Be Lazy and Get More Done

Laziness gets a bad rep. I may not be the kind of person to spend her entire day in her pajamas, but even I like to indulge in a bit of laziness every now and again.

“I will always choose a lazy person to do a hard job because a lazy person will find an easy way to do it.”

You know who said that?

Bill Gates! Even he approves of a bit of laziness.

When you’re trying to put as little effort into things as possible you become good at finding the path of least resistance. Turns out that’s actually very productive. Sometimes we get so caught up in trying to do something the right way we make it unnecessarily complicated or difficult for ourselves!

Here are some ways in which lazy people are super efficient:

They say no – Lazy people don’t do anything they don’t want to. While most of us are fretting over the missed opportunities, they understand the importance of saving energy for the things that really matter most.

They understand the value of their time – I haven’t done my own laundry in years, I use a service that picks it up from my door and drops it back all clean for a relatively inexpensive price. Sure I could take my laundry to laundromat and do it myself, but what’s the point of hauling it all the way there and waiting a couple hours, just to save myself a few bucks? Buying groceries online instead of spending time and fuel going to the store is another lazy example of making the most of your time. (I do that too!)

They do a bad job – Do you ever find at work that you can get caught up taking on our people’s responsibilities because you’re ‘good at it’. I hate that! You shouldn’t be punished for being more productive or efficient. Lazy people know exactly how to deal with this, when someone tries to pawn their responsibilities off onto you just do a terrible job – they won’t ask again! I did this once way back when I was an intern and asked to make coffee for the group. I don’t drink coffee so this wasn’t my favorite task to begin with. But I did an awful job and never got asked to do it again!

They pool their efforts – Instead of going out to the store every time they need something, lazy people will wait until there is enough on their list to make the trip worth their while. If they’re going to be cooking a complicated meal, you know they’re going to make enough to last them through the week! I like to put together items on my list that I know I can complete at the same time, or thereabouts – even if I’m only saving a couple of minutes, it all adds up!

They make the most of technology – Every day new tech is being created to make our lives easier and easier. I know I can be a little reluctant to trust new tech, but lazy people know how to embrace change and the efficiency the new tech can bring! For example using an app like fancy hands or taskrabbit to outsource the boring items on your to do list. Leaving you more time for the fun stuff!

What is your lazy life hack?