Cant get myself to do anything

Avolition: Causes, Symptoms, and Treatment

Written by Stephanie Watson

It's normal to drag your feet when you have an annoying chore to do. But if you have "avolition," your habit of putting off a task is on a whole different level.

Avolition is a total lack of motivation that makes it hard to get anything done. You can't start or finish even simple, everyday tasks. Getting off the couch to wash the dishes or drive to the supermarket can feel like climbing Mount Everest.

Avolition is often a symptom of schizophrenia, a mental disorder that affects how you think, feel, and act. It can also be a sign of severe depression or a side effect of certain medicines.

If you don't get treatment, avolition can affect every part of your life, from your relationships to your job. It's hard to take care of yourself or your home when you don't have the drive to do anything.

Medicine and therapy can help treat avolition when it's caused by schizophrenia. You may need to try a few different types before you find one that helps.

What Causes Avolition?

Besides being a symptom of schizophrenia, avolition is also a side effect of some medicines. Some of the antipsychotic drugs that you take to treat schizophrenia can also cause it.

Some scientists believe that the link between avolition and schizophrenia has to do with a brain chemical called dopamine. Dopamine is involved with your brain's reward system.

One theory is that a drop in dopamine causes avolition. When you have less dopamine, you have less motivation. You may not want to do anything if you don't think you'll get rewarded for it.

Avolition is also a symptom of severe depression and other conditions, such as:

Bipolar disorder
Persistent depressive disorder (dysthymia)
Premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PDD)
Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
Traumatic brain injury
Alzheimer's disease

People who don't get enough mental stimulation can also have avolition. For example, you could get it if you sit alone in bed all day, perhaps because of an illness. It could also happen to prisoners in solitary confinement.

Signs of Avolition

If you have avolition, you might find that you don't wash or groom yourself like you should. You might not show up for meetings or events that you had planned to attend.

You also might not respond when friends call, text, or email. You won't put in any effort at work or school. You might not pay bills or take care of other everyday tasks.

It's possible you may not notice these symptoms are happening. A friend or family member might have to point them out to you.

Diagnosis

A mental health professional such as a psychologist or psychiatrist can diagnose avolition. You'll see one of these doctors if you have symptoms of schizophrenia, severe depression, or other disorders that cause avolition.

If your doctor thinks schizophrenia is behind your avolition, they will try to rule out medical conditions, drugs, or injuries that cause the same symptoms as schizophrenia.

To get a schizophrenia diagnosis, you need to have two or more of these symptoms:

Hallucinations
Delusions
Disorganized speech, like jumping from one topic to another or using combinations of words that don't make sense
Disorganized behavior, such as acting in an unusual way or not moving (catatonic)
What doctors call "negative" symptoms, such as a flat tone to your voice, less enjoyment in life, or avolition

Your doctor may use a questionnaire to figure out your symptoms and see if you have avolition or similar problems, such as:

Alogia (lack of talking)
Asociality (not motivated to be social)
Anhedonia (inability to feel pleasure, which can lead to a lack of motivation)

Treatment

Antipsychotic drugs are the main treatment for schizophrenia, whether or not you have avolition with it. These drugs affect dopamine levels in the brain. They work very well for symptoms like hallucinations and delusions, but they don't help as much for avolition. Sometimes antipsychotic drugs can make avolition worse.

Newer, second-generation antipsychotic drugs may work better for avolition or similar symptoms than older ones:

Aripiprazole (Abilify)
Brexpiprazole (Rexulti)”
Clozapine (Clozaril)
Iloperidone (Fanapt)
Olanzapine (Zyprexa)
Quetiapine (Seroquel)
Risperidone (Risperdal)
Ziprasidone (Geodon)

Antidepressant drugs may also help some people. Sometimes medications to treat memory or thinking can also help.

Besides medicine, you might try cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), art therapy, or social skills training.

It can take a few tries to find a treatment or combination of treatments that helps you. If you still have avolition after treatment, see your doctor again to try something new.

No Motivation? When It’s time to Be Concerned

By: Jennifer Boyer

by Andrea M. Darcy

We all lose steam now and then.

But when does having no motivation go from a mental time-out, to a serious issue that needs your attention?

What is low motivation?

Motivation is when you feel driven to do things. In a very basic way, we are motivated to get out of bed. But we are also motivated to go to work, to see our friends, and to have goals.

Low motivation means we feel uninterested in doing things. We start to cancel social events, perhaps call in sick to work when we aren’t, don’t make that gym class.

No motivation happens when we just don’t want to do anything. We avoid our friends, stop going to the gym at all, go to work only if we have to, and possibly start to self-sabotage. We mess up the work presentation, end relationships, miss important meetings.

When having no motivation is normal

Lounging around the house in a tracksuit is actually normal behaviour post a big life change like a redundancy, breakup, or bereavement. It’s as if our mind needs a timeout to recuperate.

It’s also normal during teenage years. The teenage brain and body are in flux during adolescence, and it and it can mean teenagers can feel spaced out, moody, and uninterested in such things as thinking about their future or cleaning their rooms.

Low motivation often happens when we agree to do something we don’t like, or don’t say no when we want to.

If you took on a project at work you hate, or you agreed to plan a friend’s wedding but really didn’t want to, low motivation is your mind’s way of protesting. Your energy often returns when you get honest and ask for help, or quit the project.

By: Kevin Hutchinson

And finally, having no motivation can also be a symptom of a physical health condition. This includes chronic fatigue syndrome, hyperthyroidism, epilepsy, and brain tumours.

When low motivation is a GOOD thing

Low motivation can be a wakeup call. If you listen to what it’s trying to tell you, it can mean you make decisions that leave you in a better place.

For example, if you suddenly find you have lost all motivation at work, it could be a sign that you need to take a good look at whether you are living from your own values, what your career goals really are, and how you can reach them.

Going for a few sessions with a coach or counsellor might mean your life turns around in a way you could never have imagined before.

When the blahs are a mental health concern

So when does low motivation go from a normal stage you are going through, to a mental health issue? When it has gone on for too long, and when it is jeopardising your day-to-day living.

Look for things like the following:

it’s gone on for six weeks or more
it is worsening or unchanged
you are losing interest in talking to friends and family
your low motivation is accompanied by increasingly negative thinking
you are having suicidal thoughts
you aren’t sure anymore why you lack motivation (or there was no trigger).

Mental health issues and disorders connected to low motivation

If you are trying every tip you can find on the internet about getting motivated but it’s just not working, it could be you have an underlying mental health issue or mental disorder that needs attention.

By: Amy

Depression is the most common mental health issue that has low motivation as a symptom. The onset of low motivation is for many long-term depression sufferers a sign they are falling into another cycle.

[Read our comprehensive Guide to Depression for more on its symptoms.]

Other mental health issues that involve low motivation include:

bipolar disorder
acute stress reaction
schizophrenia.

What do I do if it’s a loved one with low motivation?

If your loved one is diagnosed with any of the mental health issues above, trying to push them to do things might be counterproductive.

Work to accept them as they are, and do not call them lazy. They are not. They are currently unwell, and need your patience.

Some encouragement is of course fine, but if they say no, do not make them feel guilty or flawed. They are likely doing the best they can, and what seems to you like just a bit of cajoling might feel to him or her, in their sensitive state, like a lot of pressure. Focus on small steps, keep your eye on the future, and try to remain as positive as possible.

If your loved one does not have the support they need, approach any suggestion they seek it with care (read our article on “Telling a Loved One They Need Counselling” for good advice here).

And if it’s me who has no motivation?

If your low motivation has an obvious trigger like a life change or career issue, self help can be a good start. If your low motivation feels unmanageable, or has been going on for longer than you are comfortable with, consider talking to a coach or counsellor.

If your low motivation has been going on for months or even years, if you struggle in all areas of life because of it, if you don’t understand what causes it but can’t seem to push past it, or if you suspect you have one of the mental health disorders above, it is essential to seek support.

Talk to your GP or book a counsellor or psychotherapist privately.

Harley Therapy is here to help if you have no motivation lately. We connect you to registered, experienced counsellors and psychotherapists both in central London, across the UK, and now globally via Skype.

Have a question about having no motivation? Or want to share your thoughts on motivation with other readers? Use our public comment box below.

Andrea M. Darcy is the chief editor and lead writer of this site. She left a film career to train as a person-centred therapist and then ended up becoming a successful mental health writer who has penned thousands of popular articles.

It's hard to force yourself what to do. I can't force myself to do anything

Question to a psychologist:

I have always been subject to apathy and melancholy, but it has never taken over me so much that I could not get out of this state. I was left without work and for a long time I can not find anything, I have been sitting at home for a year. At first, a guy helped me financially, but we broke up with him, there was already only a habit and dissatisfaction with each other, I realized that my feelings for him were a huge dependence and moral, and then financial too, and far from love. The problem is that I can’t force myself to move, I lie on the bed for a year and practically don’t go out anywhere, I don’t have friends, my parents give me money, I live separately. I am very ashamed that I take money from them, but I can’t bring myself to go for an interview. The first months, of course, I went, but everything was unsuccessful, gradually I was seized by uncertainty and apathy, now I rarely even go to job sites. But at the same time, I really want to work, I don’t want to take money from my mother, I constantly feel remorse in front of my family - that I’m sitting on their neck, I’m ashamed even in front of a dog - that I always sit at home and walk it a little, I’m ashamed in front of everyone, but nothing to change I can’t, as if there’s some kind of blocking, I really want to, but I can’t. The city where I live also influences, it is very small, I suffered a lot here, I was bullied at school, and I feel insecure here, not so in other cities. But to move, I need to earn money, earn money here, and I can't even go outside! Vicious circle. Thoughts come that it’s better to do something with yourself than to sit in such a cell of your own psyche, but I don’t dare yet. I feel very bad. I don’t even go grocery shopping, I keep asking my relatives, for example, to go buy something on the way, or once a month I buy something and then I sit at home. From the fact that I don’t work and feel worthless, I cut off all contacts, even from social networks. networks has been removed. Just created an even bigger vacuum for myself. Accordingly, I don’t have money for a psychologist either, and we don’t have free good specialists in our hospital. Basically, you are my last hope. I know that my condition may be related to my infantilism, irresponsibility, I also tend to procrastinate - this is what I have been doing for a year now. I can come up with reasons to postpone going to an interview and put it off for so many days that the vacancy simply closes. I was raised in greenhouse conditions, I was never forced to do anything, I was often overprotected, and now I feel not adapted to this life. I often cry from impotence, as if there are two personalities in me, one wants to work and go outside, and the second forbids her to do this, and I just get together, sit down and don’t go anywhere, but I roar for an hour. Very difficult condition. I can’t decide on suicide, because my mother is sick and I feel sorry for her, she may not survive this. But I see this as the only way out, I am too weak to fight all this and spin in life, such weak individuals should probably be eliminated by themselves.

Psychologist Julia Evgenievna Tolstova answers the question.

Hello, Marina!

I'll start with the fact that you understand everything about yourself and evaluate yourself critically. You understand what is bad in your condition (“The problem is that I can’t force myself to move, I’ve been lying on the bed for a year and practically don’t go out anywhere, I don’t have friends .....”), where did it come from (“I was raised in greenhouse conditions, I was never forced to do anything, often overprotected, and now I feel not adapted to this life ...”), but at the same time you dissolve in your “apathy and melancholy”.

You don’t want to take money from your parents, you want to work, but you can’t do anything, “as if there’s some kind of blocking.” Also, your city is very small, where you suffered a lot... And you have procrastination, "that's what you've been doing for a year."

Judging by your story, from childhood you were taken care of and not allowed to show initiative, your peers mocked you (why? How did it manifest itself?) This, of course, left a certain imprint on your psyche, to be more precise, on the nervous system.

The main cause of your condition is an intra-personal conflict, which, of course, echoes a deeper conflict "originating from childhood." Your condition is a kind of protection from those external adverse factors that were in childhood (overprotection, humiliation and bullying). You subconsciously, choosing the lifestyle of a recluse, are saved from that feeling of frustration that you experienced in childhood.

But at the same time, neither you nor I, none of the people will be able to change their CHILDHOOD, which gives us ourselves-adults with their fears, insecurities, or vice versa with love and self-respect.

Marina! You are an adult! You are not a child who can lie and cry quietly from resentment and fear. Unlike children, adults have a sense of responsibility. You need to stop feeling sorry for yourself, which is why you cry. You need to start loving and respecting yourself.

When you begin to love yourself, you will not allow yourself such an attitude as “lying on the couch for a year”, being weak. And what is your weakness? After all, if you think about it, you can do anything. It is beneficial for you to do nothing, because in that world outside the walls of the apartment it is scary: they can offend, there is no one to protect. And with a young man, the state of codependency was precisely for this reason. YOU MUST BE NEEDED FOR YOURSELF!! You shouldn't care what other people think of you,

And as soon as you understand this, you will find a job even in your small town, you will start earning money and leave if you want. You must overcome your fear, otherwise it will overcome you, and you will be a recluse for the rest of your life. Want to? If not, then fight. Get off the couch and get started.

Say affirmations that will give you self-confidence (“I will achieve everything that I wish for myself”, “Everything I promise, I will do”, “Everything I want comes true”, “I am happy, successful, beautiful ")

You are not a "weak individual" (and how can one talk about oneself like that?). You are a wonderful person, and smart as well. You are a worthy person simply because you are.

Set goals for yourself. First, let them be small. For example, go shopping or visit your parents. Then increase the difficulty threshold (go to an interview), and come up with a bonus for doing it. But don't beat yourself up if you can't complete a task. On the contrary, reward yourself “I will definitely do it” ... and do it preferably in the near future. Make a list of tasks, prioritizing the importance of the goal.

Develop yourself. Think about what you are interested in, what fascinates you. Connect with people you are comfortable with. Believe in your strength! And, most importantly, you want and live the life in which there are so many interesting things. You deserve it!

All the best to you! Good luck and success!

4.7936507936508 Rating 4.79 (63 votes)

Such a lazy mood can visit you not only at work, but also at home - because of it, you continue to sit in a dirty apartment, staring at the monitor, and instead of a healthy dinner, cook dumplings for yourself.

So, in order not to clean up the rubble at work and at home, I offer you six ways to force yourself to do something right now, and not in the distant tomorrow.

1. Cleaning - first of all

Maybe your desk is in perfect order, but during the day all sorts of rubbish appears on it: papers, documents, notepads and pens, cups of coffee. The first thing to do when you feel stuck at work is to get out.

Stuff that's lying around distracts you, even if you don't realize it, and the act of cleaning helps clear your mind. It's the same at home. If you can't bring yourself to do something, start with cleaning: wash the dishes, make the bed, take out the trash - usually one action is enough to start the process, and you will no longer sit on the sofa until you have done everything that needs to be done.

2. Start with small things

Usually the advice is to start with the most difficult and complex projects so that they do not hang like a stone on your soul, but we have an emergency here and a sharp decline in productivity, so difficult things will only make you procrastinate even stronger.

List a few small tasks and tick them off on your to-do list. For example: “clean up your desk” and “outline a plan for the day.” When you see that something is done, the mood improves, and you can take on more difficult cases. Easy tasks will serve as a warm-up for you, just don’t get carried away: two or three tasks are enough, otherwise you will be doing nonsense all day.

3. Choose one task

Select one task that needs to be solved right now, write it on a piece of paper and stick it on your notebook. Make it so that she was in sight, and start performing. When you're done, write the next one and don't get distracted by anything else in the process.

4. Change your job

Your workplace is saturated with melancholy and your colleagues are chatting next to you, let's say it's Friday. Try to change places, for example, take a laptop and retire to another room or go for a walk outside (given the weather, you can also go to the corridor), while thinking about what and how you will do in the remaining time.

At home, it also helps: just go out for a walk, for example, buy something for yourself at a nearby store, and return home with a ready plan of action.

5. Set a timer for yourself

You have decided what you will do, and now set a timer for 15 minutes and during this time you will completely immerse yourself in the business. Only a quarter of an hour, then you can be distracted again (you must promise yourself this when you set the timer).

You'd be surprised how much you can get done in 15 minutes of concentration, even if your business actually takes three hours or three working days. When you see this, inspiration will wake up and the work will go.

6. The glass is always half full

No matter how little you do today or the previous day, try to keep it. Look at what you've accomplished and promise yourself that you'll do more tomorrow, or better yet, make a plan that will include everything that needs to be overcome tomorrow.

That's all, I hope these tips will help you overcome sudden laziness at work or at home.

Quite common in today's life is a situation where a person cannot force himself to do absolutely necessary things - do the necessary things, get out of bed, go to work, and the like.

This condition is most often not just psychological debauchery, it is one of the main signs of dangerous diseases - depression and anxiety-depressive disorders.

If this problem recurs systematically, seek immediate medical attention.

And if such a difficulty occurs rarely and does not give the impression of a painful manifestation, then it should be understood that starting one's affairs to a critical point and taking on them only at the last moment, one cannot count on an excellent result. The most obvious and unpleasant consequences of this state of affairs are, of course, problems at work and in school, which immediately affects the well-being of a person.

People experiencing such difficulties tend to attribute various vices to themselves: laziness, lack of concentration, dissoluteness, thus only aggravating their condition.

So what actually underlies this phenomenon? Usually this is anxiety for the result, low self-esteem, various fears, phobias, neuroses, i.e. a variety of psycho-emotional disorders, the result of which can be a serious depression.

Very often, such problems manifest themselves as follows:

"I can't force myself to do anything", "I can't force myself to work", "I just can't concentrate".

People come up with all sorts of things for themselves, trying to put off the necessary work for a longer time, and sometimes they are even unable to force themselves to even get out of bed. Such manifestations indicate serious emotional distress, the roots of which may lie in a personal conflict. Troubles of this kind can be successfully resolved with the participation of a psychotherapist.

“I can't bring myself to leave the house”, “I can't bring myself to use transport”

Sometimes, everyday activities such as commuting to work or other daily activities can be a significant difficulty. When even leaving the house is a difficult task, it is extremely poisonous to existence. Such a problem breaks career and personal plans and, as a result, isolates a person more and more from the outside world in his own mental distress and aggravates his difficult emotional state.

Even mild manifestations of such trouble can significantly poison life and cause a lot of unpleasant experiences, to say nothing of severe cases, when the inability to perform necessary tasks or go outside one's own home seriously limits a person's life opportunities.

Situations are especially serious when a person cannot bring himself to leave the house; and when he is afraid of traveling in transport (or certain types of transport - subway, plane). In transport, it can become physically ill - a person begins to suffocate, his heart may begin to hurt, attacks of fear or panic come on.

Such occurrences are a sure sign of an anxiety or panic disorder, a very serious illness that is nevertheless quite treatable.

Life is so bright and multifaceted, there are so many interesting and unusual things around, but, alas, it is often necessary to do what one does not want at all. For example, doing some work instead of watching an interesting movie, or studying boring notes instead of going to a club with friends, or something else. How do you force yourself to do something you don't want to? There are good ways to solve this problem without turning your life into torture, but enjoying every moment of it.

How do you force yourself to do something? Very often, such a problem arises when it is necessary to perform global tasks that require time and effort. When you realize the amount of work ahead, you don’t feel like, or rather scared, even to start, and therefore everything is postponed for “tomorrow”, “next week”, “later”, “when there is time” and so on. At the same time, thoughts about unfinished work or an unresolved problem do not leave the head, leaving a feeling of guilt or dissatisfaction, thereby violating

To avoid all this, global tasks should be divided into several or even many small tasks and set a goal to perform one of them every certain period of time. After all, it is much easier to force yourself to do small things! For example, not putting off exam preparation until the last days and then forcing yourself to storm three volumes of a difficult subject, but breaking the entire volume into topics and studying one each week. Thus, in small steps you can reach a big goal.

Many women often face the problem of how to force themselves to do something around the house, if after a hard day you really want to relax or just be with your family. In many cases, you can combine a pleasant activity with a useful one. For example, cooking will be faster and less noticeable if at this time you are talking with your child or chatting with a friend on the phone. You can iron the accumulated pile of washed laundry by standing in front of the TV and watching an interesting movie or program.

At first it will be a little strange, and the desire to drop everything and sit down on the sofa will prevail. But to “deceive” your brain, to captivate it with something interesting at all. The main thing is not to think about the physical work being done, but simply to do it, distracting your consciousness to conversations and plots. Such a combination will allow you to do much more tedious homework in one evening and still enjoy a pleasant pastime.

Another good way to force yourself to do what you need to do is to imagine the end result of your efforts. Moreover, this fantasy should be realistic, bright, colorful and inspiring.

For example, how do you force yourself to exercise? The answer is simple: regularly imagine your toned, slender body, excellent mood and good spirits, good health and fullness of strength. All this can give morning exercises. Just half an hour a day (or at least fifteen minutes) - and this beautiful picture can become a reality.

Or another example: a highly qualified specialist, whose opinion is respected and who is consulted for advice and help (not for free, of course). To do this, you need little - open a summary, learn the subject and pass the exam with honors. This will be the first step towards conquering professional heights. Such reflections and dreams will help to look at the task with optimism, inspire and give strength.

How do you force yourself to do something if it's not a one-time task, but a long ongoing process? For example, a boring and unloved job, the need to sit in boring lectures, or something like that. Of course, it's best not to rape yourself every day, but to change your place of work or profession, go to study for a specialty that is interesting, and so on. But, alas, sometimes this is impossible or problematic due to certain circumstances.

In this case, you shouldn't be discouraged either! It is necessary to “colorize” as much as possible what is annoying or annoying, add positive emotions and find at least something in this process that gives pleasure. For example, change your image, put on beautiful makeup, do a good haircut and go to an unloved job "in all its glory." Let colleagues pay attention, you can even flirt a little, and then the place of work will no longer be so boring. In addition, the workspace can be decorated, if possible, with family photos, nice knick-knacks, or something that gives positive.

Students and pupils should choose beautiful, unusual or interesting stationery. Writing homework or notes in a beautiful notebook with a fashionable pen is much more pleasant! Good helpers will help brighten up homework: a variety of bright and beautiful detergents with pleasant aromas, and so on.

If even the most boring activity, which you don't want to do, is given some color, everything will sparkle in a new light!

Very good and common advice on how to force yourself to do something is to promise yourself a reward for the work done. Moreover, you can reward yourself both for completing the entire task, and at each stage (when divided into small tasks). For example: after which you had to tune in for more than one day, you can treat yourself to going to the movies. Or for a successfully passed exam - go on a weekend excursion. For morning exercises, you can reward yourself with a glass of delicious juice or fresh juice. And so on. For clarity, you can place your reward in front of your eyes or in your field of vision. For example, place a movie poster on your desktop or put a glass of juice in front of you.

The main thing in this matter is not to indulge yourself and not take the reward by "strength", that is, do not pamper yourself without doing the necessary.

An excellent solution for those who cannot force themselves to do something can be a role model. This should be a vivid example of the successful completion of a task that cannot be started in any way. For example: in order to finally take care of your figure, lose a couple of extra pounds, start eating right and go in for sports, it’s enough to hang on your refrigerator or in the bathroom a photo of a girl with the parameters that you dream about, and every day compare your results with those that have a sample. Or to successfully complete their work, find examples of those who have achieved high results, solving similar problems. And so on. A good example will also fill you with optimism and reveal the promise that the task holds.

As you know, it is much easier, more pleasant and faster to perform any tasks with like-minded people. If you can’t persuade yourself on your own, then you need to find those who can keep company and share the hardships of a difficult task. For example: how to force yourself to do Persuade your husband, brother, mother or someone else from the household to join. Together, this activity will be more fun, give pleasant moments of communication and become a small family ritual, the mere thought of which will be pleasant.

Competitiveness and the desire to be the best is literally “in the blood”, so a great way to persuade yourself to do something is to turn the fulfillment of the necessary task into a real competition. For example: how to force yourself to do exercises? Arrange with someone from the household, or a girlfriend, or a neighbor and do it "race". That is, every day to report to each other, who did push-ups, how many laps they ran, or how many squats they did. Thus, the inner spirit of the competition will wake up, the desire to be the best, and everyone who participates in such an event will only benefit.

How can I force myself to do something if my head is constantly spinning “I don’t want to, I won’t, or maybe I shouldn’t”? The human brain is a very interesting thing! He is able to both switch off and abstract, and find unknown reserves to achieve mind-blowing goals. It all depends on the mood and self-hypnosis. If you repeat to yourself: “This is not difficult, not scary, there is something interesting in this too,” then after a while the brain will convince both itself and its “owner” that the task or work that you didn’t want to do before , and the truth is fascinating, or at least not so boring or difficult.

To summarize: the hardest part is the start. Therefore, the main advice to those who doubt and evade: start - and then everything will go much easier!

You need to do an important project, prepare for a presentation, think over the company's development strategy - in general, work. But wait… what about Facebook friends? Or maybe watch a series (only one episode!)? I wonder why beavers hit the water with their tail? I need to read about it online! Familiar? 🙂 Why do we often put off things for later, how to deal with laziness and create suitable conditions around ourselves for productive work? Let's try to figure it out.

Everyone expects something from you. Deadlines are fast approaching. In anticipation of the inevitable, you break out in a cold sweat, but you can’t figure out how to force yourself to do something ... You can imagine how much less stress, frustration and guilt you would experience if you could just take and do what you don’t want, but must? Not to mention, how much happier and more efficient would you be?

The good news is that it is possible to cope with such a situation if you develop the right strategy and put in a little effort. But first things first.

Let's be clear: there is no laziness. "But why? - perhaps, the reader will ask, - After all, everyone felt it in their life! As a rule, this word refers to the unwillingness to act, to work. "I'm lazy," the man says, and that's it. But what does he really feel?

“I don't want to do it because I don't like it”

Not everyone likes work. And what, is it really necessary to leave a stable position because of this? Perhaps sometimes it is worth resorting to this option, but you should not rush. Think: what is good about your work? What element of creativity, your own style, can you bring into it to make it more comfortable to work?

In most cases, even the most boring, routine work can be turned into a game and made, if not interesting, then at least not annoying. Don't like washing dishes? Turn on your favorite music, sing along to the performers, and you won't even notice how you wash the last plate. Can't stand answering calls from disgruntled customers? Try to imagine their faces and draw them on a piece of paper while talking. In other words, improvise!

Even at your favorite job there are difficulties or boring things, but it is worth remembering that you will never succeed in working on inspiration alone. Many great writers, artists and other creative people created their works not only and not so much with the help of inspiration, but through daily practice. Remind yourself of what the result of your work will be, what positive it will bring.

“I'm afraid that I won't achieve a good result”

As soon as a new task appears on the horizon, you immediately have a lot of questions. What if I can't? Maybe I'll be reprimanded or even fired if I can't do it? And if I don't take this job, I won't fail. Correctly?

Such doubts are already a failure: by such thoughts you admit that you cannot use your innate talents, abilities and experience. When you put things off until later, you don't believe in yourself.

If you're procrastinating because you're afraid of ruining everything, try looking at your work from a different angle. The phrase “What if it doesn’t work out?” undermines the motivation to any movement forward. Try to focus on the value of the work done: even if the result is worse than expected, you will gain new experience and become a more sought-after employee.

"I can't bring myself to do anything because I don't know where to start"

We often get stuck when faced with a difficult task. The best thing we can do is move forward. When a task is particularly difficult, there is no point in wasting precious time allowing yourself to be overwhelmed by the complexity.

At least start with something. Need to draw an illustration for a promising project? Unleash your imagination - sketch a couple of sketches, even if they are indirectly related to the main task. Need to prepare a report? Draft the draft in your own words, ignoring the official style. When you see that there is already some result, it will not be so difficult to continue and the question “How to overcome laziness and finally start working?” will not occur again.

"I'm afraid to start work because I don't feel competent"

This wording is most often associated with low self-esteem. Of course, if you didn’t study to be a steelmaker, you shouldn’t melt iron 🙂 Nevertheless, people who have worked in it for many years often feel incompetent in some area. In this case, we can advise the following: try to be objective and write down your business qualities and professional knowledge on a piece of paper. Among them, there is sure to be an excellent help for your work.

As you can see, there are many reasons to put things off until later, and by dwelling on the word “laziness”, we deprive ourselves of understanding what internal mechanisms control us. If you try thoughtlessly to fight laziness according to banal instructions, this will only lead to a waste of both physical strength and emotions. "Just get it and do it" won't work. If you are doing even simple work slowly and everything inside you resists any activity, ask yourself the question: “Why is this happening?”

How to make the brain really work and not think about extraneous things? There are quite a few ways, so everyone will find something suitable. It is worth using several techniques in combination - so you will get both positive emotions and an extremely good result.

Surely you have noticed how difficult it is to concentrate on work without a well-thought-out plan. There are several approaches to business planning. The most important are only two:

Determine the amount of work for a certain period of time. For example: "I have a two-hour report to make, and until I finish it, I won't do anything else."
Follow a set schedule and pay little attention to the amount of work done. That is: "I will work for four hours with breaks of fifteen minutes, and then work for another hour and a half, no matter how much I can do."

These methods are suitable for different situations. If the deadlines are running out, of course, it is necessary to monitor both the time and the result of the work. But if you strive to complete the work as quickly as possible, its quality often suffers. And when the main task is to do something carefully and in detail, it is better not to rush and work through the material at your natural speed.

When a person exhausts himself with hard work, no one becomes easier. Don't beat yourself up even if you didn't follow through with the plan. If you really tried, don't blame yourself - just think about how you could speed up your activities in the future, and allow yourself to take a break.

Just five minutes!

Tell yourself that you will be doing a little bit of business. Five minutes is a tiny amount of time, right? But you are likely to get carried away with the process and work much more. And if not, it's okay, you're still one step closer to your goal 🙂

Stop distractions

Are you a fan of social media? Need to urgently make changes from the customer, but you can’t take your eyes off the VKontakte news feed? If you are determined to develop discipline and work most efficiently, then various applications and browser extensions that restrict access to unwanted sites for the necessary time can help at first.

“The song helps us to build and live”

If you do not know how to set yourself up for work, perhaps music will help. The choice of melodies depends on your tastes and perception: someone is set to work by calm classics, and someone by loud club tracks. Choose songs with words in an unfamiliar or unfamiliar language or no words at all - otherwise you will be distracted by the content of the lyrics.

From difficult to simple

Schoolchildren are often advised to do their homework for the most difficult and unloved lessons first. This advice will come in handy not only at school, but also at work. Take care of the most difficult tasks in the first half of the day - firstly, in the morning you will be more energetic and efficient, and secondly, hard work will not hang over you like a sword of Damocles until the evening.

If you have been working for a long time and are already very tired from strenuous activities, it may be worth switching to easier tasks.

If you don't want to, don't work

Everything goes wrong? Don't know what decision to make? How to force yourself to work if there is no strength? And you don't have to force yourself. Take a rest. Only rest is not checking mail or social networks. Just relax, close your eyes, try to get rid of thoughts about work for a while. If the workplace allows, walk around the room a little, warm up.

In such moments of short rest, a worthwhile idea often comes up. The main thing is to resist the temptation to quit and get distracted by another activity.

Small steps towards a big goal

Perhaps the Pomodoro method will help increase productivity. This method is named after the tomato-shaped kitchen timer and involves dividing work into 25-minute chunks. Just follow these steps:

decide on the task to be performed;
Set the timer to 25 minutes. Try not to get distracted by anything;
when the time is up, take a short break of 5 minutes;
After every fourth Pomodoro, take a big 15-30 minute break.

You can easily customize this system for yourself and change the time of work and rest - just keep the concentration throughout each "pomodoro".

In addition to improving concentration, this method also teaches you to “break up” a large target into its component parts. When you realize the scale of work on some global task, it often becomes scary even to think about it. And if you have several small tasks in front of you, then it’s somehow easier to work.

3 Proven Ways to Start Doing What You Don't Want to Do

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Practicing How toKnow Yourself

Unlike most people, I love going to the doctor. From childhood I loved to be treated: I liked the cheerfulness and confidence inherent in doctors, white coats and shiny instruments, attentive questions - after all, they asked not only my mother, but also me. They spoke to me seriously, as with a big one, and at the same time affectionately and reassuringly. In general, all my life I perceived going to the clinic as an easy adventure: exciting, but with a happy ending.

However, a few years ago, I suddenly felt that something had changed. Despite active self-treatment, I had a severe sore throat for two weeks, and it became clear that I should see a specialist. But I couldn't. For some reason, this time the thought of doctors gave me a vague, but very unpleasant feeling.

Reason said it was necessary, but emotions were actively against it. And this is with my love for doctors!

A month passed, and I couldn't bring myself to go to the doctor. My throat still hurt, especially unbearably at night. When I complained about my strange behavior to my mother, she suddenly said: “I think I know why you can’t convince yourself to go to Laura.” And she told a story from my early childhood, when ENT tried to lubricate my sore throat, and I struggled and cried until my mother and I just ran out of the office.

I listened to her story, and a completely forgotten (more precisely, “displaced” from memory) incident began to be restored with all the details, experiences, memories. After this conversation, I immediately felt at ease. It turns out that since then I continued to go to other doctors willingly, but at that time a “curse” was imposed on the otolaryngologist by my unconscious. I gathered my courage, once again reminded myself that that episode was in the distant past, and then calmly went to the clinic.

1. Analyze the past

So, if it is difficult for us to force ourselves to do something, we should think: are there any unconscious, but at the same time persistent barriers erected by our emotional memory in the distant past? Perhaps it is they who influence behavior and block today's motivation? Of course, such "excavations" are best done with a specialist, but sometimes introspection can be quite fruitful.

Example

A client, a young musician descended from a musical dynasty, once shared with me a seemingly minor problem. The musical archive of his late grandfather, stored in one of the rooms of the Moscow apartment, has not yet been sorted out. For several months he made attempts to begin this difficult undertaking, but every time he put it off with vexation.

“Something inside prevents me from doing, in general, quite interesting and important for me the study of my grandfather’s legacy,” this is how he formulated this problem

hence a repressed memory from my client's preschool childhood. As it turned out, one day, due to a misunderstanding, he took a stack of music sheets from his grandfather's desk (and his grandfather was then alive and well) and painted them with paints. Grandfather was furious: it was his new work - and rather severely punished his grandson.

Since then, all the grandfather's papers have become forbidden for the grandson, marked with the heading "do not touch!". Over the years, this episode "weathered" from the memory of the hero, passing into an unconscious, but powerfully emotionally charged layer of "unprocessed" memories. As a result of our joint efforts, this unpleasant episode was restored, "lost", which made it possible to reduce the level of his hidden pain and resentment. Soon the young man began to analyze the archive - the "internal obstacle" lost its energy and strength.

2. Prepare in advance

Let's not forget: anticipation breeds desire. Sometimes we don’t get down to what seems to be necessary things simply because we are not ready. The head is occupied by others. For any serious business, one must internally “ripen”. Gain strength, evaluate and find resources, set deadlines, work out an action plan, and then everything will go smoothly.

Example

Here is a story told by a friend of mine: “A thirteen-year-old daughter begged for repairs in the kitchen and bathroom — she, you see, was ashamed to invite friends to our “unkempt hole”. Indeed, repairs have long been required, but how I did not want to start it! Discomfort, money, constant cleaning. .. I delayed the start of this event as best I could, despite my daughter's demands. And then a psychologist friend told me about the “preparation” technique. It was just what we needed!

I immediately scheduled the start of repairs - in a month, not earlier than

I announced the decision to my daughter and girlfriends so that there would be no opportunity to “slip away” from the obligations undertaken. Arranged with a qualified and reliable team. Together they made a plan of action. Dragged all things from the future "battlefield". During this time, I managed to prepare mentally as well: I cleaned up my work so that I could run home without delay, tune in to a temporary “mobilization mode” of life. And when the deadline came, I dreamed of starting repairs as soon as possible.

Now I wanted beautiful transformations as much as my daughter, and I was ready for the coming trials. That's what it means - an advance announcement, detailed planning, systemic organization and enhanced moral preparation!

3. Use motivation techniques that suit you

But what if you need to get down to business quickly? You will have to urgently look for ways and tools of motivation that are effective for you. In fact, we all know these methods very well, the main thing is to consciously apply them.

Forward-looking people are very motivated by the "image of the future result"

It is enough for them to mentally focus on the benefits that they will receive as a result of a successful job, and they immediately begin work. Vivid visualization and imaginary stay in the desired future help some to "turn mountains".

Example No. 1

And here is a way that one wise manager found. “For work, I needed to learn German,” he says. — I had no desire, no time, no ability for languages. What to do? Knowing my characteristics, I went to the language group and mentally chose an active, motivated student of about my age and circle. This student, without realizing it, became my competitor and "engine of progress."

There was excitement - to defeat him, to prove to everyone that I am smarter and more capable than the one who seems to be the best. The criterion is the final exam and intermediate marks of the teacher. My competitive, competitive nature did not disappoint: for a year of study, the battle was won. I did well in the exam and got more points than my talented classmate. What about language? Well, of course, I had to learn it. Without this, my victory would not have been possible.”

Example №2

There is another option in my observation notebook. “As a strong-willed person, I can force myself to do what I need, but I don’t want to. Usually, willpower is enough for the first step, then it weakens,” said another client of mine, an employee of a large company. - But I found a great way: if I take not one, but two steps on the way to the result, then I will already “get involved” in the business, and it will be easier to continue it.

I remember I had to prepare a big presentation at the end of the year: I had to read a lot of reports, collect facts and figures

At first I tried to divide the work into small stages. But each stage took a lot of energy, since doing all this was boring, painful, dreary. But then I decided to devote the whole day to presentations - and the work began.

I felt the taste of dry analytics, delved into the data, imagined how they can be visually and beautifully presented. By midnight, the main substantive work was completed - much earlier than planned. And all just because I did not stop at the first stage, but went further. And the further you move, the easier it is - the work you have begun is already taking on meaning, form, meaning, and you already want to bring it to completion.

Of course, there are many ways to make yourself work. Your task is to choose what is right for you. Open your diary and see - what tasks are regularly transferred from one week to another? If they are important, then why did you doom them to endless delay? It's time to understand this and start implementing them.

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