Our Gemara on Amud Beis quotes a verse in Mishle (6:9):
עַד־מָתַ֖י עָצֵ֥ל ׀ תִּשְׁכָּ֑ב מָ֝תַ֗י תָּק֥וּם מִשְּׁנָתֶֽךָ׃
How long will you lie there, oh lazyone; When will you wake from your sleep?
Let us take this time to discuss psychological ideas about laziness and its cure. There is such a thing as bad character. However, psychology, unlike mussar, looks to understand and correct human behavior from an amoral lense, that is without conception of good or evil, only what is more or less functional. There are a variety of causes for laziness and approaches to address it.
Before we discuss what causes laziness let us consider that there is something unnatural about it. It is the natural state of the human to gravitate toward challenges and mastery. After all, have you ever seen a lazy baby? Think of the kind of energy, focus and persistence it takes to master the art of speech or walking? Even children with significant learning disabilities manage to develop these tasks. So, something happens that kills off the natural drive and desire for mastery, challenge and success.
It is also important to consider that laziness is not the same as depression, even though it looks similar. This is especially the case in regard to surly adolescents, who get defiant when depressed, and also have increased irritability. Even more confusing, is that in point of fact, pushing through and doing activities and exercise is clinically proven to be helpful for depression ( https://www.health.harvard.edu/mind-and-mood/exercise-is-an-all-natural-treatment-to-fight-depression ). Thus, it’s a fine line between pushing a depressed person to “get out of bed and do something” versus thinking he or she is lazy for not doing it.
Of course there are also physiological conditions that can mimic depression, fatigue and lethargy. Thyroid problems, anemia, vitamin D deficiency and others. Any time someone is not functioning well it is important to get a thorough physical. It is surprising how certain physical disorders can be misdiagnosed as psychological.
One of the major psychological sources for so-called laziness is avoidance. Avoidance and procrastination is a defense against feeling like a failure. Psychologically speaking, a person imagines he will feel more in control and more confident when avoiding studying for an exam or applying for a job, than putting effort into it and failing. Frequently perfectionism is another aspect that is a part of the avoidance/fear of failure nexus. That is, the person has internalized high standards and therefore cannot feel that his or her “hard work” would likely yield enough results to warrant efforts. Think about it this way, feeling good or accomplished is the fuel that energizes our actions. If the tasks performed or even attempted yield little sense of mastery and confidence then this is like running a business on credit without paying your workers or suppliers. You can get away with this for a few weeks, but soon you’ll be bankrupt with zero credit. A person who is filled with negative and self critical perceptions, will not allow him or herself to feel accomplished with whatever steps are taken.
This is why rehabilitation from procrastination and avoidance behaviors requires an attack on the perfectionistic trends that are behind them. It is important to set much smaller intermediary goals, and to allow for reflection and a sense of accomplishment. For example, somebody who is preparing for an exam should not have as a goal to get a high score on the practice exam. That would require way too many discrete elements. Instead, the person should have a goal to study for one hour every day. After completing that studying, the person should allow him or herself to feel accomplished. The unhelpful self-talk might typically be something like, “big deal, you have a lot more to go. At this rate you’ll never pass.“ However, such kind of self talk is incredibly destructive, and as we said earlier, tantamount to not paying your workers. Jordan Peterson is famous for establishing a “done list“ instead of “do list“. In other words, instead of ending your day fretting about what you have not done, you reflect upon what you did do and feel good about that. You literally keep a list of tasks accomplished. The key is to define the tasks in much smaller discrete measurable and doable tasks.
Finally, it is important to define what is success and what is failure. Classically, and ironically, people define success and failure most often based on events that we have little control over. A person will define success in a job search as in getting a high-paying job. A person will define success in an exam as passing the test. A person will define success in dating and marriage as finding a life partner. The problem with all of these definitions are, is that they are only somewhat related to the original tasks and effort, and often involve aspects that have nothing to do with effort whatsoever. There are people who pass exams because they’re unusually good at taking tests, people who get jobs because they were lucky or had family connections, and people who find the right mate because they are attractive. None of these things are bad, and one should always leverage whatever God-given gifts and talents one is given. However, it simply is not an accomplishment in a moral sense of the word. There’s nothing to feel proud of if it didn’t involve your own effort, at least the part that did not involve your own effort is not worth feeling proud about. Yet, the person who diligently applied for three jobs And interviewed four times but did not succeed feels like a failure, while the person who gets the job after one try feels like a success. The person who passes the exam without studying feels like a success often more so than the person who studied for the exam very hard and still feels like a failure, because after all technically he or she failed. This is a psychological illusion that we all are beset by, but the perfectionist/avoider must work hard on changing this troubling Nexus of beliefs. Success must be defined as sticking to the plan. If the plan was to study one hour a day, that is a success. If the plan was to network with five people and send out resumes that was a success. If the plan was to be sociable, make friends, make connections and search for a mate, that is a success.
You might argue, “be real, that is not actually what gets you ahead in the world. But you have to think of it as a good investor thinks of a stock. One does not invest or sell a stock based on a short term dip or rise. One invests in a stock based on the long-term fundamentals if they are solid. If a person engages in positive behaviors, appreciates them, perhaps from time to time needs to adjust them and change the goals based on input from real life, here she will succeed over time. After two weeks of studying, you might have to change your plan and study two hours a day instead of one, if you see that the results are not quite what you wanted. After dating with a certain type or in a certain venue, if you are not successful, you might have to rationally change your approach. However, the success or failure is to deal with setting a goal, that is intermediate, doable and measurable , a clear plan, and executing the plan. That is success.
It takes time to change the inner system of representation, especially in our world that pays lipservice to effort, but truly rewards superficial accomplishment and skills. Yet, in time this is completely within a healthy person's ability.
Translations Courtesy of Sefaria, except when, sometimes, I disagree with the translation 
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