..on combatting personal laziness

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  • #1728159

    I have a personal issue i wan to improve on. I wake up late, and am not looking forward to the dreary mundane repetitive going through the motions-daily-chores. Dishes, beds, getting dressed, load of laundry etc.
    Its like i wish i was always on a shabbos vacation.

    The problem is that the seventy something year old in the apartment above me rises each day at 7:30 am exactly and does what she has to do day in day out over and over like a machine week after week after week. I wonder how she is still alive from such monontonous repetitive conditioning.

    Is it normal to live that way? And if so, whats my problem? Am i just by nature going to submit myself to my artisitic dreamy care free soul?

    I do have things I have to do, and I generally do them more or less. But i have so many great ideas and projects i want to tackle that i get so burned out from the basics of picking up socks and sweeping the floor.

    Thing is, just looking back at my grandparents generation (1920’s to 1930’s), they never allowed themselves to klutz or be lazy. They got up and went around being industrious like the lady upstairs from me. Who has energy all day to weed a garden, cook supper, wash floors, iron and then mow the lawn? Thats what my grandparents did. I feel very guilty and ashamed i am so lazy.

    Any advice.???

    #1728302
    Little Froggie
    Participant

    WB!!!

    Long time no see!!!

    I have the same problem. Really.

    Figured out the best way to deal with it is to just get up and fire up. At the beginning it feels like I’m beating a dead horse, after a while I feel the engines starting to sputter and purr. And then twirl and whirl at full blast!!! {HEY! WATCH WHERE YOU’RE RUNNING WITH THOSE SCISSORS!}

    #1728310
    kollelman
    Participant

    Try to be more proactive in even the most silly of things. Dave Allen points out in “Getting Things Done”, that any task that takes less than 2 minutes to accomplish, will waste more time if delayed. If you try to follow that rule, you will help train yourself to be less “lazy”.

    #1728458
    Mammele
    Participant

    Funny, I was in Lancaster county recently and had the same question. Oh well. Your question had the answer, it’s called conditioning, or “hergel naase teva”.

    As much as you think your neighbor’s life is boring, sleeping late and being “lazy” doesn’t exactly give you more time to do the things you love. We could all benefit from some structure and actually gain time to incorporate the stuff we love doing, without resorting to crazy late nights and the ensuing bad moods.

    Oh, what’s the time now again?…

    #1728462
    Sam Klein
    Participant

    Ever heard the famous line “you snooze you lose”? These things in the house or at work need to be done either way to move on in life or to clean the house up and finish the day. You can’t just go lay in bed with the house a mess, leaving dirty dishes smelling up the house and toys lying around, you can’t go home from work unfinished and come back to negativity the next day or a whole list of things unfinished from the day before. The day is not over until all work is done and the house is cleaned up etc….

    You’ll live such a happier life with getting your work and errands done AND THEN relaxing and enjoying yourself with your family versus spending time with Your family first and ended Your day with a whole pile of issues and errands to do late at the end of the day

    I wish you lots of Hatzlacha

    #1728559
    ☕️coffee addict
    Participant

    You sound like my wife

    (I know you’re not her because I know her screen name)

    #1728603
    Health
    Participant

    ARWSF – “I wake up late…”

    FIRST OFF WB!!!
    Second, So do I, but Not like you I don’t to improve!
    As a matter of fact, I had to get up early one day this week & it made me very upset.

    #1728602
    batsheva5779
    Participant

    Unfortunately I have the same issue. I feel like it is a lifelong struggle. So on one hand I can relate, but on the other hand, am I really in a position to give advice? I also need help!!! Anyways I try to get better everyday here are some things I try:

    1. I’m a natural night owl, but an early and productive morning has to start with an early bedtime. Instead of focusing on waking up early and having the energy to do things, I try to focus on going to bed early enough. I’ve heard a rabbi say “sometimes the adult in you just needs to tell the child in you it’s bedtime now”. I taped on my wall a piece Rav Avigdor Miller about “bedtime for adults”

    2. I am reading the book about Henny Machlis, “Emunah with Love and Chicken Soup” by Sara Yocheved Rigler. Rebbetzin Machlis has some teachings that help me. We have to recognize our tendencies and our struggles come from Hashem. Hashem has given me the inclination to be lazy, a procrastinator, etc. It’s so impossible to to combat this day after day on my own. I think Hashem wants to humble me and help me recognize He’s in charge. So I daven for help, I daven for success, and trust that it will come. But i have to do my part. Not just “please don’t make me lazy”, but I need to take my steps, show Hashem how I tried to sleep earlier, show Hashem how I pushed myself to wake up 20 min earlier, I tried to make a list and how I tried to be REALISTIC about what I could accomplish. I can’t fight this huge struggle and battle on my own, but ask Hashem for help because I think thats what He wants me to make of the situation, He made a situation so I have to cry to Him and connect to Him. Same goes for other things, if someone is born ungenerous or with anger problems, that’s going to be their lifelong struggle, they have to beseech Hashem or they’ll never make any progress.

    3. I don’t know if youre like me but the hardest part is GETTING STARTED. Once I start, most times I have momentum to keep going awhile (maybe finish). So my Rabbi is having me read a book “Time Power” by Tracy. Of course I’m not with it, some advice there and that I read elsewhere is to commit to working on (full in the blank) daily, not necessarily to getting it done. The point is, make it point to do 1 step or 5 min of progress on (blank) regularly. Don’t focus on getting it done. Only focus on doing the one step. If you have the momentum, you’ll end up getting more done. If not, at least you did something and you have a commitment in place to continue tomorrow. So I focus on cleaning (and exercising) for only 5min per day, that 5 min gets something done, and very often now that I started I’m able to continue for longer. In the end I feel accomplished instead of like the usual guilty lazy procrastinator.

    So Idk, small steps, that’s what I have going at the moment. I truly wish you the best. We all have our struggles and this is definitely one of mine too!!

    #1728623
    ☕️coffee addict
    Participant

    I showed my post to my wife and she said you sound depressed

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