Are you constantly exhausted from pushing yourself too hard? What if taking breaks and resting more could actually make you more productive and creative?
Devon Price’s book, Laziness Does Not Exist, challenges our negative views of laziness. His revolutionary perspective suggests that laziness is good and is actually a biological signal telling us when we need to slow down and rest.
Keep reading to discover why doing less might be the key to accomplishing more.
Laziness Is a Good Thing
If overwork is slowly killing us all, then clearly we need to set new expectations regarding how productive we can be. Price suggests a fundamental change in how we view “laziness”—not as a serious failure to be productive, but as a natural, positive biological response that lets us know when we need to slow down. Price argues that laziness is good because it is a sign that you need rest, that regular downtime is a necessity, and that relaxation boosts productivity.
The first thing Price says you need to recognize is that when you feel tired and unmotivated, these are biological warning signs you should listen to. Perhaps you’ve simply been pushing too hard at work, doing too much at home, snacking instead of eating right, or not leaving enough time for sleep. These signals might also reveal underlying physical or mental health issues that need to be addressed, such as poor lifestyle habits, anxiety, depression, or a host of physical ailments whose symptoms include low energy and fatigue. For many of these conditions, trying to “power through” them delays proper treatment and makes matters worse.
(Shortform note: Many of the issues tied to “laziness” that Price discusses can be traced back to not getting enough sleep. In Why We Sleep, Matthew Walker warns that too much sleep deprivation leads to a growing deficit between the amount of sleep you need and the amount of sleep you get. This comes at a cost to your abilities to concentrate and control your emotions. Worse, sleep deprivation has been linked to a list of health problems including heart disease, obesity, and even Alzheimer’s. To reverse the effects of a sleep deficit, Walker suggests keeping a regular sleep schedule, avoiding alcohol and caffeine before bed, exercising, and eating a normal diet—all of which may be challenging if you’re overworked.)
The Importance of Rest
The next attitude Price says to adjust is the thought that “wasting time” is a waste of time. Instead, it’s healthier to acknowledge that human beings can’t be productive every moment of the day. Building time in your schedule to simply do nothing can improve your mood, boost emotional healing, and make space for self-reflection and discovery. In this way, “wasted time” isn’t wasted at all—it’s productive in that it helps you build a healthier, more well-balanced you. If you’re constantly giving your all to your job, other people, and your daily grind, you’re missing out on yourself to the point that you can even lose track of who you really are.
The benefits of rest go beyond self-care. Downtime is essential for creativity and problem-solving. Price cites studies demonstrating that breakthrough ideas often come during periods of rest or distraction, not during focused work time. Many creative professionals back this up with anecdotes about having their best ideas while exercising, walking through a park, or detaching in some other way. These creative benefits even apply when people slack off at work. For example, research suggests that when employees take breaks to browse the internet on company time, it actually improves their productivity and helps them stay focused throughout the day.
Deprogram Your Beliefs About Laziness
The biggest barrier to accepting that so-called laziness can be good for you is the cultural belief we discussed at the beginning of this guide— that how much you accomplish defines you. Price refutes any equivalence between your productivity, your moral character, and your worth as a person. To undo this belief, he says you’ll have to decouple your ideas about productivity from your self-image and your views of other people while learning to focus on personal growth and setting boundaries around how much you can do.
Price says the key to overcoming the belief that how much you do equals how much you’re worth is to learn compassion, both for yourself and others. In your own life, you’ll have to come to terms with the fact that letting yourself be lazy means you won’t achieve as much—and that’s OK. You won’t be the perfect worker, the perfect parent, or the perfect friend, but those were never achievable goals, and chasing them isn’t good for your physical or mental health. Instead, Price suggests that you can strive to be as good a worker, parent, or friend as you can while still prioritizing your personal needs. This isn’t selfish—it’s self-care that pays higher dividends than spreading yourself thin and working down to the bone.
Also, Price argues that you shouldn’t look down on those who don’t fit society’s “hard-working” standards. It’s important to acknowledge that systemic issues like racism, classism, and ableism affect what opportunities people have, what unseen struggles they face, and how much they can achieve. We’re taught to label those we believe to be underachievers as “lazy,” when instead we should ask what obstacles they have that we know nothing about. Perhaps that employee who’s chronically late is caring for an elderly parent. Perhaps a person who can’t get a job was forced to quit school for mental health reasons. Price says the “lazy” label masks a host of real problems that ought to be addressed with kindness, not scorn.
Learn to Be Lazy
To escape from the trap of measuring yourself and others in terms of accomplishments, Price suggests that you need to shift your focus from external achievements to internal growth. A crucial part of this is understanding that personal growth isn’t a competition—it’s not something you track on social media or use to compare your progress to others. Instead, it’s a gradual process of change, healing, and awareness. As you slow down to focus on your needs and rediscover who you are, you don’t have to tick off any boxes on a scorecard. Instead, just be aware of each positive step and enjoy them as they come without needing to do more.
Price says the other vital step you’ll have to take is to learn not to be ashamed of limits on your time and energy. The majority of psychologists recognize that setting boundaries is crucial for healthy relationships. Price takes this a step further to argue that you should feel free to set boundaries in every aspect of your life—how much effort you put into work, how much you’ll do to support your friends and family, and how much you’ll be involved in any activity. As suggested before, this isn’t selfish behavior. Instead, think of maintaining healthy limits as playing the long game—by tending to your own well-being, you maximize how much you can give to yourself, your loved ones, and the world at large over a long, happy lifetime.
