Laziness Does Not Exist

by Devon Price

Our attention is less like a laser beam (which can be pointed at any single specific point we desire) and more like a rotating lighthouse lantern, temporarily bathing individual rocks in light as it continues to spin across its surroundings.

The more we overextend ourselves, the worse our work gets.

Work fatigue also kills creativity.

Maslach found that burned-out people felt adrift and hopeless. As they lost empathy for their clients, they also started experiencing a profound loss of identity, with no sense of purpose.

described their jobs as utterly unrewarding.

detached from all the things they...

burnout wasn’t just the by-product of hard emotional work (such as being a therapist or a social worker) but that it could be a consequence of working too hard in general.

debilitating self-doubt, and a growing sense of emptiness

pervasive sense of dejection and apathy

burned-out employees, even though they worked long hours, were actually less productive and engaged than other employees

Perfectionists were particularly susceptible to burnout, for example, as were people who set unrealistically high goals for themselves.

being burned out actually makes us worse at thinking and making decisions across the board.

worse impulse control

more likely to make bad decisions

depression and anxiety,

burnout can exacerbate the symptoms of any other mental illness

Overwork strips many of us of our health, our cognitive capacity, and even our passion for life.

Instead of tying your value as a person to the number of hours you spend at work, focus on the results.

Consider your work in terms of these questions: What’s something I accomplished this month that I’m really proud of? How have my skills grown in the past year? Have I found more effective ways of doing old tasks? Have I improved processes at my workplace or made things run more smoothly? How have I supported other people in doing their jobs more effectively?

Sometimes, doing a job well means letting other responsibilities drop, at least for a little while.

Achievements are fleeting things. They can never bring us true satisfaction.

There is no victory great enough to overcome the dictates of the Laziness Lie.

Dr. Fred Bryant is a researcher in the field of positive psychology, the science of optimism, happiness, and what helps people thrive.

“So much of psychology is focused on treating negative symptoms,” Fred says, “like depression or anxiety. We act as though the opposite of being depressed is simply being not depressed. But that’s not true! We can do more than just be not depressed; we can study what makes a person truly happy, what makes a person feel like their life is beautiful, that it has meaning.

finding joy and meaning all comes down to “savoring.” Savoring is the process of deeply and presently enjoying a positive experience.

first, when anticipating

then, when fully appreciating the positive moment as it’s happening;

finally, when looking back on the experience with a sense of re...

Frequent savorers experience less depression.

People suffering from chronic pain, heart disease, and cancer experience better long-term health outcomes if they know how to savor the good things in life, and they find their illnesses less depressing and stressful

when we’re stressed and caught up in routines, we experience time as moving more quickly.

Do Something You’re Bad At If you’re a habitual overachiever and trophy hoarder, odds are you absolutely loathe doing things you’re bad at. This is a particularly common problem for people who were “gifted” students in school, or who were constantly told as children that they were smart. When you’ve spent your whole life chasing praise for being naturally good at things, it’s deeply unpleasant to do anything badly.

Getting comfortable “wasting” our time on something unproductive and unsuccessful frees us up to choose our own goals and priorities instead of checking off the boxes society has laid out for us.

“When I realized just how much my thoughts and ideas were worth, I realized I needed to stop giving them away for free,” Joan says. “The immediate dopamine hit of several thousand likes and shares, or even an extremely viral post, is nothing compared to the validation of getting compensated.”

“I had to take a step back and sacrifice the immediate rush of virality and likes for the sustained feeling of accomplishment that comes from a serious, larger project.”

A Digital Sabbath works exactly the way you’d expect: you set aside at least one day per week during which you ignore all your devices and notifications.

set boundaries, such as refusing to answer e-mails or check notifications after a certain hour of the night.

treat self-improvement and growth as pleasurable, gradual processes, not goals

The Laziness Lie encourages very binary thinking. People are either hardworking no matter their circumstances, or they’re hopelessly lazy.

to engage with information meaningfully, we have to set limits on how much of it we take in.

The world is huge, and everywhere we turn, some horrific injustice is occurring. We can’t engage with all of it, and we don’t need to feel guilty or “lazy” for refusing to try.

When we first encounter a new fact or idea, our brains review it in a very surface-level way.

It’s only by taking the time to reflect on new knowledge that we can really make deeper sense of it.

Researchers sometimes call this process “elaboration.”36 It takes a lot of energy and attention to elaborate on new information.

When a person is distracted, tired, or suffering from serious information overload, they can’t really elaborate on anything new.37

Taking a slower, more contemplative approach to learning can help us to be more thoughtful and critical, ...

when I slowly work through a lesson and give people plenty of time to digest it, discuss it, and even challenge it, they can come to comprehend it in a more lasting, personal way.

consume less information in a more meaningful way.

Active reading is the exact opposite of the frantic doomscrolling

Visualize what the text is describing.