By: Switzsana Soibam
Being lazy is not too rare of a problem. A person is being lazy if he or she is able to carry out some activity that he ought to carry out, but doesn’t do so because of the effort involved. A big issue with a lot of Indian students (including me) is laziness or having very little motivation to perform our duties sincerely as students.
Throughout my school life, I have always procrastinated when it came to studying for exams or doing homework, which is a very common habit that most of my classmates also shared. Procrastination is the act of delaying or putting off work until the very last minute. Now that my school life has come to an end, I have the pleasure to contemplate about all those dreadful years I spent stressing over my final exams yet studying at the very last hours before the exams. To be frank, procrastinating has never proven to be a successful way of getting things done for me. When I to my friends about it, they also agree as they had very similar experiences.
Although, procrastination and laziness are different things, I believe that procrastinating is a product of laziness. By discussing the similar experiences with my friends, I was able to identify some problems that I wanted to write about.
The first and the main problem is a lack of motivation. We all come across things that make us lose motivation to do things. It could be any problem like failing to achieve the scores you were aiming for on your test, getting yelled at by your parents for not being “student-like”, or just simply being tired all the time. I remember in class 10, when our Math teacher was giving the whole class a lecture for being unruly. I can’t recall everything he said, mostly because I slept through the whole 30 minute lecture about his life. However, there is this line he said which, for some reason I can’t forget-”if you have no aim in life, your life is over”. Maybe the reason I remember it so clearly is because it sounded so outrageous, “why can’t I just enjoy my life without worrying about the future?” I thought.
Thinking back, he was right, having no particular aim in life gave me no motivation to achieve anything big in my life, I cared very little about school even though it was very important for me. Participating in various competitions like sports, debates, public speech etc. didn’t appeal to me at all. However, these activities are an important part of a student’s life as it develops our personality.
The second problem is lacking self-esteem. According to the NEET UG statistics, 17-18 lakh students are expected to appear for the NEET exam in 2022. The number of seats offered by NEET UG are 91415 for MBBS and 26,946 for BDS, which means less than 10% of students will get to study the course of their choice. The situation is similar for IIT JEE exams where every year around 11 lakh students appear for approximately 11 thousand seats in all IITs. Numbers like these indicate how tough the competition is. Students have to sacrifice a lot just to get a decent college. Right after the class 10 exams, most students who choose the science stream have to start sacrificing everything to dedicate all their time to prepare for these exams. In order to ace these exams, students cannot lack self-esteem as it can hamper their preparations.
Having low self- esteem is common in teenage years as we spend a lot of time worrying about our insecurities. Lacking self-esteem can make us feel alienated which can turn into a habit of avoiding any challenging tasks. This habit leads to laziness as our life becomes monotonous. Speaking from personal experience, having supportive friends and teachers who don’t let you feel low and insecure is a great way to stay motivated.
Another big problem is dealing with distractions. Today’s students have distractions all around them as technologies advances. The internet maybe a helpful tool for students but it is also very distracting. Funny memes and videos, movies and web shows, video games etc. are just a few clicks away. When such entertainment is in the palm of our hands, it creates this cycle of wanting to do something productive but not doing so because we are too comfortable with our phones, hence, we become lazy.
When we lack motivation, self-esteem and surrounded by distractions, becoming productive again seems like an impossible task to do. But, most of us are not alone, we can always seek help and we shouldn’t be afraid to ask for it.
To deal with such problems, we can also read about it. There are hundreds of books and articles on how to tackle laziness. We can even use our phones to our advantage, by listening to various leaders and public speakers for motivation and life advice. When we begin to do something new or productive, it is easy to give up and fall back into our comfort zone. But it has to start somewhere, however insignificant the task may feel at the moment; like reading one page of a 500 page book every day or putting your phone down for just an hour. When done every day, they become habits and you’ll find yourself becoming more productive.
