Being Busy Is Being Lazy

Let me share about something that sounds like an oxymoron but is actually very insightful. It’s this idea that being busy is being lazy. Before you throw your arms up and disagree let me explain. I’m not speaking from the conventional sense where being busy means being active, and being active is not being lazy, I get that logic. But I want to focus on laziness in a little more depth. It’s not enough to show up and be active doing the work, you need to be efficient with your effort and invest in your ability to produce better outcomes. Many people are too lazy to take the extra step.

What happens is we’ve grown accustomed to being busy. It has become familiar to us and predictable for us to know how challenging, or demanding, or engaging things might be. If you want to settle for plateauing at that level then so be it. Being busy in this way is lazy because you’re unwilling to do more than what is expected of you.

Do you know what takes work? Simplification. It’s hard to make things look so easy. Albert Einstein is quoted saying “The definition of genius is taking the complex and making it simple.” It requires putting in that extra work to streamline, optimize, and iterate in the attempt of producing new levels of growth.

The problem is many people deflect diving into that hard work by signing themselves up for things that keep them occupied. It’s more comfortable to be in the familiar flow of activities than to breach something new and uncertain. So instead of doing the hard thing that is for the best, they do the easy thing that is ‘good enough’. That’s laziness, isn’t it?

So take a look at your schedule, your commitments, your life, and have an honest reflection. How much of these things are absolutely necessary, and how many are fillers that make you feel more productive because you have more going on? 

This is advice I’ve been practicing myself over the last few months. I’ve been saying “no” more often. I’ve removed myself from different commitments I’ve taken on. And this has liberated me to make more progress on fewer things because I have the space to do the hard work of simplification and scale.

All I’m asking for you to do is to be honest, nothing else. Get in the habit of being honest with yourself, not telling yourself a fake rational story, and your life will start to angle into your truth.

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