What are the Main Causes of Laziness?

Last Updated on January 6, 2023

We all need to work and be as productive as possible. This lets us achieve our dreams and live happier and better lives.

But there are times when each one of us just can’t help but be a lazy person. Not that we want to be lazy — we just can’t avoid it!

Good thing there are many ways to overcome laziness. And one good way is to know what are the main causes of laziness.

That’s what this article is about. Because here, we’ll show you the different causes and factors that lead to laziness. We’ll also help you become more productive by removing anything that makes you lazy.

Knowing What Are the Main Causes of Laziness

Procrastination

One of the biggest signs people become lazy is procrastination. Procrastination is the habit of delaying tasks. Lazy people exhaust every possible reason to delay finishing a task.

What people who procrastinate then do is get rattled and panic about finishing the task because there’s only a little time left. Take laundry for example. Procrastinators would rather wear dirty clothes than wash them immediately since they know they still have something they could wear.

Another example of this is when a person is assigned a simple task like dishwashing. What lazy people usually do is just postpone it. They’ll then be surprised to see that there are already lots of piled-up dishes in the sink. And the more they pile up, the more difficult it is to finish them.

Procrastination is an immense problem because it makes things harder to do. It also promotes laziness because you won’t be motivated to work on the task just because it’s already piled up. You can avoid this by doing tasks now if you have the time and energy.

Don’t worry if the task takes longer to finish and you don’t have any time to work on it now. You can always reschedule it for the right time. Just don’t make it a habit to postpone things just because you’re tired or lazy.

Distractions

Another big factor that contributes to laziness is distractions. You might have noticed your mind wandering over unrelated things while working on a task. That’s a clear sign that you’re distracted. You’re less likely to finish a task if you’re distracted.

One of the most common things you get distracted from is social media. You can also get sidetracked when you start watching movies or engaging with talkative friends.

You just can’t work on something if you’re always distracted because you always find other areas which are more entertaining and easier. Unfortunately, these areas aren’t a superb choice. They just suck the productivity out of you! Avoid them as much as possible to get things done on time.

Assess how much time you waste on these distractions. Then determine what you could have done and achieved instead if you just used this time properly.

But this doesn’t mean that you should cut yourself off from your friends and hobbies. You just have to control these areas so you’ll have the much-needed work-life balance.

Note that today’s lifestyle makes us work round the clock. And we don’t anymore have time to think, clear our minds, and plan for the future.

Failure to Make Wise Decisions

You need to be decisive to become productive. Many people can’t decide for themselves and they just wait for others to decide for them. This leads to indecision and laziness. You just become too dependent on other people to decide for you.

Think about your tasks for the day and schedule them out. You might be afraid to plan things out because things can vary. But that’s normal. What you must do instead is to stand up for your decisions and be firm that you’ll do a specific task with specific people in a specific time frame.

Treat time preciously and make it a habit to make quick, but wise decisions. Assess things and see if it’ll do you any good. Also, think about the consequences of your decisions and how they can affect people and their lives.

Stress and Exhaustion

Never overwork yourself because this can lead to laziness. Being too tired just won’t get you anywhere because you won’t have any energy to deal with certain tasks.

Being stressed drains the life out of us and we can’t any more work on our tasks. We can’t even spend quality time with our family, which is very important for us to be happy.

Even mental activities need lots of energy and a logical mind. Feeling stressed dulls our body and stops us from functioning properly. Plan on how you’ll spend your time.

Also, divide your responsibilities and assign key people to work on certain tasks. It might mean spending more money, but the financial expenses are worth it knowing that you’re not stressed.

Avoid over-exhausting yourself by doing unimportant things like partying, playing video games, and roaming around. Make the most out of your time and reserve your energy for important things that you can gain money and lessons from.

Knowing what are the chief causes of laziness is important for us to avoid this unpleasant habit. We need to be productive so that we can be successful in life.Click to Tweet

Lack of Self-Confidence

Believe in yourself and know that you can do anything as long as you have the skills, mentors, and experiences. Have the drive to finish things at home or work so you can have time to relax and spend time with your family.

Give value to yourself and know that you are special. Also, believe that you can become successful as long as you work for it. What people usually do is doubt themselves and think they are worthless compared to others.

This leads to laziness because you opt to instead just stand your ground and do nothing. Life is all about risking yourself and trying things out to see if it’s worth the try. Anything is possible as long as you have the drive to accomplish it.

Poor Diet

Proper diet and nutrition are important if you want to become productive. Having a poor diet makes you easily stressed. And what happens when you’re tired? You become lazy. You just don’t have enough energy to complete tasks.

When you have poor nutrition, your body won’t have the resources to support your movement and proper decision-making. This can also lead to other medical conditions. What you eat dramatically affects your brain activity and body energy levels. What you eat determines how you function.

Eat a well-balanced diet composed of fruits, vegetables, healthy meat, and protein. Don’t deprive your body of the fuel it needs to function properly.

Laziness sets in when you’re feeling weak and tired. Even minor tasks like filing papers will exhaust you so much that you need to rest for hours just to recover.

Lack of Inspiration

Motivation is important because this drives you to finish things. It fuels you to finish your tasks in a specific timeframe.

You’ll be motivated to get things done right if you love what you’re doing. But if not, then there’s a good chance that you’ll always find reasons you can’t get things done.

Employees who are stuck in dead-end jobs always find different reasons to explain their poor performance.

Avoid this at all costs and do something that you love. Stick to a job that you love doing. This can be your passion, hobby, or interest. Never force yourself to work for a company that you don’t like and you feel stuck with. The more stuck you feel, the lazier you become.

Irresponsible

You need to be responsible for yourself to avoid laziness. Lazy people shouldn’t live totally careless lifestyles. If you make poor lifestyle choices then you’ll never get anything done.

An example of this is people who always hire others to do things for them even if they can do it themselves.

This might sound reasonable because this lets them do more important things. But this isn’t recommended if you always hire others to do stuff for you. This becomes a habit and you become over-dependent on people.

Children spoiled by their parents mostly live irresponsible lives. Do it yourself if you can’t wait for others to do it for you. It might help if you assign some tasks to others at some point. But just don’t make it a habit because you’ll end up not knowing what to do.

Lack of Interest

Not being interested in what you’re doing makes you lazy. This is a given because you don’t have the driving force to work on it.

There is no motivation if there is no self-interest. So make sure that you love what you’re doing before you dive into it. Interest plays a huge role in productivity. And ensuring you have it increases the chances of success.

Also, note that we reflect on our dislike for something through laziness. This means that we can delay work submissions and give poor-quality outputs just because we don’t like what we’re doing.

Work on something you are passionate about. This can be about art, computers, bikes, or other things you’re interested in. Leave your work if you aren’t interested in it. It might be hard at first, but it’s worth it because you can be more productive in other work that you love.

Not Knowing What to Do

Imagine putting yourself in a situation that doesn’t have any directions. You don’t know what to do or how to work on something.

What happens next is that you get confused and then choose to just not work on it. You then become lazy because you are hesitant! Make sure that you know what you’re doing so you’ll have the drive to work on it.

Ask your peers and mentors what to do and how to do certain tasks. You also need to do it right so that you won’t feel discouraged if you’ve worked hard for it, only to learn at the end that it’s not right and you have to repeat it all over again.

‘Who Cares?’ Attitude

Sometimes we just feel too laid back, that we think it’s just alright to not care. This might help us sometimes because this can help us avoid stress. But we all have our responsibilities. And we need to take these responsibilities seriously.

You might think that your opinion doesn’t matter or your action won’t affect or change anything. That might be true. But that isn’t always the case. Every action has a consequence, be it good or bad.

And you need to know that your actions and decisions can affect someone else’s life. Don’t think that you don’t matter. Because having that attitude only makes you stagnant. It makes you stuck in your comfort zone and you can’t achieve anything.

Lacking Emotional Support

Many people may think that adults don’t need to get any emotional support. After all, we’re already mature thinkers and we’re past the stage of being too sensitive about stuff.

Well, that might be the case for some. But the fact is that we adults still need to get loads of emotional support as motivation.

It might sound funny but we need to be cheered so that we’ll have the driving force to complete tasks. It makes us feel special and that someone thinks of our welfare. It might sound cheesy, but these things help us go beyond our laziness.

Lack of Self-Discipline

Self-discipline is key to success. This lets us achieve our goals at the expense of our comfort. You just need to go beyond your comfort zone and risk things for the sake of greater glory.

This means that we must explore the world and do our best to avoid the distractions of relaxation and nonsense entertainment.

Some of the best ways to practice self-discipline are by setting daily, weekly, and monthly goals. You can then reward yourself once you’ve reached all these goals. This motivates you to stick to your schedule and compromise over-relaxation so you can get the rewards afterward.

Fear of Failure

What usually happens is that people are too scared to try things that’s why they just end up doing nothing.

This promotes timid behavior and makes you lazy. Some people might reject your proposals, while others might find your outputs wrong. Don’t worry because there’s always the next time. Just make sure you do it right the next time you work on it.

Also, remember these facts of life:

• We all make mistakes
• Change is the only constant thing in the world
• We always have a chance to improve

Believe in yourself and assess your current situation. Change what needs to be changed and compromise things for the sake of improvement.

Hopelessness

Hope makes us up and running. We all would succumb to failure if we don’t have hope within us. It might again sound cheesy, but that’s the truth of life.

Hopelessness is a wrong illusion that makes you think there’s no way around your problem. There might be times when your task is too complex that you aren’t sure you can do it or if you can work on it right. But you can overcome this doubt if you only have hope.

There are already many people who thought that they were just lazy. But turned out to be depressed. Knowing their mental situation helped them overcome their emotional struggles. This then made them believe in themselves and step out of their nests to accomplish their tasks.

Dehydration

This is one of the most overlooked factors of laziness. Water is vital to our bodies because this ensures that all our organs are working and in pleasant condition. You easily feel tired if you are dehydrated. But just drinking lots of water can easily fix this.

We suggest drinking eight to 10 glasses of water daily. It would even be better if you go beyond this. This sounds very simple and obvious. But this has huge effects on your overall well-being. Drink lots of water daily and you’ll notice how much energy you have.

Lack of Sleep

Another common cause of laziness is the lack of sleep. You easily feel tired if you don’t have enough sleep.

This then causes you to be lazy and just skip on your daily tasks. Don’t stay too late at night. Stick to your sleeping pattern as much as possible. And don’t change it from time to time!

Your body has its body clock that tells when you’ll be active and sleepy. Regularly changing your sleeping pattern would just mess this body clock up. Get at least 7 hours of sleep daily so you’ll feel refreshed and energized in the morning.

We also recommend you sleep before 11 PM or 10 PM and wake up at 6 AM or 5 AM. This gives you lots of time to exercise in the morning and stay ahead of your daily schedule.

Final Thoughts

Knowing what are the chief causes of laziness is important for us to avoid this unpleasant habit. We need to be productive so that we can be successful in life.

Just remember to get enough sleep, plan out your schedules, practice self-discipline, and do what you love most. Also, sprinkle in some self-confidence and a healthy diet and you’re ready.