When I first heard this statement, I thought it was really interesting, but obviously thought it couldn’t be true. Laziness is definitely a thing; I have lazy days all the time! To me, lazy days are when you don’t feel like being productive. You avoid doing the tasks that you “should be doing” because you feel physically or mentally drained.
The more I thought about that, the more normal it sounds. Is laziness just a label that shames us for taking a break? Why would you force yourself to work or complete tasks when you aren’t in the right mindset? Unfortunately, the deadlines that we have to meet, along with the external pressure to complete tasks, doesn’t always line up with how we feel. For instance, you might have a test on Thursday but had a “lazy Monday” and now you’re behind on your schedule. You should’ve forced yourself to study or at least revise your work a little bit, right?
Wrong!
Think about how productive you would have actually been on Monday. Would any information actually have stuck? Or would you be forcing yourself to do work just for the sake of staying on track with your study schedule? I think it’s safe to say that most of us would be able to retain information a lot better after having rested for a bit.
The idea of being lazy is something that genuinely terrifies me. As a student, I don’t want to fall behind in my courses and be left scrambling later on in the semester. Although we’re only at the beginning of the semester, I already feel as though I’m already behind. I found myself feeling burnt out – and it’s only the beginning! I realized during the first two weeks that I wasn’t allowing myself to relax or take time for myself. Why? Out of the fear that I was being lazy. I thought that there was no way I could take time for myself when I could be productively working on something school-related. This thought process is very harmful. Not only because it means you aren’t listening to your personal needs, but it can also encourage poor-quality work to be produced.
So, do I think laziness is real? I think, by definition, the feeling of not wanting to do anything is most definitely real. However, the common association of being lazy with being useless is something that I entirely disagree with. You should take breaks when you feel you need them, especially when you have deadlines looming over your head. Listen to your body and your mind. For those of you that think like me, try to treat a rest day or taking a break as a step towards bettering yourself and improving your overall quality of work as a student.