Laziness Does Not Exist

by Devon Price

The Laziness Lie is a deep-seated, culturally held belief system that leads many of us to believe the following: Deep down I’m lazy and worthless. I must work incredibly hard, all the time, to overcome my inner laziness. My worth is earned through my productivity. Work is the center of life. Anyone who isn’t accomplished and driven is immoral.

Research on productivity, burnout, and mental health all suggest that the average workday is far too long, and that other commitments that we often think of as normal, such as a full course load at college or a commitment to weekly activism, are not sustainable for most people.

I found that by advocating for our right to be “lazy,” we can carve out space in our lives for play, relaxation, and recovery. I also discovered the immense relief that comes when we cease tying our self-image to how many items we check off our to-do lists.

Tired, burned-out people aren’t struggling with some shameful, evil inner laziness; rather, they’re struggling to survive in an overly demanding, workaholic culture that berates people for having basic needs.

Most of us tend to hold ourselves to ridiculously high standards. We feel that we should be doing more, resting less often, and having fewer needs. We think our personal challenges—such as depression, childcare needs, anxiety, trauma, lower back pain, or simply being human—aren’t good enough excuses for having limits and being tired. We expect ourselves to achieve at a superhuman level, and when we fail to do so, we chastise ourselves for being lazy.

Chronic overcommitters are experts at ignoring their bodily needs. Our economic system and culture have taught us that having needs makes us weak, and that limits are negotiable. We learn to neglect ourselves and see health as a resource we can trade for money or accomplishments. This brings us to the second tenet of the Laziness Lie: that we cannot trust our own feelings of exhaustion or sickness, and that none of our limitations are acceptable.

The Laziness Lie encourages you to ignore your body’s warnings, push through discomfort, and ask for as few accommodations as possible. And at the end of all that struggle and self-denial, there’s no reward. You never actually earn the right to take it easy, because the Laziness Lie also teaches you that you can never, ever do enough.

This is what the Laziness Lie has done to us. It has made us terrified of living at a slower, gentler pace.

which is quite sad because for many of us, especially neurodivergent folks, living at a slower gentler pace is essential for well-being

The Laziness Lie is deeply embedded in the very foundation of the United States. The value of hard work and the evils of sloth are baked into our national myths and our shared value system. Thanks to the legacies of imperialism and slavery, as well as the ongoing influence that the United States exerts on its trade partners, the Laziness Lie has managed to spread its tendrils into almost every country and culture on the planet.

Colonial America relied on the labor of enslaved people and indentured servants.17 It was very important to the colonies’ wealthy and enslaving class that they find a way to motivate enslaved people to work hard, despite the fact that enslaved people had nothing to gain from it.18 One powerful way to do so was through religious teachings and indoctrination.

This form of Christianity taught that suffering was morally righteous and that slaves would be rewarded in Heaven for being docile, agreeable, and, most important, diligent.19

For people who believe in the Laziness Lie, things like economic reform, legal protections for workers, and welfare programs seem unnecessary. Those who want to succeed just need to pull themselves up by their bootstraps, after all.

In reality, of course, fighting for change is a much more gradual, collaborative process.

it really sets up expectations in children that you just have to work hard and you will get what you want and defeat the evil and win the day. this is a concerning lesson. because truly as this quote States change requires a lot of collaboration a lot of strategy it's not a push and push and push until it gets done solution.

Our media rarely shows people setting limits, asking for help, or devoting their lives to the things that make them feel happy and safe. Of course, it’s much harder to tell a story about a happy person with a fulfilling, healthy life than it is to show violence, toil, and struggle.

The Laziness Lie has also followed us into our homes and private moments. Digital technology and social media fill our spare time with e-mails from coworkers, stressful notifications about appointments we’ve forgotten, and guilt-ridden messages about what our bodies, homes, and lives ought to look like.

It’s a strange paradox, but when we set out to do more than is good for us, we end up feeling like we’re not doing anything at all. If there are always more items on your to-do list than you can possibly check off, you will never feel accomplished.

When exercise, activism, and even talking with friends is tracked and measured by phone apps, you may start feeling like you’re constantly letting people down. We feel lazy, but it’s not because we’re awful, apathetic people—it’s because we’re exhausted.

“Wasting time” is a basic human need. Once we accept that, we can stop fearing our inner “laziness” and begin to build healthy, happy, well-balanced lives.

In a world that equates laziness with evil, saying no is often deemed unacceptable. Our culture looks down on people who quit things. Rather than encouraging their good judgment and self-respect, we perceive them as weak-willed or dishonest.

When an employee divulges to their manager that they have depression, they’re more likely to be punished for taking sick days than other employees are. Their odds of being fired go way up too, even if the quality of their work remains the same.

Apathy, low motivation, an inability to focus, a desire to “waste time” doing “nothing”—these are all valuable warning signs. They can teach us a great deal about our limits and needs. However, in order to benefit from this highly evolved, dynamic warning system, we have to learn to stop writing it off as inexcusable “laziness.”

We are not machines. Our bodies and minds aren’t set up to perform repetitive or mentally taxing work for eight or more hours per day. Still, many of us push through those limitations, forcing ourselves to work harder, and for longer, than is truly healthy for us.

Research suggests that people tend to cyberloaf as a way to relax and reinvigorate their brains, which is essentially the same reason employees do things like chat over the watercooler or futz around in the supply closet looking for a pen they don’t really need.22

When a person has been stretched to their limit, they may start to seem flaky and checked-out. They might come in to work late or cancel plans with friends at the last minute. They’ll have less drive to do chores or cook meals and may take frequent naps or zone out by playing repetitive video games. In general, they’ll have worse impulse control and far less energy than they used to. These aren’t signs that someone is a screwup or a failure. They’re signs of a person pushed to the brink.

When we’re able to rest and be lazy, we can learn new things about ourselves, or have fantastic insights that would never have occurred to us when we were focused on work.

Moments of insight and creativity don’t come by trying to force them—they require a period of mental inactivity.

When we consciously make time for idleness and embrace our naturally lazy feelings rather than pushing them away, we can learn what matters to us, and which demands need to be dialed way back. With a rejuvenated, relaxed mind, we can see new solutions to old problems and find new reserves of strength we didn’t know we had.

By slowing down and cutting back, we can figure out which demands in our lives we can afford to let go of. When we stop seeing laziness as the enemy, we can begin to feel good about that act of letting go.

giving up on an obligation can feel painful. Yet the more we learn to observe our own patterns and learn from them without judgment, the more we can build authentic lives that actually allow us to thrive.

countless studies have consistently shown the healing power of slowing down, being nonproductive, and listening to one’s emotions.

When we stop measuring our worth by how many items we check off of a to-do list, we can finally begin to seek out the activities that truly matter to us. When we set priorities based on our real feelings rather than society’s “shoulds,” we feel a greater sense of authenticity. And when we savor our free time and work to move at a slower, lazier, more intuitive pace, we begin to repair the damage that years of overwork has done.

Though many of us feel guilty for not being productive enough, the truth is that most of us are doing far more work than is healthy. We’re pushing our bodies and minds to the limit, ignoring the natural warning signs of tiredness and laziness, and encouraging others to do the same. When we push ourselves in that way for a prolonged period, we risk suffering from severe fatigue and burnout. If we want to break free of these damaging patterns, we need to embrace our very human needs and our natural “laziness” signals and find ways to work less, not more.

In addition to working more hours, employees today report higher levels of stress than recent generations did, particularly stress associated with job duties and poor management.

we can’t maintain consistent output for more than a couple of hours per day. People often find this startling to learn, but it’s really true—we were not made to work for a full eight hours per day, despite that being considered the reasonable, “humane” workday length in much of the world.