Stuck in your lazy girl era? Here are 9 realistic tips you can follow to nudge yourself out of it and be active while feeling good about it.
Try as I might, I am not always my most active and productive self (despite writing about it for a living).
I have days when the thought of working out sucks my life energy, typing even a single word on my laptop is a struggle, and even the idea of going out with my friends seems like a drag.
This is what we call being in the lazy girl era, and it’s something a lot of women get stuck in time to time.
The why of it is kinda complicated, but we need to understand it a bit before diving into the action part.
It’ll help you feel less guilty and begin from a place of love.
Why Do Women Get Into the Lazy Era?
Most of the time, it’s a mix of mental fatigue, emotional overwhelm, hormonal shifts, and decision overload.
It’s the after-effect of pushing ourselves too hard for too long…or sometimes, the result of not having any structure at all.
If you’re constantly ‘on’, your body eventually asks for a pause. And if your days have no direction, your motivation quietly slips away.
Add to that the pressure of watching everyone online seem productive, glowing, and put together 24/7. Watching all that, it feels easier to do nothing than to try at all.
So you rest, but without intention. You scroll a lot, delay pending tasks, and tell yourself you’ll start tomorrow. And before you know it, a few slow days turn into a slow phase.
That’s how the lazy girl era sneaks in.
It doesn’t come from being incapable or unmotivated, but because you’re tired, overstimulated, and unsure where to begin again.
So, I don’t know how long you’ve been stuck in your lazy girl era, but this post will help you move out of it and create better days ahead.
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As I mentioned before, I am not unfamiliar with lazy girl eras.
I get stuck in them about once or twice a year, and the reason I am writing this post is that I had a temporary lazy phase just now after coming back from a vacation and losing sight of my goals and routines.
But I used these exact 9 steps to get myself back on track, and now, it’s your turn.
Whether you’re looking to be healthier, more productive, or just not be lazy in general, this post will help you with it all. Here you go, girl:
8 Ways To Leave Your Lazy Girl Era Behind
1. Give your days a little structure with anchors
See, I get the appeal of going with the flow of things. I myself have days when I don’t like running on a strict routine.
But freedom without structures makes you lazy, especially if you’re already feeling low-energy.
If you want to exit your lazy girl era, you’re going to have to create a gentle daily structure that gives your day some shape.
But instead of looking at it as a schedule, think in terms of anchors.
Here’s what I would suggest:
- A morning anchor (something that signals the day has started)
- A midday anchor (movement, nourishment, or sunlight)
- An evening anchor (wind down, reflection, or comfort)
Your morning anchor could be making your bed and drinking something warm by a window. Your midday anchor could be a walk, stretching, or a proper lunch at the table.
Your evening anchor might be skincare, journaling, or preparing tomorrow’s outfit.
These anchors will stop your days from melting into one long scroll-and-snack loop. They’ll remind your nervous system that time is moving, and so are you.
You don’t need discipline, dear woman. You need rhythm, and rhythms are actually easy and fun to create and stick to.
Here are my current daily anchors (in case anyone’s wondering):
- Morning: Good breakfast (scrambled eggs with toast and oat milk coffee. I’ve been having the same breakfast every day this month)
- Noon: Working on social media for my blog
- Evening: A workout or a walk (whatever I feel like doing), followed by a shower
I try my best to do these three things at the same time every day, regardless of my mood and energy, and let myself make the rest of my hours flexible. The best way to shift from ‘lazy’ to ‘active enough’ energy.
2. Clean your space for your future self
Cleaning isn’t most women’s idea of fun, but a change of perspective can help you get started.
You need to realize that a messy space doesn’t just look chaotic, but it always keeps you mentally lazy.
When your environment is cluttered, your brain stays in survival mode.
You will procrastinate more, avoid tasks longer, and feel overwhelmed before you even begin working.
But the trick is to realize that cleaning isn’t punishment for yourself, but it’s setting the tomorrow-you for success.
You don’t have to clean the mess just because it’s needed, but because your future self will breathe easier because of it.
As always, start small but visible:
- Clear your bedside table
- Make your bed fully (pillows included)
- Tidy the space where you sit the most
- Wipe the surfaces in your room
- Clean the bathroom before taking your shower
When you clean little by little, your brain will get the memo that you’ll be taking yourself seriously again.
And this shift will pull you out of the mental fog faster than any motivational quote ever will.
P.S: To prove this point, I’d like you to clean something right after you’re done reading this post. Your sock drawer, desk, the kitchen counter — whatever messy area you can think of.
Set a timer of 10 minutes and just go. You’ll love the feeling afterward, I promise.
3. Move your body in ways that feel rewarding
The lazy girl era usually means no movement, so when a woman is coming out of this phase, she tries to exercise hard, and so it feels like a chore that she resents.
But to exit your lazy girl era for real, you need to redefine what ‘working out’ means.
Exercise doesn’t have to be intense to be effective. What it needs to be is consistent and mood-boosting.
Walking, yoga, Pilates, dance workouts, and stretching while watching a show — all of these very much count.
They improve circulation, regulate your hormones, and pull you out of mental laziness.
Just choose a movement that makes you feel light afterward, not sucked of energy.
Once movement becomes something you associate with feeling better, it will stop feeling optional. It’ll become a part of self-care, and something you genuinely enjoy and look forward to.
With time, you’ll find yourself wanting to try new exercises and challenge your body more.
But for now, stick to simple and happy movement, and it’ll do the work for you.
4. Fix Your Sleep-Scroll-Snack Cycle
I don’t know about you, but my lazy girl era always includes nightly habits that keep me stuck: late-night scrolling, random snacking, falling asleep overstimulated, and then waking up groggy and unmotivated.
Then the cycle just repeats the next day, making it very hard to shake off the laziness.
If you can relate, then I firstly want to make it clear that this does not mean you lack willpower (something that our brain berates us for).
It just means your nervous system is overstimulated and under-rested, and obviously, this needs to change.
How I go about fixing this is that instead of cutting everything out at once, I introduce one calming ritual before bed.
This could be:
- A skincare routine done slowly
- Reading a few pages of a book
- Writing tomorrow’s top 3 priorities
- Stretching for five minutes
- Eating an apple before bed
Don’t try to create a perfect sleep routine. Just do something that will signal to your body that the day is ending intentionally.
When your nights become calmer, your mornings become lighter, and your lazy mornings will usually disappear on their own.
5. Eat for both energy and comfort
In the lazy girl era, eating often swings between convenience and cravings.
And it’s not because you don’t care, but because decision-making feels very tiring when you’re already feeling lazy.
The fix for this is not a restriction, because you won’t be able to sustain that for long. The way to fix this is to simplify your food.
Create a few go-to meals that:
- Are easy to prepare
- You enjoy eating
- Keep you full
- Don’t spike and crash your energy
After my vacation, I was finding it hard not want outside food, so I made my food at home interesting.
So, I got myself a variety of tea bags and sugar-free cookies, started having protein shake so I am full and not craving as much, made sure to have a fulfilling breakfast, and cooked something tasty for dinner (the time when I usually felt like ordering).
When I had sweet cravings, I’d eat an apple with peanut butter and have whole wheat bread with organic jam.
This is how you combine comfort eating and mindful eating, and it’s very much doable!
Protein, fiber, hydration — these aren’t diet buzzwords, my friend. They’re energy tools.
When your body is properly fueled, your brain functions better. You procrastinate less, feel more capable, and don’t mistake low blood sugar for lack of ambition.
So, eat well, not for aesthetic or beauty reasons. Do it to get your spark back, both inside and out.
6. Set One Daily Non-Negotiable
Lazy girl era often has nights where you end up wondering what you even did today, and then feeling bummed because the answer is nothing.
To snap out of this, pick one intentional task that gives you a sense of completion.
This could be:
- A 20-minute walk
- Writing one page in your journal
- Cleaning one drawer
- Finishing one pending task (like the laundry)
- Working on a side business (like a blog) for at least 30 minutes
- Drinking 8 glasses of water
Once that one thing is done, your day will feel like a win, and you’ll be inspired to do more the next day and so on.
The beauty of doing a non-negotiable task is that it builds self-trust. You start believing that when you say you’ll do something, you actually will.
And self-trust is the real exit door from your lazy girl era, believe me.
7. Make ChatGPT your accountability buddy
I can’t believe I am actually recommending this, but yes, recruit ChatGPT for your help. It’s free, available, and most importantly, right there for your use.
In today’s busy times, you can’t really rely on other people to keep you accountable for your actions.
ChatGPT is convenient, non-judgmental, and actually quite fun to make plans with.
It’s the best accountability buddy I’ve ever had, and I am grateful (which is a shocking change, because honestly, I wasn’t a fan in the beginning, but this purpose has been so well met).
Open a new chat, type out how things have been lately, and tell it a new chat that you want to step out of your lazy era, and give it a timeline (like 30 days).
And then every day, show up, tell it that it’s day 1, and what you plan to do today, and then at the end of the day, come back and report about your day.
You’ll get some really good tips in return, some loving encouragement, and it’ll make you want to keep working on yourself.
8. Stop waiting for motivation and start building slowly
One of the biggest myths keeping you stuck in your lazy girl era is the idea that motivation will magically appear first.
I know this all too well, because I used to wait for the ‘right time’ to get things done, and the right time is usually when you get motivation, and the stars align, right?
But this isn’t good, because motivation won’t come before action, but after it.
Once you’ve moved your body, cleaned your space, or done anything small, that’s when you get a burst of ‘I feel so good today!’.
So, starting right this second, don’t ask yourself, ‘Do I feel like doing this?’ I mean, why even give yourself the chance to do nothing when you can do something?
When you’re just coming out of your lazy era, just ask yourself, ‘What’s the smallest version of this I can do right now?’
If a full workout is what you’re after, then just go for a 30-minute walk instead. Instead of doing a full productivity reset, clear just one surface or drawer.
Don’t fix your entire life, but just do something small like sending emails or drinking more water today.
The lazy girl era thrives on all-or-nothing thinking. But momentum thrives on ‘something is better than nothing‘ energy.
Once you start taking small actions, your brain will slowly reconnect effort with reward. You’ll stop seeing action as punishment and start seeing it as relief.
And that’s when things will begin to shift — quietly, steadily, and without dramatic personality changes that you can’t keep up with.
9. Make the process fun and engaging (romanticize)
Exiting your lazy girl era does not mean trying to be perfect. It’s actually all about romanticizing the effort and making it fun.
You don’t need a dramatic glow-up montage, and you don’t need to shame the version of you that rested.
You just need to get started (with any of the above tips) and make every step fun, light, and pretty for yourself.
Light a candle before you work, play music while you clean, and wear clothes that make you feel put together even at home.
Your progress doesn’t have to be loud to be real.
Some days, showing up might mean less scrolling and more breathing. Other days, it might mean taking action.
As long as you enjoy every day (because that’s the whole point of everything in life), you’re doing it right.
You’re not late to your life. You’re just waking back up to it. So, enjoy the journey and make it fun.
Ready to Walk Out of Your Lazy Era?
When you’re in your lazy girl era, you tend to believe that you’ve ruined your life. But you know what I think the purpose of a lazy phase is?
It’s to teach you what doesn’t work for you anymore, so you can do it less in the future.
The version of you who’s slowly choosing movement over numbness, intention over autopilot, and self-respect over guilt — she’s already on her way out.
All you have to do is keep showing up softly, consistently, and with a little more belief in yourself than yesterday.
Follow the tips in this post and let your inner magic guide you on.
If you have any questions or something to share, feel free to reach out in the comment box. I’m always here for you, girl.
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