My understanding of "laziness" 🦥
I've been brought up to believe that it's healthy to keep one steady workflow for months on end, but is that really true? Many of us have been taught to believe that being lazy is bad, and that the only way to succeed is to be constantly productive. However, in my experience, it's in fact quite healthy.
The creative aspect of it 🎨
Being lazy can lead to greater creativity. When we’re constantly working, our brains get overloaded with information and our creativity greatly declines. But when we take a break and allow our minds to fool around a little bit, I think we can start to see the bigger picture. So even if you don’t feel like doing something, it’s important to take time off and give your brain a rest.
The bigger picture 📸
As I mentioned, being lazy can help you focus on the bigger picture. When we’re constantly working, it’s easy to get bogged down and lose sight of the "finish line", so to speak. But when you take a break from your work, you can step back, gain a little bit of clarity, and then get back to it!
However, as someone in the comments of this post already noted, it's important for us (mainly me) to remember that you can't always do this. I think "scheduled" laziness is a good idea, and it's a habit that I'd like to try and get into.
Recharging 🔋
Finally, being lazy can help you recharge, and really get back into it! When you never take a break, it’s easy to get worn out and burned out. Taking a break and allowing yourself to be lazy can give your body and mind the rest they need to stay productive.
Be lazy.
To sum it all up, being lazy is good. In fact, with my somewhat loose schedule, I sometimes just decide to not do anything on a certain day. Its nice to get up, say "I feel horrible today", and just relax for the rest of the day. I think the best thing you can do, is do nothing.
Do you have a problem? If yes, do something about it, and don't worry about it. If no, don't worry about it
Top comments (4)
Except when you are developing infrastructure software, then you can't be lazy. It's okay when you are application developer and are using premade components.
Fair point, I forgot to mention that I don't think this applies to every situation.
I just wanted to jump in and share that I find your statement: "But when we take a break and allow our minds to fool around a little bit, I think we can start to see the bigger picture." to be inaccurate.
Our minds do not relax when we let it loose to freely think random thoughts, this is a common misconseption. As a matter of fact, our minds relax when we keep a singular focus, in other words, when we meditate. After we have relaxed our minds from the stress, the tension and the constant inner chatter, we have a better chance at looking at things from a different angle, receieve inspiration and see the bigger picture.
According to mayoclinic.org: "Meditation is a type of mind-body complementary medicine. Meditation can help you relax deeply and calm your mind.
During meditation, you focus on one thing. You get rid of the stream of thoughts that may be crowding your mind and causing stress. This process can lead to better physical and emotional well-being."
Steve Jobs did say once that he would choose a "lazy" man to do a job for him because he would find an easier way to do it. I just think that Mr. Jobs thought of "lazy" in a little different way than the dictionary definition of lazy. Laziness as idelessness and unwillingness to use any kind of energy at all (even to work) but then those people would not last long in their profession and would end up on the street as well. I do not think this is what Mr. Jobs had in mind. Steve Jobs and other successful people did not get to where they are by being lazy in the traditional sense of the word. But instead, by being smart and working smart (by thinking outside of the box) in a world where most people choose to work harder instead, which is what I believe he meant when he used the word "lazy" in that context.
This is really interesting to me, and it's so well written. This is kind of what I was trying to get at (maybe, I forgot that I even wrote this to be fair), but I don't think I had the words for it.
Anyways, I really like how you put this. It changed the way I think about relaxing -- for the sake of solving a problem at least. I'll certainly be thinking about this next time I run into a seemingly unsolvable problems xD.