2060: 9 Black Belt Techniques for Fighting Laziness at Work by Marc Chernoff of Marc and Angel on Boosting Productivity

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[00:01:00] This is Optimal Living Daily. Nine Black Belt Techniques for Fighting Laziness at Work by Marc Chernoff of markandangel.com. Laziness can ferociously creep up on us at work, even when we're consciously committed to getting things done. It's a byproduct of those evil shiny objects passing through our periphery just begging for attention.

[00:01:22] We try to fight them off, but sometimes it's an arduous battle we can't seem to win. After all, being lazy is what our unconscious minds would rather be doing anyway. Not all is lost, though. With the help of a few black belt techniques, laziness can be conquered. You just have to game your mind before your mind falls victim to the lazy game. Here's how. Number one, fully understand the true consequences of being lazy.

[00:01:48] If you are habitually lazy on the job, there's a good chance that you're not fulfilling all of your responsibilities. If you're not fulfilling your responsibilities, then you're not doing your job, and thus you're not worth paying. It's only a matter of time before your superiors notice this and eliminate the dead weight. There's a pretty good article on about.com entitled How to Get Fired. Take a quick look at this article and ask yourself, how many of these points pertain to laziness?

[00:02:14] Similarly, if a self-employed person gets lazy, you can be fairly certain they will not be self-employed for long. Two, never lose sight of the whole elephant. I've heard people use the phrase, take one bite of the elephant at a time, more times than I can count. It is true, breaking up a large project into a series of smaller, bite-sized milestones is a smart way to hone your concentration and keep yourself motivated in the short term.

[00:02:40] However, it is never wise to completely lose sight of the whole elephant, or the big picture. After all, the whole elephant is the only reason you started working in the first place. At some point, you want to get promoted, land that full-size contract deal, and have the opportunity to get ahead of the pack. Those are big picture goals, goals that motivate long-term drive.

[00:03:01] You must always remain cognizant of the fact that a bit of laziness now on a few small tasks may snowball into a lengthy stretch of missed opportunities in the future when the judge compares your performance to that of your peers. Three, don't stop doing. Start the next related task. Once you stop, laziness kicks in and it's hard to get going again. The key is to complete a task and then immediately jump to the next related task.

[00:03:27] I consider a related task to be any task with a similar type required mental thinking. Your mind can transition seamlessly between related tasks because your efforts on the previously completed tasks have already geared your mind for the type of work required in all the subsequent tasks. The sooner you forge ahead, the more confident you will feel going into it and the more productive you will be. Four, do work for you too.

[00:03:52] Far too often, I see competent, hardworking people only doing work for someone else, usually their employer. When the workload is extremely light or the day comes to an end, they get lazy and do less instead of transitioning their attention to accomplishing something for themselves. If all your hard work is spent growing someone else's business and all your free time is spent being lazy, you will never grow a business of your own. Avoid laziness by spending your downtime working for you.

[00:04:18] The more you accomplish for yourself, the more motivated you will be in all walks of your work life. Five, set up physical barriers against distractions. Distractions lead to laziness and unfortunately, distractions are friggin' everywhere. If you're like me, you love to check your favorite blogs and reddit.com 50 times a day. How do I conquer the urge? I set up a physical distraction barrier by unplugging my internet connection while I'm working.

[00:04:44] If you're like my wife Angel, you're prone to spending too much of your work-at-home time watching Lifetime movies. How do I conquer her urge for her? I hide the dang remote. In all seriousness though, sometimes you must set up physical barriers between yourself and the distractions that attempt to overpower your conscious will to work. Six, actually schedule in late afternoon goof-off time.

[00:05:07] One of the most effective anti-laziness tricks I've implemented actually involves scheduling in goof-off time each afternoon at 4pm. By doing so, I have slowly eliminated my spontaneous urges to check my favorite blogs and news sites because I now know I have a scheduled time to do so. This may seem odd or even somewhat counterproductive, but it has actually skyrocketed my early morning through mid-afternoon productivity levels. So, even though I've committed to being lazy in the late afternoon,

[00:05:35] the entire early part of my day, when my mind is freshest, is spent in the zone without the physiological urge to slack off and succumb to laziness. Seven, coach yourself out loud, inch by inch. This is another one that sounds strange, literally, but truly is an effective self-motivation method. Break the task you're currently working on into a few smaller, logical steps, and then coach yourself through them out loud. You have to get this done. This step is so easy. Let's do it right now.

[00:06:05] When you complete a step, congratulate yourself on a job well done. That was great work. You're on fire. We're going to be finished with this in no time. I find that coaching myself out loud through each step actually makes me more cognizant of my forward progress, thus motivating me to work even harder on the next small step. Success is just a game of inches. Every small inch of forward progress is a grand accomplishment because at some point you will be able to add up all those inches.

[00:06:33] When you do, you will find yourself in the end zone. Touchdown. Eight, take mentally and physically active reward breaks. Taking a short, productive break in between every solid hour of work is something I strongly recommend, but only if you spend your short breaks doing something that actively stimulates your mind and body. Inactive activities promote laziness and midday fatigue. Take a quick stroll around the office, get up and talk to someone you enjoy speaking with, or crank up your iPod and listen to a song that motivates you.

[00:07:03] Whatever you do, stay active and alert. Nine, refuel your mind and body with premium every day. You are what you eat. If you eat like f***, you'll feel like f***. If you feel like f***, you will produce c***y work. Don't sell yourself short of your full potential. Refuel your mind and body with premium healthy food and eight hours of sleep each night. Most unhealthy eaters who don't receive enough sleep are unsurprisingly lethargic in every waking hour of their existence.

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[00:08:31] Find Oli's sleep solutions for the whole family at Oli.com. That's Oli.com. And thank you to Mark. He and his wife, Angel, write together about a wide variety of topics, so you're going to hear them narrated across several of our shows. Mark and Angel Chernoff are New York Times bestselling authors, professional coaches, full-time students of life, admirers of the human spirit, and they have been recognized by Forbes

[00:08:58] as having one of the most popular personal development blogs. Through their blog, as well as their books, course, and coaching, they've spent the past decade writing about and teaching proven strategies for finding lasting happiness, success, love, and peace. The main goal of their blog is to give you the tools to identify and transform the limiting beliefs that keep you stuck. They've got somewhere in the neighborhood of a thousand articles now on happiness, productivity, emotional intelligence,

[00:09:26] relationships, and general self-improvement. And they've got over 200 million page views and 200,000 subscribers since 2006. And again, they're featured across a bunch of the shows in our network, so please do check out our other podcasts, which you can find by searching for Optimal Living Daily in the podcast app of your choice, and there you'll find much more from Mark and Angel. But that is going to do it for today. I thank you so much for being here and for subscribing or following. Have a great rest of your day,

[00:09:55] and I'll see you right back here in the same spot tomorrow where your optimal life awaits.