Mindful Mondays #21: Lazy Edition
Life hacks for lazy people, intrinsic vs. extrinsic motivation, circadian biology, and what your houseplant is thinking about you
Good morning and welcome to Mindful Mondays. It’s another rainy morning here in San Diego, and if I didn’t have this newsletter to write, I might still be in bed.
Since I wrote about productivity last week, I want to write a little about laziness today.
I used to work in a drug and alcohol rehab center for men. Occasionally, in our meetings, one of the house managers (who were not trained clinicians) would refer to a client as “lazy.”
I always bristled at this. I think it’s because I’m not sure I believe in laziness as a character trait.
From a psychological perspective, you either are or aren’t motivated to do a particular thing at any given time. On a quiet, rainy afternoon for example, I might feel motivated to have a cup of tea and read a book, but not motivated to write up my progress notes. Why? Probably because having a cup of tea and reading a book sounds nice—that is, it’s intrinsically motivating for me. Writing progress notes, on the other hand, is—as all therapists know—intrinsically boring.
The only reason to do something that’s not intrinsically motivating for you, according to this theory, is to gain some kind of external reward or avoid some kind of punishment.
That’s why most people wait to do their taxes until right before the deadline. They’re only extrinsically motivated to avoid the negative consequences that would come from filing late.
This is also why dedicated gamers will often spend hours playing video games (even extremely difficult ones like, say, Elden Ring), while struggling to find motivation for other tasks. Because of the way games are designed, they feel intrinsically rewarding, even if, objectively speaking, they take just as much time and energy as doing your taxes.
In his recent book Smarter Not Harder, Dave Asprey (the creator of Bulletproof Coffee) argues for what he calls the Laziness Principle—that is, that we human beings evolved to use as little energy as possible while managing to survive and reproduce. By understanding our inherent tendency toward laziness, we can work with, rather than against our natural biology and psychology.
Laziness doesn’t have to be unproductive. In no particular order, here are a few hacks I personally use to get things done when I’m feeling lazy:
Tiny habits. Want to make a lasting change in your life? Start ridiculously small. For example, instead of trying to meditate for 30 minutes every morning, start with 1 minute.
Pair an unpleasant activity with a pleasant one. Turn on some relaxing music, sit down with a cup of tea, and pay your bills.
Reduce the barrier to entry. If you have a particularly onerous task in front of you, set a timer for 10 minutes and just get started. When the timer goes off, you can decide either to stop or keep working.
For a long to-do list, try my dad’s strategy: just do one thing from the list each day.
Connect with your values. Ask yourself, “why is doing this thing important to me?”
Finally, remember that it’s okay to just be lazy sometimes. “Productivity” is a concept created by factory owners and management consultants during the industrial era in order to maximize profits. It’s not human nature to be productive all the time, and you don’t have to. But if you have things you want to get done, either because you have to or because they’re aligned with your values, the strategies I’ve written about here can help.
What about you? Have you mastered the art of being lazy? Got any secret hacks for getting things done with minimal effort? What are your favorite lazy-day activities? Let me know by replying to this email or leaving a comment on Substack.
Article of Interest
What Plants Are Saying About Us: Have you ever wondered what your houseplant is thinking? Probably not, because most of us assume plants can’t think. But some scientists and philsophers are questioning that assumption, and in the process, questioning what “thinking” (or cognition) even means.
Podcast of the Week
Dr. Satchin Panda: Intermittent Fasting to Improve Health, Cognition & Longevity: Last week, I shared an infographic from Dr. Panda, a researcher at the Salk Institute here in San Diego. This week he’s on the Huberman Lab podcast talking about all things circadian biology, including how you can improve your mental and physical health by changing the timing of your everyday activities.
Quote of the Week
“The difference between hope and despair is a different way of telling stories from the same facts.”
—Alain de Botton
That’s all for this week. As always, I appreciate your feedback on Mindful Mondays. What was your favorite thing I shared this week? What would you like to learn more about? Let me know by replying to this email, commenting on Substack, or hitting me up on Twitter (though the algorithm over there has been a bit of a disaster recently).
Thank you for reading,
Chris Cordry, LMFT
PS: Are you struggling to make the changes you want to make in your life? Feel like you’re battling against inertia, bad habits, or the laziness principle? Reply to this email and ask me about 1:1 coaching.
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Love the summary of hacks or doorways to use when feeling "lazy", they're all right on target and I appreciate seeing the sum of them grouped together in this context. I'm going to save your list and way of presenting them to share with others. Have a great week Chris!