It’s a Wednesday afternoon and you’re tired. But it doesn’t make sense; you haven’t completed any tasks on your to-do list and you haven’t done anything that would have depleted your energy. In fact, you’ve done less than you what you had originally planned to do. Instead of validating the idea that you might actually be tired, you fall into a loop of feeling guilty for not getting enough done. Sound familiar? This is the quickest way to burn out and what psychologist Devon Price calls “the laziness lie.”
Price breaks down this negative belief pattern in her book, “Laziness Does Not Exist”. This belief hurts our well-being, work ethic, and relationships. Price breaks down the negative beliefs many of us have around laziness and productivity by explaining how we can think differently.
What we consider to be lazy is synonymous with procrastination and is a result of our perfectionism and anxiety. I’m sure we’ve all procrastinated on a paper or midterm because we were feeling overwhelmed, anxious, stressed, and simply didn’t know where to begin. Others may consider us lazy, but the problem is that we care too much about the outcome of our work and it hinders our ability to get things done.
So what is laziness? Price breaks down three beliefs that drive society’s concept of laziness:
Your worth is your productivity.
This idea is problematic because children, the elderly, the disabled, and people with mental health disorders can’t always be productive. But that doesn’t mean that they are any less valuable. If you associate working hard with a complete to-do list, you will always take on more than what is healthy for you.
You cannot trust your own feelings or limits.
Because extreme productivity and “hustle culture” have been buzz words, you feel as though you are supposed to ignore or downplay anything that gets in the way of that productivity. A day of Zoom meetings and classes can leave you feeling fatigued, so you try to brush aside your exhaustion and tell yourself that you don’t deserve a break because you haven’t gotten anything done. This is a risky thought process because it leads us to have a distorted sense of those signals. We don’t trust the feelings of needing to stop working because we assume that they make us a lazy person. This can lead to burnout because we don’t allow ourselves to take a chance to breathe.
There’s always more that you could be doing.
This one is particularly dangerous because it comes down to much more than just work. We begin to displace that negative belief cycle onto other aspects of our life, leading us to feel like we’re not doing enough and therefore, aren’t enough. Take a moment to realize how irrational that sounds.
If your first reaction is to see emotion as a threat to your productivity, that means there are some improvements to be made. Pay attention when your first impulse is to question emotion and feelings of tiredness. If you think of rest and self-care only as a means to making yourself more productive, you aren’t really resting or taking care of yourself. As long as you are stuck in that negative belief cycle you will continue to measure your life on a scale of productivity.
So what is a healthy, realistic way to view productivity?
When it comes to measuring our productivity, we live in a world where most people have to work in order to live. Oftentimes, we can’t completely detach from the negative ways in which we measure our productivity.
Instead, try thinking about what you can get away with. Can you say no to taking on extra tasks? Can you say no to putting others’ needs before your own? Also, communicate with your professors. Ask for clarification, accommodations, and extensions when needed. When it is time for your exams and papers, make sure you’re giving yourself credit for everything you’ve done, including the things you have learned and not just how many hours you’ve studied.
Laziness is a lie. We all deserve to be happy and comfortable no matter what we do or don’t do.