Here are some views about laziness: Nobody wants to be called lazy. Laziness is irresponsible, immature, shameful and gross. Lazy people are entitled losers who don’t contribute anything to the world.
You are lazy if you take your spare time to rest or relax instead of using it to be productive. If you choose to order takeout instead of cooking a healthy meal and cleaning the kitchen, you are lazy. If you choose to sit on your phone instead of doing your skin care routine, making your bed or starting a load of laundry, you are so disgustingly lazy. If you choose to take a nap instead of going to the gym or doing your homework, you are so embarrassingly lazy that I can’t associate with you.
Oh, I almost forgot … if you’re poor, you’re lazy. If you’re disabled, you’re lazy. If you aren’t white, you’re lazy. Should I keep going? Obviously not because this is ridiculous.
The viewpoint above is problematic for many reasons, but it is the pervasive narrative surrounding laziness.
Calling someone lazy is a great way to sell yourself to capitalist interests. Your value as a human being is tied to your productivity and work ethic, so don’t be “lazy” unless you’re OK with having absolutely no value.
Calling someone lazy is also a great way to ignore social issues and unfair wages. Just blame someone’s struggles on laziness and ignore all the other factors at play.
If you’re poor, you must be lazy. It couldn’t possibly be because your labor is being exploited by a greedy corporation and you are being underpaid.
The racist stereotype that Black people are lazy, which has been heavily used against the Black community for years, is another example of this, according to the National Museum of African American History and Culture. African Americans couldn’t possibly be experiencing systemic racism, discrimination in the workplace, unequal opportunities or unequal pay, they must just be lazy.
People with disabilities also face the stereotype of being lazy. Disabled people couldn’t possibly be experiencing chronic pain and fatigue and have genuine physical limitations. Nope! They are just LAZY!
There are countless examples of how this laziness narrative is being used against all different types of people.
Sure, there are exceptions to my point, but in general, we need to abandon this harmful narrative surrounding laziness.
Everybody has their limits and they vary based on mental, physical, emotional and environmental needs at any given time. People aren’t lazy — they just have a wide variety of needs that don’t naturally center around productivity and work.
Don’t feel guilty for being lazy. Instead, look at it as a sign that your battery is running low and you need to recharge.
Let’s think of rest as an important task on our list of things to accomplish. Resting isn’t lazy. Resting is productive because you cannot function properly without it.
In his book Laziness Does Not Exist, Devon Price said, “By advocating for our right to be ‘lazy,’ we can carve out space in our lives for play, relaxation and recovery. I also discovered the immense relief that comes when we cease tying our self-image to how many items we check off our to-do lists.”
You aren’t a machine, so ignore the pressure to behave like one. You aren’t lazy, you’re just human.