Feel the Lethargy
and Do It Anyway
Yuck, it’s tax time
again. One of these days, you’ll get your hands on the
documents you need and you’ll fill out your return –
on time this year! But not right now. That’s too much
hassle.
You’ve been meaning
to start that running program, but not tonight – you’re
beat.
You’re at work and you’re
sneak-surfing on the internet. Whenever anyone passes by,
you alt-tab quickly back to a bogus spreadsheet. You know
you need to get back to work and stop loafing, but you just
can’t get focused.
Do any of these scenarios
sound like you? Maybe it’s not taxes, exercise, and
work that you’re putting off – maybe it’s
a heart-to-heart conversation with your daughter, or maybe
it’s cleaning out the junk drawer in the kitchen. Maybe
it’s folding a basket of laundry. Clipping your toenails.
Whatever it is, you just can’t seem to get motivated
to do anything!
Sometimes it isn’t fear
of failure that holds us back. Sometimes it’s just plain
old lethargy! And if that’s the case, you probably won’t
finish reading this article, because when you’re feeling
lethargic, the last thing you want is to be motivated!
I don’t know about you,
but often when I’m feeling lethargic but otherwise perfectly
healthy, I have conflicting voices running in my head. One
voice wants me to snap out of it and get things done that
I promised myself or others would get done. The other voice
whimpers, “Leave me alone.”
Here are two techniques that
I use to snap myself out it and get moving on things again:
1. Movement creates movement.
Once you make any move at all, you’ve begun creating
momentum, so it’s easier to keep moving. Sometimes it
seems to require the combined forces of the entire Universe
just to launch that first little bit of movement. Sometimes
you have to bargain ruthlessly with yourself. I promise myself
some great reward for small effort. It’s ridiculous.
“Just open the folder on the computer that has the report
I need to work on. Then click on the report and it will open.
THEN I can have a candy bar.” Once the report is open
and I’m chomping on my candy bar, it’s easy to
jump right in and get to work on it.
If you’re putting off
shoveling the snow, promise yourself a reward for getting
your coat, boot, hat and mittens on. If you’re putting
off starting that running program, promise yourself a reward
for setting your running clothes & running shoes out and
for setting your alarm a half hour earlier. You get the idea.
Just do what you need to do to get moving.
2. Placate the child. I adapted
this from The Now Habit: A Strategic Program for Overcoming
Procrastination and Enjoying Guilt-Free Play by Neil Fiore.
It’s the little child in you that doesn’t want
to do what you, the adult, is asking yourself to do. Maybe
the child is whining that you never let it have any fun, or
it’s afraid that once you start working, it will be
all work and no play, so the child reasons it’s best
to just not start.
Prevailing wisdom is that
you need to reward yourself AFTER a task has been completed,
which is the theory behind the first strategy. This strategy
is the other way around. Whatever it is that you’re
doing that you don’t want to give up, negotiate a little
more of it in exchange for starting whatever it is you’re
putting off. For instance, if you’re watching TV but
you need to shovel the walk, promise yourself that you can
watch to the end of JUST THIS program. Or finish the chapter
in the book you’re reading, or have that snack you’re
fantasizing about. Or tell yourself you can surf on line for
10 more minutes, and then it’s back to work. Then make
sure you do it!
If your lethargy is chronic
or persistent or is accompanied by other symptoms, consider
seeing a doctor. At the very least, consider some lifestyle
changes, such as getting more sleep, getting more exercise,
and improving your eating habits.
I have a little saying that
I use on myself. “The less you feel like it, the more
you need it.” Fit people often feel like exercising,
but out-of-shape people rarely do. People who eat healthy
diets often have a hankering for raw vegetables, but people
who live on a diet of junk rarely do. Highly productive workers
do take breaks, but they don’t let them interfere with
their productivity – they take a short break, and then
they get on with their work. And so on.
Are you putting something
off right now because you just don’t feel like it? Before
you click on another link, before you visit another site,
or before you read another article, pick one of the two strategies
and put them to work. Maybe you’ll even come to my website
and email me to tell me if it worked or not! (Don’t
do that until AFTER you’ve knocked that thing off your
to do list, though!)
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