You’ve been lied to. Laziness doesn’t exist.
I can hear the cogs turning in your head. It goes against everything you’ve ever been told. Parents and professors spend half their time yelling at you to get working. So, let me rephrase. “Laziness” isn’t a character flaw but a symptom of a problem we aren’t confronting.
When people talk about laziness, they usually describe someone they think lacks effort. The assumption is that you have failed to meet expectations despite factors under your control. Under this assumption, laziness is a moral failing.
It’s easy to blame the individual instead of addressing the social and institutional factors that influence performance. In a world that tells us to try harder even when we’ve hit a wall, we should stop and consider who erected the wall in the first place.
In this post, we’ll talk about some common reasons you’ve been labelled lazy and what you can do to dissociate from that label.
No time to read the whole article? Read the summary here.
Table of Contents
Laziness is the symptom, not the problem
Under capitalism, our survival is directly tied to our ability to work. The system needs us to be productive to uphold the status quo—usually to the detriment of our physical, emotional, and social health. It pushes us to work hard and long hours with the allure of success. But what does that success look like? Will we be able to identify it once it appears? Will we be happy then?
If we dedicate every moment of our day to goal-oriented activity, it leaves no time for rest. When we sneak in a break, we feel guilty. Internal and external voices nag at us for wasting time and being lazy.
Fans of hustle culture and (toxic) productivity will tell you that fatigue isn’t an excuse for laziness. Still, your decrease in productivity is probably rooted in one of the following issues:
Burnout and Declining Mental Health
The Problem:
Taking care of your mental health in today’s fast-paced environment is an extreme sport. We work in high-stress settings, face tight deadlines and tackle constantly evolving roles. It’s easy to become overwhelmed.
While you struggle through your work or school day – after a night of poor sleep – others might notice your declining performance and call you lazy when you’re just burnt out from working too hard for too long. The three main features of burnout are:
- Exhaustion
- Cynicism
- Reduced efficiency
Extreme exhaustion can impact your physical health and lead to social isolation, putting you at risk for mental illnesses like anxiety and depression.
The Solution:
When we have a rare break in our schedule, we’re taught to use it to check a box on our to-do list. Even if we choose to take a break, our minds usually fill with a long list of “shoulds” and “could haves” that deny the opportunity for proper rest.
The solution to fatigue and burnout is to rest deliberately. We must train ourselves to believe that taking breaks isn’t time wasted. Rest does not necessarily mean doing nothing. It means spending time with your community and doing things you enjoy without guilt.
Read this article to learn more about how to identify burnout and what to do about it.
Decision Fatigue
The Problem
If burnout isn’t the cause of your decreased productivity, you may be mentally overwhelmed in other ways. It may sound something like, “What am I wearing today? What will I have for breakfast? Look at all these notifications. Should I respond to this email now or later?” Every day is an avalanche of decisions made worse by the technology at our fingertips. The stress of constant decision-making takes its toll.
In response, you may avoid choices altogether or act impulsively as your brain looks for shortcuts. That doesn’t make you lazy. It means you are fatigued and don’t have the coping mechanisms to overcome your mental overload.
The Solution
- Delegate: minimise the number of decisions you have to make. Relinquish control over more minor choices and leave them for someone else. When you’re feeling stuck, there is no shame in asking for help or a second opinion. Ask a colleague or friend to step in and ease your mental load.
- Plan ahead to reduce the pressure of making last-minute decisions on a tight deadline. For example, planning your outfit the night before a big presentation removes the scramble of figuring out what to wear in the morning when you’re already in a hurry. Schedule time to make important decisions that need lots of thought and research.
- Desolve self-doubt: Self-doubt makes decision-making stressful. If you can prove to yourself that you make good decisions, you will grow confident, and each decision will feel less stressful over time.
A Lack of Motivation
The problem
Motivation is a hot topic in psychology research and productivity circles. There are countless online articles and videos about how to stay motivated. If we combine the theories of motivation, most of them have two things in common:
- The value attached to a behaviour – guided by your interests, skills and goals
- The expected outcome of the behaviour – the chance that your efforts will result in a desired outcome
The reason you’re stalling on your next project isn’t because of a personality flaw. It isn’t that you’re incapable of hard work. Instead, you can’t find enough value in the task to motivate you, or the expected outcome isn’t essential or desirable enough.
We can take this concept one step further and talk about sources of motivation. Where does the value we assign to things come from? I’m sure you’ve heard the terms intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. If we dig a bit deeper, there are four common types of motivation:
- Extrinsic Motivation: driven by external factors, e.g. rewards, awards, salary bonuses
- Intrinsic Motivation: self-driven through things that align with your sense of self, your interests or things that bring you pride and pleasure
- Introjected Motivation: results from an internalised pressure to avoid shame or garner appreciation
- Identified Motivation: internalised motivation to perform a task because you self-identify its importance and value the outcomes
These factors are further mediated by our identity, self-esteem, and emotional wellness. It’s complicated, but the solutions don’t have to be.
The Solution
Ideally, you would only have to work on the things that matter to you. We all crave control over our lives and where we expend our energy. A strong enough extrinsic motivator like a good salary or an award will get us through a few difficult tasks, but that motivation wears off quickly, and those acts lose meaning. Instead, we should nurture conditions that sustain motivation.
One way to do this is to choose goals that align with your identity. In other words, “I want to do X because I am a Y type of person”. For example, I want to write this book because I have unique knowledge, creativity and insight that can be helpful and entertaining to others.”
For the above strategy to work, you need good self-esteem and a sure sense of self. You also have to be clear about your values. Here’s an exercise in an earlier post about the value of self-reflection that may provide some guidance. Once you’re clear on your goals and values, write them down somewhere visible. You will need a reminder of what you’re working towards and why.
Through this process, you will have given yourself a sense of control, boosting your intrinsic and identified motivation. You will also have recognised the things you don’t value as much. Find ways to distance yourself from them.
There’s a well-researched video on motivation by Ali Abdaal on YouTube for anyone who wants to learn more.
Self-sabotaging
The Problem:
Have you ever wanted something so much that all you could do was curl up into a ball and stare at the wall for hours?
Self-sabotage occurs when our behaviour contradicts our goals or desires. Procrastinating is usually not a conscious decision. When we make excuses for not getting the job done, the problem may be rooted in a fear of failure. Or worse, a fear of success.
Remember when we mentioned self-esteem earlier? Even people with high self-esteem hold limiting beliefs about themselves. However, the negative beliefs we nourish become self-fulfilling prophecies. For example, “I might as well start on this essay later because I’ll do poorly anyway.” Then, to confirm your suspicions, you get a bad grade because you didn’t give yourself enough time to plan and execute your idea well.
The Solution
The first step is to recognise that you are self-sabotaging. The signs can be subtle: setting impossibly high goals, refusing to ask for help, constantly putting yourself down. Overextending yourself may be another symptom of self-sabotage. Workaholics, perfectionists, and people-pleasers, this is about you. You may be mismanaging your time and energy by micromanaging others or putting all your effort into achieving someone else’s goal. That time could be better invested in your goals and community.
You won’t undo self-sabotage overnight. Instead of aiming for a complete turnaround, recognise small improvements. Aim for progress rather than perfection. Building the self-esteem to overcome your negative beliefs takes self-compassion, reflection, and a lot of patience. If you feel like you can’t undo the cycle yourself, it’s okay to approach a coach or therapist to help guide you.
Lastly, stop procrastinating! Yes, it’s much easier said than done, but read this article for five tips on beating procrastination.
Summary
Laziness is a capitalist construct used as a weapon to normalise the current social order and promote money and power above personal well-being. The label “lazy” tries to blame individuals when the problem is systemic and causes ubiquitous exhaustion. When people call you lazy, what they’re seeing is one of the following:
- Burnout and mental decline
- Decision fatigue
- Lack of Motivation
- Self-sabotage
The solution to all these problems can be summarised as this:
- Radical rest
- Prioritise yourself and your community over capital and corporations.
- Self-reflection, compassion and value identification
- Build strong self-esteem and living that aligns with your identity.
Conclusion
The gears in the capitalist machine will keep turning with or without you. You are replaceable in the workforce, but your health and community will not recover as quickly. Invest in yourself, your goals, and the people you hold dear. Recognise that your “laziness” is probably a symptom of something more serious, and invest time into finding solutions.
There is only one of you and only one life. Spend it cultivating joy around yourself.
Resources
Ali Abdaal. (2023, March 14). Why you struggle to stay motivated. [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-0FD5NDWLU
Madsen, T. (2018). The conception of laziness and the characterisation of others as lazy. Human Arenas, 1(3), 288–304. https://doi.org/10.1007/s42087-018-0018-6
Vu, T., Magis-Weinberg, L., Jansen, B. R. J., Van Atteveldt, N., Janssen, T. W. P., Lee, N. C., Van Der Maas, H. L. J., Raijmakers, M. E. J., Sachisthal, M. S. M., & Meeter, M. (2021). Motivation-Achievement Cycles in Learning: a Literature Review and Research Agenda. Educational Psychology Review, 34(1), 39–71. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-021-09616-7