I’m generally good at avoiding procrastination. I have bad periods but months go by without me reading news or social media during work periods.
OTOH, a friend is the opposite. He’s the biggest procrastinator I know. Between us I don’t see an obvious explanatory factor. I would guess therefore that it’s something innate, perhaps a genetic factor. He just doesn’t seem to have the same discipline as me. The only thing I see that works for him is to have external pressure.
What I’m saying is - if you’re a super procrastinator like my friend, maybe all the tricks in the world won’t help you to be motivated without a real and pressing deadline. Compare yourself in those situations to your every day, see if there’s some insight there.
I procrastinate extremely hard over things I don't want to do, and maybe things I am intimidated by their difficulty.
And yet, I am capable of steady self learning and can quite comfortably find the motivation to exercise 10+ hours a week.
I don't think it's very black and white because along certain dimensions I am hyper disciplined but others heaven and hell would struggle to get me moving. I do respond to external pressure tho.
I think most of the time we overlap lack of scheduling/discipline with laziness (being a couch potato). I'm a disaster at scheduling things, unless they involve other people. But when it comes to putting in the effort and the hours to get something done before a deadline, man, you can bet it's gonna get done.
Similarly I've had periods of 3-4 months at a time where I was super disciplined about nutrition and exercise followed by a period of extreme disregard for anything related to my health. As in eating pizza 3-4 times a week. What I noticed is that it all starts with going to the gym 1-2 times and not interrupting the routine. A trip abroad, a week long illness, they all pretty much end any kind of virtuous cycle that was forming. Maybe the trick is just to be consistent for X time? I don't know.
Routine is definitely helpful for things involving habitual tasks (like going to the gym).
Humans are loss averse and at some point, breaking routine becomes taps into the loss aversion and there actually is a friction to not going to the gym.
I suppose when you're starting out to go to the gym you are averse to breaking your existing routine (which could be bingeing netflix every night after work)
There's enough evidence to believe laziness is, at least partly, a consequence of bad genetics (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gd7wAithl7I, with sources in the description), similarly to what differentiates early risers and night owls.
Not saying one should use this as an excuse but being aware of it will at least make you stop obsessing about why you're so damn lazy. Just embrace it and (ironically enough) take it easy.
OTOH, a friend is the opposite. He’s the biggest procrastinator I know. Between us I don’t see an obvious explanatory factor. I would guess therefore that it’s something innate, perhaps a genetic factor. He just doesn’t seem to have the same discipline as me. The only thing I see that works for him is to have external pressure.
What I’m saying is - if you’re a super procrastinator like my friend, maybe all the tricks in the world won’t help you to be motivated without a real and pressing deadline. Compare yourself in those situations to your every day, see if there’s some insight there.