In Praise of Laziness

Do lazy days make you feel rested or unproductive? When it comes to feeling rested or unproductive, there’s no contest – it’s all about that wonderful, rejuvenating feeling of being completely rested. I approach lazy days with a simple philosophy: just lay back and do whatever makes me happy. It’s like an oasis in the midst of life’s hustle and bustle. On these days, it’s either all about…

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"the biggest problem in the business world is not too little but too much—too many distractions and interruptions, too many things done for the sake of form, and altogether too much busy-ness. [..] what is clear is that office workers are on a treadmill of pointless activity. Managers allow meetings to drag on for hours. Workers generate e-mails because it requires little effort and no thought. [..] A survey last year by the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention estimated that almost a third of working adults get six hours or less of sleep a night. Another survey last year by Good Technology, a provider of secure mobile systems for businesses, found that more than 80% of respondents continue to work after leaving the office, 69% cannot go to bed without checking their inbox and 38% routinely check their work e-mails at the dinner table. [..] workers are generally more creative on low-pressure days than on high-pressure days when they are confronted with a flurry of unpredictable demands. [..] “One of the secrets of productivity is to have a very big waste-paper basket to take care of all invitations such as yours.” [..] the best managers focus their attention on establishing the right rules—recruiting the right people and establishing the right incentives—and then get out of the way. He quotes a story about Eastman Kodak in its glory days. A corporate reorganisation left a small division out in the cold—without a leader or a reporting line to headquarters. The head office only rediscovered the division when it received a note from a customer congratulating the unit on its work. [..] some creative people would never finish anything if they were left to their own devices. But there is certainly a case for doing a lot less—for rationing e-mail, cutting back on meetings and getting rid of a few overzealous bosses."