9 Habits That Enable Lazy Behavior

1) Making Excuses in Your Head

We all know this one, right? And we all probably do it, without even realizing it. When your alarm goes off, your mind tells you why you don’t really need to get up right away: you have a few minutes, you’re too tired, whatever. These are all excuses that keep you from doing what you need to do. When you notice yourself making excuses in your head for not doing something, you will be able to ignore them and take action instead.

2) Checking Your Email Too Much

Checking your email too often is a sign that you are avoiding doing something you should be doing. So, it’s another habit that enables lazy behavior. Each time you check your email you're paying attention to your “lazy voice” and aren’t doing something more important. Schedule a specific time to check your email, twice a day, or once an hour, depending on what suits your work style.

3) Not Setting Clear Goals for Your Life

It’s not always easy or comfortable to examine your life and set goals. Your mind wants to skip this practice, it requires some long-term thinking, defining some goals, making plans, and so on. All steps that lead toward taking action. But setting these goals are the first steps to becoming the person you want to be. So, take some time to do it.

4) Giving Up Too Soon

Patience is hard. It means trying again, which requires willpower and facing your fears. Investing more time and energy, and ignoring the failure, without knowing if you will succeed this time. But just think how much stronger you’ll be if you try this. In the long run, it will be worth it.

5) Not Reading Regularly – or Ever

We’re not talking about studying, reading philosophy (unless that’s your thing) or other material that takes some effort to get through. But each generation is reading less and less, and that’s a sad fact. You don’t have to crack a book if you don’t want to, there are plenty of blogs and other information online that can entertain and inform. Try one.

6) Cruising through Social Media Platforms

Scrolling through social media is one of the most common lazy habits these days. You can check for notifications every minute, in fact, they even prompt you to, with that annoying "ping." You can check other people’s updates, comment on meaningless conversations, and get involved in a commenting battle. All this takes time away from achieving your goals.

7) Not Keeping Your Promises

Making a promise, saying you are going to do something, is easy. Actually doing it is difficult. The mind puts up so many barriers that it skips the excuses stage and goes right to just not doing it. This goes for the promises you make to yourself, as well, like getting up when your alarm goes off. This is a lazy habit that affects relationships, work, and even your opinion of yourself.

8) Not Taking Steps towards Your Goals

Success doesn’t come in a day, but it comes in no days if you don’t take steps towards your goals. That means finding the will to take some action every day and do whatever it is that brings you closer to your goal. Then you can do that other thing you wanted to do.

9) Putting Off What You Need to Do Today until Tomorrow

The very definition of procrastination, this habit will have tasks piling up at the end of the day, week, month, and year. You’ll soon find that you never complete your to-do list. You end up letting people down and being disappointed in yourself. Make an actual, written down to-do list for each day the night before. Then take some time to prepare the things you need for that day. Create a morning routine to start your day right, and check your list to prioritize each task. Then do the first three.