The Dr. Josh Axe Show - 8 Habits to DESTROY Laziness (Become a Productivity MASTER)
Episode Date: January 7, 2025Is laziness holding you back from reaching your full potential? Join Dr. Josh Axe as he breaks down the science-backed secrets to destroying laziness and becoming a productivity powerhouse. In thi...s transformative episode, Dr. Axe reveals 8 powerful habits that can revolutionize your daily routine and help you overcome procrastination for good. Drawing from cutting-edge research and practical experience, he shares proven strategies that anyone can implement to boost energy, focus, and motivation. You’ll learn: Game-changing techniques to create a distraction-free environment How to master the "2-minute rule" How your food choices impact productivity The scientifically-proven Pomodoro Technique and simple time-blocking strategies Ready to transform your life in 2025? Tune in to gain practical, actionable steps that will help you develop unstoppable momentum and create lasting change. #productivityhacks #healthyhabits #draxe Want more of The Dr. Josh Axe Show? Subscribe to the YouTube channel. Follow Dr. Josh Axe Instagram Twitter Facebook TikTok Website ------ Staying healthy in today's world is an upstream battle. Subscribe to Wellness Weekly, your 5-minute dose of sound health advice to help you grow physically, mentally, and spiritually. Every Wednesday, you'll get: Holistic health news & life-hacks from a biblical world view Powerful free resources including classes, Q&As, and guides from Dr. Axe The latest episodes of The Dr. Josh Axe Show Sign up here → https://forms.thehealthinstitute.com/l-77 Submit your questions via voice memo to be featured on the show → speakpipe.com/drjoshaxe ------ Links: https://www.richmanmagazine.com/the-science-behind-the-2-minute-rule-how-to-stop-procrastinating/ https://todoist.com/productivity-methods/pomodoro-technique https://www.psychologicalscience.org/news/minds-business/even-small-distractions-derail-productivity.html https://erationality.media.mit.edu/papers/dan/eRational/Dynamic%20preferences/deadlines.pdf https://openresearch.okstate.edu/server/api/core/bitstreams/16c06d9f-5db8-4e1c-bbbb-31512b7f3a14/content https://blog.lboro.ac.uk/teaching-learning/wp-content/uploads/sites/16/2017/01/Travers-self-reflection-growth-goals-and-academic-outcomes.pdf https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/chi16-microproductivity-2.pdf https://ajcn.nutrition.org/article/S0002-9165%2823%2905376-5/fulltext https://www.psypost.org/chronic-intake-of-refined-carbohydrates-between-meals-is-associated-with-decreased-cognitive-performance-study-finds/ https://bmjpublichealth.bmj.com/content/2/1/e001000 https://www.seahipublications.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/IJISSER-M-16-2024.pdf https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/british-journal-of-nutrition/article/effects-of-hydration-status-on-cognitive-performance-and-mood/1210B6BE585E03C71A299C52B51B22F7 ------ Ads: Even if your bloodwork looks "normal," your symptoms could point to Cell Danger Response (CDR). Discover how to break free from CDR and unlock your full potential at https://beyondbloodwork.com/. Want to improve heart health, circulation, and enhance vascular flexibility? The Zona Plus uses isometric exercise—a scientifically proven method—to naturally boost cardiovascular fitness and increase nitric oxide production throughout the body. Shop Now at zona.com/axe for $100 off the Zona Plus device. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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Hey everyone, welcome the Dr. Josh Axe Show where each and every week we explore the science and principles behind how to grow in body, mind, and spirit and take your health and your life to the next level.
On today's episode, I'm going to be talking about the nine habits you must have in order to destroy laziness and become a master of productivity.
If you want to get the most out of your life, you've got to be more productive.
And so we're going to talk about how to do that today.
Before I dive in, though, make sure to subscribe to the channel and hit the link in my show notes to subscribe to my weekly wellness newsletter to get my top tips for natural healing delivered straight to your inbox.
Here's a reality. Lasiness often results from low energy, lack of motivation, or being overwhelmed by your tasks.
It's not a permanent trait, but a habit that actually can be changed.
and overcoming laziness can improve productivity, mental health, overall well-being.
Here are nine science-back ways and habits to help destroy laziness.
Now, the first one is this, make your goals more manageable.
One of the things I've noticed over time, and I've noticed this in my business, I've noticed this
in my personal life, is that when people set unrealistic goals, it leads to burnout and demotivation,
smaller goals ensure steady progress.
Now, here is how I do this, by the way, because I'm also a big believer in the book Good to Great in having what are called B-Hag's big, hairy, audacious goals. The way we do this in our business is we have both these big, hairy, audacious goals, but we also have what we call basic goals, okay? So we have big goals and basic goals. And the basic goals are something saying, okay, what is still a win? We want to hit a big, hairy, audacious goal. We want to go for the gold. But also, if we were able to,
to do these things and we got to the end of the year, would we feel like that was a win versus,
you know, versus, you know, something else? You know, looking at the last year. Okay. So let's say,
for instance, in business, your big, hairy, audacious goal is to triple your business the size, okay?
Well, that's good. Or maybe it's to lose 100 pounds. Okay. And so those are, those are the type of goals I'm
talking about in one year.
Now, another goal might be, well, what if we grew by, I don't know, 25%, okay, we had 25% growth,
or let's say maybe you lost 30 pounds.
You needed to lose 100, but you lost 30.
Would that still be a win?
Would you still be going in the right direction?
Would that still be a win?
Yes.
And so you can take those big, hairy audacious goals, and you can take those.
And then you want to break these into just smaller goals to where you see daily progress.
So for instance, you might have a big, hairy audacious goal, but then on a weekly basis or day basis,
you have smaller goals that don't necessarily, that don't seem so daunting.
And the reason why this works is breaking these tasks into small manageable steps.
It reduces overwhelm and allows you to start building momentum.
In fact, there's scientific evidence for this.
Studies in behavioral psychology show that starting small tasks trigger something called the
Zygernick effect where incomplete tasks boost mental focus. An example study was at Harvard University in
2011 when they found that initiating small tasks increases the likelihood of completing larger ones.
So for instance, let's say you want to run a marathon, okay, or a half a marathon, something like
that. And you have all of these goals to run five days a week. Well, maybe one of the
the sub-goals is to simply just run. Okay? I mean, maybe you're supposed to run five miles that day,
but you'll feel like it's a win even if you just get three miles. Okay. And so the goal is just to,
just to run. Just get out there and run. You don't have to do it for time. So, I mean,
you take some of the pressure off yourself to have to perform. And have yet, let me ask you,
here's how this works. Have you ever done this? Have you ever just said to yourself,
I do not want to go to the gym today. I don't feel like working out. This seems like the last thing I want to do.
but you say, you know what?
Okay, I'm going to go,
but I'm just going to give myself some slack.
I'm going to show up and I'm just,
the only thing I feel like I have to do is show up for 30 minutes and just move, okay?
And then that'll be enough for today.
And I've had that and then I get to the gym in the first 10 minutes I'm suffering.
This is like, this sucks.
This is terrible.
But then I get to 30 minutes in and I'm like, okay, I'm feeling good.
And then I'll do a full hour and I'll get an amazing workout.
because the last 30 minutes was so good,
that's what this is like, okay?
And so you need to think about for yourself, okay,
something, it's a manageable goal.
It's something just saying,
I'm just going to show up.
But once you get into it, okay,
now I'm going to go ahead and try and give it my all.
Okay, that's sort of what this works.
And so the way that you want to do this on a regular basis
is take your larger goals.
Again, like here's an example, writing a book.
I have written quite a few books.
And the way that I get things done
is not by saying, I got to write this whole book.
And I got to write, you know,
and what I do is I say, okay,
I'm going to take two days a week
and I'm going to take two hours, okay?
And the first hour I'm going to research
and the second hour I'm going to write.
So I'll research two hours a week,
I'll write two hours a week,
and I'm just going to do that.
That's it.
I have two hours, four hours total,
blocked off for the entire week.
You know, that's how I built Dr.ax.com.
Dr.ax.com at one point was the largest natural health website
in the world, 20 million visitors a month. And I said to myself, okay, and I was in full-time practice.
And I said to myself, okay, I cannot, you know, grow the next, you know, doctor. I can't be the next
Dr. Oz overnight or the next, you know, Joe Morcola or the next Dr. Whitaker or any of these
ducks or Andrew Weil. But I said, what I'm going to start doing is I'm going to take a half day a week,
four hours a week. So literally a four-hour work week outside of my normal job. And I took four hours
And I said, I'm going to write and record videos four hours a week.
And that allowed me to do one article a week and one YouTube video a week.
And eventually it just multiplied.
Okay.
But it's like that.
You just say, hey, I got one hour a week.
That's what I got.
I got two hours.
I got four hours, whatever it is.
And then you just do your best.
And so, but my manageable goal was I'm going to do one article a week.
I have four hours a week, one article, one video, and that's it.
and and so but but make it manageable make those goals manageable by the way there's a study on this in
2013 and it found that breaking these these goals that you have into smaller goals or tasks it increases
the completion rate by 45 so we're talking about i mean that is a significant difference when you're
looking at it so again you want to break larger goals into smaller actionable steps systems and habits
and when you do that, it'll create more momentum and you're going to see more success.
The number two thing you need to do to destroy and overcome laziness is create a morning routine.
Win the morning and you win the day.
I mean, I feel like this a lot of days.
I wake up in the morning and I do my spiritual triathlon.
And so the first thing I do is say, God, I am so so grateful for my amazing wife, my amazing life,
that I have a God like you that cares about me, that's helped heal me, that's allowed me to thrive,
that's put a roof over my head, thank you, thank you, thank you. And I get grateful. And then I spend
five minutes reading, my Bible or a spiritual book. And then I'll spend five minutes and just prayer
and meditation on what I read and just connecting with God. So I do that for about five. So I do a spiritual
triathlon. And then I'll have a superfood smoothie. And then I'll connect with my family. And then I'll go
get my workout in. And I'll do that all between 6 a.m. and, you know, maybe 8.30 a.m. or the latest 9 a.m.
okay and um and i've won the day but typically it's about a two hour period with all of those things
lumped in together six to eight and most people can do that they can find a way to do that um now listen
you might only say well i only have one hour not two hours okay well then do the 15 minutes triathlon
do the and then get a 30 minute workout do a peloton go out and walk do something but again win the
morning win the day uh you know a structured morning the reality is this it sets a tone for
productivity and reduces decision fatigue as well. If you already know what you're doing in the morning
and you don't have to make, you know, it's not different every morning, it's better for your
psychological health and for your success. And it's a form of discipline. There was a 2020 meta-analysis
and frontiers in psychology, major medical journal looking at multiple studies. And they found that those
people who planned out their mornings reported a 27% increase in productivity and getting more done.
So here's how to apply this.
Again, number one, wake up the same time every day.
For me, it's 6 a.m., but wake up the same time every day.
And include energizing habits like, you know, maybe warm water or tea with some lemon juice.
Could be stretching, could be a spiritual triathlon, could be writing down your top three priorities or to-dos for the day.
But just have a very succinct system there in the morning of what you're going to do.
You know, here's another one.
Make your bed.
I know this is Jordan Peterson talks about clean your room, make your bed.
Jaka Willink talks about the military, the Navy SEAL talks about make your bed.
Many studies suggest that making your bed can lead to increased feelings of productivity
and a better sense of accomplishment, potentially motivating individuals throughout the rest of the day.
It's that momentum thing we talked about.
You do one thing like make your bed and then brush your teeth.
Boom.
Now you have all of those other things you start to hit on and you build momentum.
There's a psychological benefit there of positivity when you can do that.
Number three, thing you need to do in order to break through the laziness.
Use the Pomodoro technique.
This works because it breaks tasks into timed intervals.
This keeps you focused and prevents burnout.
There's a study in the Applied Ergonomics Journal and it found that working in 25-minute
bursts followed by short breaks increases productivity by 22% compared to non-structured work periods.
And this really also falls into this idea of time boxing, where you have a set amount of time.
You put boxes around it and you work and you rest.
Now, some people like to do work 25 minutes, take a five minute break.
Some people like to work for 50 minutes and do 10 minute breaks.
Those are the two most popular.
But those work very, very well in that way.
And sometimes if you've done several 25 minutes with five minute breaks, and at some point in the day, like around lunch, you want to do more of a 30
minute break or even an hour break during that time. But again, it's sort of you're doing sprints
rather than a marathon. And for some people, they're wired to do that in a much better way. And I'll
do that when I'm writing. When I'm writing, I will tend to do like 50 minutes, try and get in a zone
and then go for 10, 15, 20 minutes, go for a walk, then come back to it and then go for a walk.
And I found for me walking as well and moving actually allows my brain to get more blood flow to it.
and rest my brain as well.
And so, but again, doing the Pomodoro technique where you're working intensely and you have
time boxing around, you're just doing this at this time.
And you're not answering emails and you're not doing other things.
You're just doing that thing.
And then doing it for a time period and taking multiple breaks, that's the key to productivity.
And it kills laziness because oftentimes we kind of are like, well, I'm going to kind of like,
you know, stumble through this.
And I'm going to do a few emails.
you kind of try and break it up, right?
You do some emails.
You talk to somebody at the water cooler.
You jump back in and do part of what you're supposed to do.
But then you do something.
You kind of like mingle in.
You do 10 different things all within a four-hour period.
That doesn't work very well.
Every study shows that on productivity.
What works best is time boxing and the Pomodoro technique combined.
That's what really works.
And so that's going to also help you destroy laziness because you'll feel more productive.
Number four, this ties into what I just shared with you. Remove distractions. Eliminating distractions
creates a focused work environment and prevents task switching. This is important for you to do as well
as helping your kids with this. Okay. Like we, this happened last night. We read a Bible story
to our dot, actually twice a day. So either in the morning or at dinner, one of those meals,
we actually read the actual Bible and share with her the principles we're learning. And then we actually
of a kid's Bible book that we do before bed. And yesterday, or last night, Arwin, when we are,
Chelsea is reading the story. Arwin has this little toy, toy, you know, these Paul Patrol figures,
these little things. And so she's trying to play with them while Chelsea is sharing this. And Chelsea
and I are like, honey, look us in the eyes. We're going to move these out of the way. We're going to
move everything off the countertop that you could look at, everything else, and we want you to
just look at us, and we're going to talk here, we're going to do this for five minutes,
and then you can play right afterwards, okay? And, but again, you know, you've got, maybe for you,
it's not Paul Patrol figures or bluey, okay? Maybe it's something else, okay, or veggie tales.
But, but for our daughter, it was, for you, you know what it probably is? It's probably social media
or email or people, okay? It's family coming in and out of the room. It's, you know, you're checking
your social media or their phones ringing, there's emails, there's all of those things.
Remove all the distractions. Research from the University of California, Irvine found that it takes
an average of 23 minutes to regain focus after distraction. Think about that, the amount of time
wasted. Reducing notifications, by the way, on your phone and computer led to a 30% increase
in task efficiency among steady participants. So turning your phone on, do,
not disturb. Listen, everyone's going to survive and make it if your phone's not and do not disturb.
I mean, up until I'm trying to think, I got a cell phone in 2002. So I didn't get one until I was 20 years old.
And I survived. I made it. I got a hold of my mom. I got a hold of my dad. I mean,
we have become way too dependent on these and allowing them to distract us in our life.
So remove distractions. It will destroy the laziness. And that'll keep delay.
from destroying you and living your best life possible. I mean, I truly believe that social media
today and emails and distractions are the biggest thing destroying our quality of life today. It's keeping us
from doing more via what God has called us to do using our unique gifts and skills. It's keeping us
from having more meaningful relationships. It's keeping us from fulfilling our purpose. It's like we're
bearing our talents in the sand and we're not multiplying them because of it. Number five, adopt a do it now
mindset. Here's why it works. Procrastination compounds laziness while a media action builds momentum. You hear
this word again, momentum, momentum, momentum. You want to just build up to these little things that build
momentum. Doing it now helps. There's a study published in the psychological science journal
demonstrated that people who address small tasks immediately were 42% more likely to complete their
entire to-do list. Okay. And that's what you should do. Should you have a to-do list? You remove distractions and
boom, get after it.
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I actually did this for a time.
I remember in college, I learned.
I was taking my last year of college,
I was reading a Tony Robbins book,
and he shared this principle.
And I actually started saying to myself,
when something came up,
I actually started saying it out loud
if there weren't a lot of people around.
And if not, I said in my head,
I said, do it now, do it now, do it now, do it now.
I would make myself say do it now
until I did it, until I started doing the action.
So do that to yourself.
Right now, if you're a procrastinator, I challenge you, keep telling yourself in your head,
do not allow yourself to stop to say, do it now, do it now, do it now, do it now, do it now,
until you just start doing it.
By the way, this is true with a lot of things.
I want to show this.
There are a lot of you who God has equipped you and called you to do something really amazing,
really amazing.
Maybe educating your children a deeper way, maybe being involved with church, maybe going after
that relationship you know you need to go after.
Maybe it's a romantic relationship or more of a,
you know, a relationship in business or, or asking, you know, finding a mentor for your life.
Maybe it's writing the book.
Maybe it's starting the website.
Maybe it's starting the podcast, starting the practice.
There's something.
And you've been waiting to do it.
You haven't started yet.
You haven't even started.
I had a mentor tell me this.
He said, you know, what, you're better off to fire ready aim.
You know, you fire off, you try some things, and then you adjust along the way.
And the most successful people I see in businesses, they do, they're fast starters, okay? And they do,
they just start doing things to see what works. You know, like if I would have waited until I knew everything
or things were perfect to start my, you know, to start my website or to start this podcast or anything else,
I probably still wouldn't have started yet, right? And so you want to just get started, get going,
and then take some time early on to then plan and adjust and improve.
But for a lot of you, you just need to get started.
Number six, surround yourself with motivated people.
I remember reading this study from Duke University,
and they found that the number one way to become more discipline yourself
is hang out with more disciplined people.
The number one way to grow spiritually is to hang out with spiritually strong people.
The number one way to become more wealthy is to hang out with a certain type of wealthy person.
The number one way to grow in characters become around great character people.
In order to become a great parent, hang out with other great parents.
Surround yourself with motivated and inspiring people.
Here's why it works.
Social environments influence behavior.
Environment is the biggest thing that impacts you.
It's your environment.
It's not genetics.
It's your environment.
A 2020 study in the Nature Communications Journal found that people with motivated peers are 78% more likely to adopt.
productive habits. 78% that is huge. 78% more success, 78% more impact by hanging out with motivated,
inspiring people. Here's what you want to do. I want you to take your top five people you spend
time with and write down how iron sharpens iron they are for you. Do they make you better? They
motivate you. Do they inspire you? Do they make you better? Okay. On a scale of 1 to 10,
those five people, how would you rank them on a scale of one to ten? Now I want you to go and write
down the people you know that are most inspiring that you could get connected to in person.
Could be your local church, could be a business group, could be CrossFit, could be your fitness
club, wherever it is. Okay. Write down those people and try and spend more time with them.
Now listen, I want to tell you, I had this happen once in life. So now I was quite a bit younger
than Dave Ramsey. But I was at a Dave Ramsey event. And I walked up to him, by the way, this is when I was
26 or 27 years old. I just moved to Nashville, was just opening my functional medicine practice.
And I was an inspired person. I was bold. I had a lot of hutspa. And I went up to Dave and said,
Dave, would you mentor me? And Dave said, Josh, I'm so honored that you ask, but I just don't have the
time. And so I got shut down there. And now since then, I've been really blessed. I actually
We had Dave on the podcast this year and he's become a, you know, a friend in some ways here in the
national area. But I, you know, I got shut down. So, but my point with that, but then I got
connected to Jordan Rubin, that I got connected to amazing friends I have from everyone from, you know,
Dan Sullivan to Isaac Meek, to just so many, you know, Chris Motley, just amazing people I have in my
life. Andrew East, Colt Moore, and I have a lot of friends and people that inspire me, that are
motivated people. And so it's not always, again, my point is this, don't necessarily first,
you know, at first glance, go after, again, you know, the Dave Ramsey in your life or the John
Maxwell in your life. These are people that, you know, now I have some people I'm really blessed
to be connected to in that way. Craig Rochelle has become a friend over the past few years and
people that I'm really honored to be able to connect with. But I'm saying this to say,
go and hang out with people that you can, you know,
you can start to hang out with, right, that are motivated and inspiring people. And also, let me say
this, when you go into a relationship, focus less on what you're going to get from the person and
focus more on what you're going to give. If I step into a relationship with someone like a Dave
Ramsey or a Craig Rochelle or John Maxwell or the friends that are more peers of mine today,
I'm more deeply connected to, like a Chris Motley or these people, I really go into those relationships
thinking about how can I love this person, how can I bless this person, how can I bless this person,
make their life better, how can I help them become all that Christ has called them to be?
So one, you should pursue being around more motivated, inspiring people, but oftentimes
you want to be able to, if it's appropriate, be able to connect with them, support them in some
way as well.
Now, sometimes you just really need to be the disciple, right?
And you have that mentor in your life.
And let me just say this as well.
This is such a gift for the mentor that you might have.
if they're discipling and coaching you and you do what they say.
It's so rare today.
I mean, like for myself, if I have somebody who is in a position where I feel like,
okay, if I sew into them, it can reap a harvest.
And I sew into them and they don't do what I ask them to do or what I'm challenging
them to do.
And they've essentially asked me for advice or some form of mentorship.
And they don't do it.
I feel like I've been farming and taking, I've been taking seeds and I'm just dropping
it on concrete and it never grows.
It's honestly, it's very disheartening for me.
So I won't continue mentoring that person.
However, if I have somebody and I'm sewing seed and all of a sudden I look up the next year
and they have grown and they're being fruitful and they're multiplying and they're doing
big things with their life and they're inspiring others, I am so motivated knowing I sowed seed.
It was on good soil.
I want to continue to sew in that very same area into that very same person.
So if you have an opportunity to be mentored, go above and beyond with what they shared with you to do in taking action.
And then you know what?
You will eventually grow to a point where you might even outgrow that person and God sends along someone else or you pursue someone that God connects you with, that then you can grow even more.
That has been the story of my life of being really focused on, if I have a mentor pour into me,
do everything I can to be coachable and to be the good disciple in throwing down my nets and following
that person. And I want to encourage you to do the same. That's how you be, that's how that's how
discipleship should work. The other great thing I do want to mention is having an accountability,
buddy. You know, you know, Jesus had 12 disciples. And he had, you know, Peter, James, and John, right? And so you
have those accountability partners in life that you're walking through life with. So surround
yourself with those motivated people as well. And also, and by the way, I think there's power in
doing this in person, but also having those mentors and people in virtually as well. Like,
for instance, right now, I'm going through a series called the Gospel series with some experts
like Jordan Peterson, Bishop Robert Barron, Jonathan Pejiaw, some amazing people. And so I'm
kind of learning from afar. I'm reading some psychology books. I'm going through leadership books.
And so I'm learning from a far. But I also am learning from people in person on a regular basis.
And ideally, you want to have both if you can. Write down three people, two to three people,
let me just say two to three people that are inspiring and motivating that you can connect with in person,
in person and connect with those people more this year. Okay. Number seven, reflect and adjust
regularly. Regular self-assessment identifies roadblocks and helps refine strategies for improvement.
There was a study published in the Journal of Applied Psychology, and it found that people who
reflect daily on their goals increase their success rate by 33%. Here's what you do. You set aside
five minutes each evening or once a week. Well, the way that I tended to do this is I would do this
once a week, and I would do it on Fridays or Mondays, but I typically like to do it on Fridays. And I
like to take 30 minutes and just go through, okay, what are the stats for the business this week?
How did I do with my relationships this week? How did I do with, you know, the different, you know,
the dashboard of my life, okay? My faith, my, my fitness, my family, my work slash financial
life, my free time. Okay, I want to self-evaluate. How did I do in these areas? And how can I
do better next week and plan for plan better. That is huge for destroying laziness and creating a
breakthrough. Now, number eight I want to mention here is be laziness with healthy living. There's
something about eating healthy. And here's the biggest one, eat a healthy breakfast or your first meal
of the day if you're intermittent fasting. When I would have patients come in, one of the first things
I would tell them to do is change their breakfast. And I found if they changed their breakfast,
they didn't want to eat a healthier lunch.
And when they ate a healthier lunch, sometimes they'd want to eat a healthier dinner.
So I would have people do a high protein shake for breakfast.
And what I typically do is have them do about 20 grams of a collagen-based protein,
like a protein from bone broth or stem cell protein, something like that,
some sort of protein that's collagen-based.
Another 20 grams of a plant-based protein or some sort of muscle-building protein could be from
animal.
That's fine too.
So 40 grams of protein.
And then maybe some berries and some coconut.
milk, something like that. And I found that when they did that high protein super nutrient-tent
diet breakfast, man, I mean, it just helps so much. In fact, there was a study published in the
nutrition journal, and it found that high-protein meals improved focus and reduce fatigue by 28%.
So this could be protein powder. It could be eggs, that pastured eggs. It could be Greek yogurt.
Could be a handful of nuts like almonds or macadamia nuts. It could be tuna or salmon.
It could be, again, any sort of organic meat product.
But again, something high in protein is ideal.
Okay, so high protein there.
And avoid the sugary foods, okay?
The sugar and the seed oils, that's what will destroy your health.
That's what will destroy your blood sugar.
Stay away from those things.
Replace that with more protein and fiber and some nutrient-dense foods.
And there's plenty of studies showing that sugar totally plummet your psychological performance.
In fact, there was a study published in the Journal of Clinical Nutrition in 2016 that found the link between refined carbs and reduced brain performance and lethargy.
So, again, stay away from the sugar and seed oils there.
And then exercise, just moving.
Now, listen, number one, go on a lot of walks.
That's the best thing to do.
If you want to break up your day, work, then walk.
Work and walk and work and walk.
But one time a day, ideally, you want to do something a little bit more intensive exercise, whether it's weight training or getting on a spin bike or or, or, you.
Pilates or yoga or bar class or something like that, that's the best. But the very least,
do a lot of walking and mixed in with your work. And that's really going to help you beat laziness
because you're getting more blood flow. When you're just sitting around, like when you don't have
blood moving, it is, you're less motivated. There's less blood in your brain. You don't think
as well. Walking is so good for this. And one of the last things I want to say to in regards to the
health practices to beat lazinesses, getting good sleep. And the biggest thing here,
according to those studies, is going to bed early, okay? And then sleeping between seven to nine
hours. People that slept between seven to nine hours, according to a sleep medicine journal,
perform 20% better on tasks than those that slept less. So you do want to prioritize sleep,
trying to get to bed a little bit earlier, set an alarm for when you're going to go to bed and when
you're going to wake up, okay? Because a lot of times what happens, people get, they want to watch,
Okay, I'm going to watch one more episode of this Netflix show.
And then all of a sudden, you're up 45 minutes or an hour later.
So then you lose that hour of sleep.
So then you're tired the next day.
So beat that in that way as well.
And then I also want to say, you know, managing stress, reading your Bible is so powerful at this.
Spending time meditating or doing deep breathing.
This also helps mental fatigue being able to be motivated in that way.
Staying hydrated is important.
I recommend drink a lot of water.
Get one of those big Stanley cups.
Drink three of those a day.
you get out of just a little bit of electrolytes in there.
It's really, really good for your body there as well.
Well, I want to say this.
Listen, laziness is holding so many people back.
We have a culture of laziness going on with so many people today.
And it's due to getting sucked into social media, to TV, to technology.
And if you want to break free of that, follow the advice we shared today.
I really went through in terms of, you know, number one that we talked about,
make your goals more manageable in order to help you build momentum.
Create a morning routine. Remember, win the morning, win the day. Use the Pomodoro technique. Remember,
that's where you're working for 25 minutes, resting five, or you're working for 50, then taking a 10-minute walk and
you're kind of cycling in that way, and then remove the distractions. Again, the cell phones,
the email, putting your phone on Do Not Disturb is going to help this. Adopt a do-it-now mindset.
Do it now, do it now, do it now. Surround yourself with motivating people.
Reflect and adjust your life regularly and then beat laziness.
with healthy living and nutrition.
If you're going to do that,
you are going to experience absolute breakthroughs
in your life this year.
And implementing these habits, by the way,
they're like the law of compounding interest.
They multiply and multiply, and you get to later on in life,
and you created a breakthrough in your life.
And these small changes lead to big transformations.
Well, I want to say thank you so much for tuning in here
to the Dr. Josh Axe show.
Every week we're diving deep into the science and principles
behind how to grow in body-mind spirit.
And I want to say thank you for sharing this.
Again, sharing it on text messages and social media
and just helping other people learn the truth
about how to destroy laziness.
I appreciate it.
I also thanks all of you who are subscribed here to the show.
I'll see you on the next episode.
