How to break laziness & procrastination with physics

The cause you didn't know existed

Author

Dyani Janga
January 09, 2025

You’re ambitious. You’ve got big dreams, wanna be successful and ultimately, you want to live the life you’ve always imagined.

But there’s a problem… You’re lazy!

You keep falling into the cycle of procrastination and “I’ll do it tomorrow’s,” even though you know exactly what you should be doing.

Yet, you aren’t doing it.

This leads to feelings of guilt. Because deep down, you know that you’re capable of more.

But how do we break this cycle and escape from laziness? One word…

⚖️ Inertia

Inertia is the way objects keep doing what they're already doing—if they're at rest, they stay at rest; if they're moving, they keep moving. Unless something makes them stop or change.

But this applies just as much to tasks as it does to objects.

Getting started on any task—even the smallest thing like standing up, requires an initial push to get going. And this is the problem.

In our minds, we experience this initial push to cost so much energy that we avoid the task entirely and continue doing dopamine-inducing activities.

To-Do: Break Inertia.

There are two ways to do this…

  1. Make it easy to get started

    Prepare ahead of the task. You could block out time to get started, promise yourself, I will start as soon as I get home and work for just 30 minutes.

    You’re tricking yourself into “only working for 30 minutes,” but when the final minutes come near, you’ve entered flow state and you’re focused now. If you aren’t just quit. But at least you’ve given yourself a chance.

  2. 1-2-3 Method
    Count to 3 in your head and force yourself from what you’re doing.

    When laying in bed, 1… 2… 3… and SHOOT out. Use the seconds counting to gather your energy for one huge explosion.

👞 Today’s Action Step:

Apply the 1-2-3 Method right after reading today’s shower thought. When you finish reading, count to three and get up and think of something you’ve been needing to do.

…It’s important to first get up and then think of your To-Do after.

📖 Today’s Book Bit
Ali Abdaal

The biggest hurdle to productivity isn’t lack of time—it’s the friction of getting started. Reduce that friction, and momentum will do the rest
Book: Feel-Good Productivity

It’s all physics—inertia. The friction of getting started is the difficult thing. Once you get the ball moving with small & easy wins, it keeps moving.

🚿 Today’s Shower Thought

It’s impressive how difficult it is to start a campfire but how easy it is for a fire to spread on its own.
Inspiration

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