A man once asked R’ Chaim Kanievsky zt”l, how he can acquire the middah of zerizus, when by nature he was lazy and the effort to act with alacrity and learn Torah was difficult for him.

R’ Chaim answered:

A person must think that he is the only person in the world, that he has just this one day to live, and that all he has to learn is this single daf in front of him right now.