You Need to Change Your Attitude Towards Laziness
Part of the attraction of Friday is that you look forward to what you’re going to do over the weekend (at least for those who don’t usually have Saturdays and Sundays). You may start to think that you will need some time to unwind, but after an hour or two on the couch or in bed (or wherever you go to unwind), guilt sets in.
After all, you have so many things to do at home, and you’re always too tired to do it after work, that you feel like any time spent unproductively on the weekend is wasted. Or, more accurately, that you are lazy. But is it really you? We don’t know your personal situation, but there’s a good chance you might benefit from rethinking how you feel about laziness. Here’s how to do it.
How to rethink laziness
If you ask social psychologist Devon Price, PhD, about laziness, he will tell you that it doesn’t exist. (If he says something else, he might have to rethink the title of his book, Sloth Doesn’t Exist .) This may seem over the top, especially in a culture that glorifies productivity and denigrates entire demographics as “lazy”— but it kind of makes sense.
“Laziness is usually a warning sign in our bodies and our minds that something isn’t working, ” Price told NPR in a September 2021 interview. “The human body is so incredibly capable of signaling when it needs something. But we have all learned to ignore these signals as much as possible because they pose a threat to our productivity and our concentration at work.”
In other words, rather than viewing laziness as a character flaw and/or something we need to fix, Price recommends looking at it as something your body and brain are letting you know they need a break instead of doing it. more work.