.

Generally speaking, people don't take pride in being lazy, which means people don't want to be lazy. The reason they feel "lazy" might be because they are physically drained, or they feel like the matter isn't important enough, or they lack the ability to do it. Once we know the cause of our laziness symptoms (matters), we can then treat it from the root.

Case 1

The first student said he needs to correct his laziness because he wakes up late and ends up rushing to school in the morning, and he was late many times this month. I asked him, "Why do you wake up late? Is it because you just feel lazy and want to sleep in? Or are you really tired and lack sleep?"

He said, "I don't think I lack sleep. I can make myself get up earlier. But when I cook in the morning, I'm too slow. I'm trying to cook many things at the same time and rushing.

Also, I don't know why, but getting to school always seems to take longer than I thought it would take."

I know his personality is the type that likes to go with the flow and doesn't plan very much, so I told him, "Maybe your 'laziness' isn't actually laziness. It's not that you don’t want to wake up or be on time, but that you aren't careful enough in your planning of time. For example, maybe you think it would only take 20 minutes to get to school, but then you end up needing 25 or 30 minutes. Or perhaps you know school starts at 9:00, and you plan to arrive at 8:55.

When doing anything, no matter if it's cooking, getting to school, doing homework, etc, get into the habit of leaving ample buffer room. Don't make things so tight and rushed. Try to finish things earlier than your planned time, and that means actually planning ahead and leaving ample buffer/cushion room. That's getting at the root of the problem.

Another possible factor could be your sense of responsibility. You were late many times, which might be a sign that your sense of responsibility isn't strong enough. Although you might say that being on time is important, you don't truly feel it strongly enough. If you really felt bad about being late, would you really be late two days in a row? Would you really be late multiple times in a week?

So, to treat this problem, I will tell you right now that trustworthiness is one of the most important things in life. If you want to have a smooth life, you need other people to help you. If you want others to help you, then you need them to trust you. If you want others to trust you, then that requires you to keep your word and to follow the rules.

If you are late for the first time, then it's understandable and pardonable, but the school asked you to be on time in the future, and yet you're late again the next day. That hurts your credibility. Also, according to rules of etiquette, we shouldn't arrive one or two minutes early, we should arrive ten minutes early. This is very important. Once you feel this is very important, your attitude will change, and your problem will be solved. You'll figure out ways to be early without others needing to push you or give you suggestions.

For me, I had to pick up some people in the mornings this past week, and the first day, I only planned for a 10 minute buffer. It turns out that the morning traffic and snowy roads really slowed me down, and I was late by 10 minutes. I learned from my mistake, and the second day, I left 20 minutes earlier, and we arrived 15 minutes early. Afterwards, I always planned for a 20 minute buffer, and I was always early. One time, the traffic was bad, but I still arrived 10 minutes early. Other times, the traffic was good, and I arrived 20 minutes early."

Case 2

The second student said that when her Chinese teacher gave her homework, there were a few times where she was upset and complained disrespectfully that it's too much. But later, she reflected that it's not actually too much, that she's done a lot more homework in the past, and that she's just being lazy when she complained about the homework being too much.

I asked her, "If it's not truly too much, then why did you feel like it was too much at the time? Is it because you were really tired and lacked sleep? Is it because the homework felt hard? Or some other reason?"

She said, "Maybe because I was just really tired and felt uncomfortable."

I said, "Well, I know your family has been very busy and you guys often sleep late. Ideally, you should sleep earlier, but if it's out of your control, then there's not much we can do. But do you see how the root of your 'laziness' is not actually getting yourself to be less lazy. Rather, it's preserving a good mental state and energy level. If you can do that, you wouldn't feel 'lazy'. Not only would you not complain about the homework, but you might also complain less about other things being your level of patience would be higher when you physically feel good.

From another perspective, you can be more polite and respectful towards your teacher. If I were in your situation, even if I were really tired, I wouldn't directly oppose the teacher, as if we were equals. I would view the teacher as above me, someone I should really respect. In that case, I wouldn't complain about them or about the homework they gave me. Instead, I would report my concerns and ask for their advice.

So I might ask, 'What if I go home, start doing the homework, and realize it's too much? What should I do?' That's much more respectful that complaining. The teacher probably wouldn't blame me if I reported this concern and then couldn't finish everything. He would probably adjust the amount next time. So increasing our attitude of respect can also solve this problem."

Case 3

The third student said that she needs to be less lazy. I asked her classmates, "Do you guys think she's lazy?" Her classmates all shook their heads.

I asked her, "We don't think you're lazy. Why do you say you're lazy?"

She said, "Well, OK, I guess it's just Chinese history homework. I don't want to do it, so I keep pushing it off. That's laziness, right?"

I said, "It depends. Why don't you want to do your history homework?"

She said, "Because the homework is to re-tell a story mentioned in class, and I can't understand everything the history teacher says because it's in Chinese, and he talks too fast, so I can't even write down notes."

I said, "OK, in that case, your true problem is not 'laziness'. It's an ability problem. If you had the ability to do your Chinese history homework, but you just don't do it because you'd rather go play or idle away time, then maybe that's laziness. Or rather, it's a lack of motivation. But in your case, you would totally do your homework in a timely manner if you had the ability.

So to solve your problem, you need to ask your history teacher to talk slower and to repeat stories so that you can write down notes."

She said, "I did ask him to talk slower. But he still talks at that speed. It's just his normal speed."

I said, "OK, well in that case, as long as you've done everything in your power, then you have a clear conscience. Improving your Chinese takes time, so be patient with yourself. Also, you can work on improving your note-taking skills. Learn from your deskmate. Maybe in the future, I'll do a lesson on note taking."

Case 4

Another student said, "I know I have to do my homework, but I just don't want to. It's too boring. I'd rather go play or read books or watch videos."

I replied, "Well, that's a motivation problem then. You'll need to think about ways to increase your motivation. Maybe you think about why doing your homework first is important. It'll make your parents happy. Do it out of love and respect for them.

Or think about the negative consequences of not doing the homework. Your parents and teachers would be upset. People would think you're not trustworthy.

You can also make the homework task smaller. You don't have to finish all the homework right now. All you have to do is 5 minutes of homework. But once you start, you'll probably do a bit more than 5 minutes.

Or you make a game out of it. You can write different homework on different slips of paper, put them in a cup, and randomly pick one out to do.

Or think about the type of person you want to be. Do you want to be a person who is a slave to pleasure? Who can't control yourself to do the important things? If not, then do the homework first, and then play time can be a reward afterwards.

Those are just some ideas. But ultimately, it's up to you to try different methods and find a way to overcome your lack of motivation."

Conclusion

Feeling lazy and procrastinating is a very common problem nowadays. It causes us anxiety, makes us feel worse later, and exacerbates our problems. But simply telling ourselves, "I need to be less lazy in the future" rarely helps us solve the problem. To truly solve the problem, we need to find the root cause of our laziness.

Perhaps we're too tired, in which case we need to find a way to take better care of our health and energy levels.

Perhaps we view the matter as not important enough, which results in insufficient motivation. In that case, we need to find ways to view the matter as more important, or just consciously decide that the matter isn't worth that much effort.

Perhaps we lack the ability or confidence to do it, in which case we need to improve our abilities and confidence.

Or there might be other reasons with other solutions. Everyone's situation is unique, but it's up to us to self-reflect and figure out our root cause. Only then can we truly solve the problem.

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Weekly Wisdom #379