I haven't ever heard someone say "I wish I was lazier".

We're all chasing some outcome. The problem is, we have to go through doing work that we're too lazy to do.

Laziness gets a bad rap. But, over the long term, it makes me more productive.

Here's how.

Forcing function that drives creativity

I'm too lazy to do something, but I'm forced to do it. In such scenarios, laziness acts as a forcing function to make me think more creatively. It acts as an involuntary self-imposed constraint. Constraints combined with external pressure force you to think harder. Growing up in a developing country, I saw countless examples of simple but genius hacks to solve a problem. They are of the variety that tends to go viral on TikTok.

Serendipity

As a knowledge worker, I hate doing monotonous tasks. I also happen to have a good eye for what's feasibly automatable. I am more excited by the prospect of automating boring tasks than doing them. Even if it takes twice as long (so is it really laziness?). The rationale is "Build Once, Use Twice". When I do embark on such projects, I almost always end up getting new ideas. If I wasn't lazy, I'd never walk that path. And likely miss the opportunity to come across interesting ideas and novel approaches.

Focus on the important

Sometimes, you're better off not doing something because it isn't really important. The only thing worse than doing something badly is doing something that you shouldn't do at all. You being lazy may be a signal to reassess and realign with what matters most.

So it's okay to sometimes thank the part of you that makes you lazy.

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