To explore the benefits of laziness, we need to understand the meaning of being lazy and how we can measure it. Along the way, I am going to debunk common misconceptions about being lazy, and by the end of this post, you will understand why I’m proud to call myself lazy. Meanwhile, my goal is to convince you to adopt a lazier lifestyle.
What does it mean to be lazy?
Laziness is the “resistance to expend effort or energy”. To understand this better, we should first examine how we can measure effort. Doing the same task for a longer period will be more effort. For example, walking for eight hours is more effort than walking for one. However, you cannot simply measure effort based on time alone. Time increases effort, but it becomes difficult to compare effort when you are trying to reach a common goal using different methods, in different situations, for different durations. Is a 30-minute walk more effort than sprinting for thirty seconds? Running is physically more effort than walking, but it’s difficult to quantify which is more effort when the time of those activities differs. An added complexity is how an individual’s fitness affects how much energy someone will need to perform a task. As fitness increases, individuals will require less energy to perform a task. Either way, a lazy individual will want to follow the path of least resistance to reach their goal.
Myth 1: Lazy people work less
People commonly assume that lazy individuals prefer to work as little as possible. This assumption does not always hold true. Imagine someone not very fit attempting to run or walk a mile. The goal is to travel a mile. A walk will defiantly take longer but, is less effort than running. This means an unfit person will probably walk rather than run. This clearly illustrates how someone could be prepared to spend longer on a task to reduce the amount of effort.
Mental effort
Energy expenditure is not limited to physical activity. Solving a maths problem in your head requires more mental effort than using a calculator. Have you ever used a calculator to do a simple math problem when you could have done it quicker in your head? This is an example of where you worked differently to reduce the mental effort, potentially at the cost of time.
Learning something new is mentally taxing. Fortunately, like physical exertion, mental exertion can be decreased by improving fitness. Learning an additional language is easier for someone who already knows four languages. Another factor that influences mental effort is a person’s interests. Tasks you dislike require more effort.
Short or long term perspective
Many people view tasks in isolation, despite most actions in life being repeated. Seeing tasks as a reoccurring activity shifts the perspective of the most efficient way to complete a task. Through my ten plus years of working in process improvement, I have tuned my perception to think for the long term.
A long-term view shifts the scales on the method of least effort. Saving six minutes on an hour-long task might not seem worth the effort when you must learn a different approach. Doing that task a hundred times adds up to a week and a half in the office. Good laziness requires a long-term perspective.
Multiple solutions
Every task will have multiple paths to reach the goal. You may only know a few methods, with many more unknown solutions. Completing a task with a known approach provides a high level of certainty about how long it would take to complete. When there are unknown solutions, it becomes a lot more difficult to identify the critical path of laziness.
It is often easier to keep yourself busy, following the common path. Pausing to consider improvement demands more effort. Known solutions require less mental effort since you are following a familiar process. Consequently, many will work in the way they also do. My long-term mindset allows me to invest time in finding better solutions.
Choosing an unfamiliar path is risky; the time to find a new solution and potential time saved are uncertain. Fortunately, like most risks, you can learn from experience. I can now spot when something feels unnecessarily difficult, revealing a hidden and superior solution.
Myth 2: Lazy people take longer to complete tasks
Bill Gates once said, “I choose a lazy person to do a hard job. Because a lazy person will find an easy way to do it”. I find this extremely relatable, as I almost feel physical pain following a process that feels inefficient. I use this frustration to motivate me to find alternative approaches to reach an efficient solution. My experience of working in large organisations provides some fitting examples. In many organisations, you must provide a lot of project progress updates. Some might spend an hour each week creating these kinds of report, but my lazy tendencies drive me to find automated solutions to make them instead. There may be some extra effort required upfront. However, the subsequent weekly work is minimal. After a few weeks, you will already recoup the time investment.
Myth 3: Lazy Equals Less Productive
We have already shown that a lazy individual can perform tasks quicker. This also enables another myth to be disproved. The ability to finish tasks efficiently boosts productivity and creates extra time for other activities. When combined with a long-term perspective, individuals can dramatically improve productivity.
Summary
I have shown how being lazy can make you want to work longer and be more productive. This is possible by conserving energy through optimising efficiency. My laziness drives me to improve processes, making it one of my unique selling points. This advantage relies on my ability to learn, spot repeating patterns, and find more efficient ways to complete tasks. Join me in thinking long term to make life easier by embracing a little more laziness.
