How to stop colonists from loitering around when there's work to do?

[Nomad22]

I've made everyone have all jobs so that everyone will be doing something and what I assign will get done fast, but even when I have no idle colonists, it seems they all like to do nothing for some time, or do go cloudwatching whenever they feel like it, (for hours) and then work. Is there any mods that stop this?

[ThiIsMe007]

If you have assigned all the proper working priorities and your colonists do it, they probably need doing it.

Joy is an essential activity in the game.

[billycop32]

do you have them scheduled for joy or anything in the time manager? if they aren't scheduled for work they will take care of their needs first.

[carbon]

It's not uncommon for colonists to fulfill their joy and hunger needs immediately after waking up.

If your colonists wake up around the same time, they'll probably eat and go for walks around the same time too even if you haven't scheduled it explicitly.

I have 4 colonists all set to 24h of 'Anything' and they still, weirdly, remain in sync with their sleeping, eating and "joying".

[Kindyj]

What I like to do is,

Set Community Chores(Firefighting, Flicking, ETC) To Priority One.
Set Burning passions to Priority Two, They Gain Joy while doing this and therefore Won't go off to do something else until it's done
Set Regular passions to Priority Three.
Set Everything Else To Priority Four.

Even if someone else initially has better skill than the guy with passion, I'd rather set the guy with the passion to do the job. I Figure in the long run, they will be better anyway.

[Shurp]

Use the restrict tab.  Set them to Work.  They'll work until they drop or go mad. 

I often do this after a wedding when everyone's mood is sky high and there is no need for them to engage in recreational activities.  Work 'em to warning, then release them to attend their needs.

[Generalkrunk]

I set up my pawns schedules like so: S=sleep W=work A=anything J=joy

SSSSSJJAWWWWWJAWWWWWWWSSS

I find this strikes a good balance between keeping them happy and actually getting things done. They don't get the middle joy section until around day 10 though.