How to stop being lazy (in a bad way). And how to start being lazy (in a good way)

If you are reading this, you likely think you are lazy and should be working harder. You might be right. Might. You see, while you think your laziness is a bad thing, I want to show you how to use it correctly. The truth is, I think you should be lazy—in a good way. Read on to see what I mean.  

Why (you think) being lazy is bad 

Being lazy often gets a bad rap. It is easy to see why. We have all likely been burned by laziness—whether ours or someone else’s. If you are reading this article, you have likely experienced the angst of knowing you could have achieved more if you had tried a little harder. You also likely know the frustration of having to pick up the slack or have a team project fall below expectations because a member of your team was not pulling their weight i.e being lazy.  

Add to this the timeless exaltation of ‘hard work’ and condemnation of laziness, and it is hard not to place laziness really high up on the scale of habits that suck for you and everyone you work with. Which may be why you want to learn how to stop being lazy.  

So it might be strange when I suggest to you in this article that you laziness—instead of being a vice—can actually be a virtue. In fact, laziness is a part of us—a part that nature has gifted us to help us navigate the world and achieve more with less.  

To understand this, let’s look at the Law of Least Effort and the 2 kinds of laziness.  

Law of Least Effort (LOLE) and why laziness is part of nature 

Though mostly known as Zipf’s law of least effort after the American Linguist George Kingsley Zipf, the Law of Least Effort was in fact first discovered in 1894 by an Italian philosopher, Guillaume Ferrero.  

The law states simply that organisms will seek out a path of least resistance or least effort for the achievement of their goals or ends.  

In other words, organisms are naturally lazy—not wanting to expend more effort than is necessary (more on necessary effort later in the article)—in achieving their goals.  

Organisms here cover everything from plants to shrimp to rats to of course man—you and I. 

In experiments with rats, where experimenters made the rats go through various paths to find their food, it has been found that, over time, the rats develop a preference for the paths with the minimal distance to food. Interestingly, even blind rats develop this behaviour as well as rats who could see.  

“In short, using the least amount of effort to achieve our goals is simply part of being human. ”

In humans, the law of least effort has been shown to hold true for many behaviours from the paths we walk through our surroundings, to even our languages. We tend to take the path of least effort i.e the laziest path between points of interest—opting for footpaths across green spaces in cities over the longer paves walkways whenever possible. Our use of language also tends to be very economical with a small percentage of words and phrases being used over and over again in common interactions.  

In short, using the least amount of effort to achieve our goals is simply part of being human.  

But for most of us, we don’t apply this natural tendency intentionally. And we somehow choose to work harder or at best, continue to work in the same way without ever finding the “lazy way” i.e the path of least effort to achieve the same results.  

To help explain this, let us consider what I think are the two types of laziness.  

---

The vicious destructive laziness 

This is likely the laziness you had in mind when you clicked on this article.  

I define this as a blanket, unintentional blanket aversion to work—a tempting but deeply destructive aversion to exertion or work. Maybe you know someone like this. Maybe you have been this person at some point in your life. 

“…using any more of any of these precious resources than is necessary to the achievement of a goal is, contrary to being laudable, actually immoral!”

This vicious laziness can be especially destructive when the tasks we are avoiding are the exact ones that make up our means of livelihood—our jobs or businesses. Bad things happen when you are lazy about your job—that is lazy in a bad way—a way that simply avoids doing the work required to produce results.  

But good things can happen when you are lazy in a good way.  

So, what does it mean to be lazy in a good way? To answer that, let’s talk about the second kind of laziness... 

A virtuous laziness 

A virtuous laziness is a belief in a path of least effort—a road that avails us the most value for the least cost.  

It is a faithful adherence to the belief that life, time and energy are precious. And therefore, using any more of any of these precious resources than is necessary to the achievement of a goal is, contrary to being laudable, actually immoral!  

Like the quote attributed to Einstein which goes that an idea should be rendered as simply as possible, but not more, the correct application of the law of least effort means putting in as much effort as is required—but not more.  

Turning laziness to a strength

The easiest way to misunderstand the Law of Least effort is to fixate on the phrase “least effort” and to interpret it as “low effort”. This would be a mistake.  

Picking up a pen from a desk requires effort albeit very little. Writing an enjoyable book also requires effort—a lot more than merely picking up a pen.  

In both cases, there is effort—both physical and mental required to attain the goal. Similarly, in both cases there is a path of least effort in attaining the outcome.  

While the path of least effort for writing an enjoyable book is many orders of magnitude greater than that of simply picking up a pen, still, in both cases, it is possible to expend more effort than is required for the goal.  

In other words, we must embrace the difference between simply tending to the application of low effort a.k.a a vicious laziness and being open—nay having an affinity—for the exertion of great effort, but no more than is necessary for the achievement of a goal a.k.a a virtuous laziness if we are use the law of least effort correctly in the achievement of our goals.  

Once you master how to apply it through the law of least effort for finding out the quickest easiest path to the achievement of your goals, your laziness goes from being a weakness, to being a superpower.   

In the next article, I will explain the 3 keys to applying the LOLE to achieving more with less effort.  

Until then, be your best and do your best (while being virtuously lazy)