Is It Okay to Be Lazy Every Now and Then?
The ArmaniTalks brand teaches communications skills.
The 6 core soft skills taught by the brand are public speaking, storytelling, emotional intelligence, creativity, social dynamics, and level-up mentality.
Let’s zone in on level-up mentality.
What are some principles of the level-up mindset?
Here are 3…
- Compete with your prior day self, forever.
- Get 1% better every day.
- Chronical your journey towards greatness.
These 3 principles will have you self-improving like a winner.
I talk a lot about self-improvement.
Being lazy, for the most part, is a cardinal sin.
But is being lazy always a cardinal sin?
Can you ever improve through laziness?
Good Lazy vs Bad Lazy
There are 2 types of lazy:
- Bad lazy – when you are postponing your dreams.
- Good lazy – when you eliminate bloated processes from your workflow and become more efficient.
Bad lazy is born from having an abundance mentality towards time.
You can have an abundance mentality towards people, but never have an abundance mentality towards time.
When you think you have too much time, you waste it.
You’ll spend hours sleeping in, watch a bunch of TV without getting your work done, and you’ll hang with the wrong people.
Bad lazy is not good!!
Good lazy is born from the desire to be more effective.
Let’s say you run a business.
With good lazy, you ask questions like:
‘How can I get technology to save me time?’
Before, I used to make my own YouTube shorts.
I’d open up Filmora, go through one of my YouTube videos to find the most entertaining segments, chop up the video, add subtitles, and export to YouTube.
One YouTube short would take me 15-45 minutes to make!
Nowadays, I just use the tool, Opus Clips.
I submit one of my videos into the tool, and Opus Clips gives me 10 shorts.
I save hours every week!
Technology works way faster than me.
By being good lazy, I tap into the right technology.
Don’t Confuse Resting with Being Lazy
Resting is not lazy.
Resting is smart.
However, there is a catch.
You don’t want to rest without earning it.
“Earn your rest,” that’s the mantra.
You earn your rest by assigning yourself a bunch of deliverables each day.
Once you complete the deliverables, you have officially earned your rest.
Let’s say your to-do list looks like the following:
- Take kids to school.
- Go to work.
- Go to the gym.
- Make a meal for the family.
If you successfully cross off all 4 of these activities, then you are good to go.
You have officially earned your rest.
During rest, do activities that allow you to be mindless.
I like watching reality TV shows.
I like these shows because I don’t have to focus.
I’m in la-la land just resting away.
From the outside, it looks like I’m being lazy.
But I’m not.
Since I completed my deliverables for the day, I am resting, not being lazy.
A pro tip is to begin making to-do lists.
Boil your deliverable into 1 word rather than a sentence.
So rather than writing:
- Find a keyword, write a rough draft, edit, proofread, and publish.
Just write:
- Blog.
When you boil down a task into 1 word, you are more likely to do it.
Your brain loves simplicity.
Cross off the words, execute your deliverables, and then rest!
Is Being Bad Lazy Ever Fine?
This morning, I woke up and was on my bed for some time.
These past few months have been hectic.
From business to life, to mental clarity…
It’s been overwhelming.
I’ve been working a lot.
I’ve been productive.
This morning, I just slept in.
I scrolled on my phone.
After some time, I finally woke up to write this blog.
Despite writing the blog, I was lazy leading up to it.
I’m not going to be too productive after I publish this blog.
I will probably have a movie marathon and order some food from UberEats.
Today’s a bad lazy day.
In the Level Up Mentality, I bring up how it’s fine to stray every now and then.
Let your emotions guide you.
Temporarily straying into the wrong territory is better than permanently straying into the wrong territory.
You’re human.
It’s hard to be ON all the time.
Sure, we will have rest sprinkled in throughout the days.
But sometimes, that’s not even enough.
Temporarily, we want to act like a little kid again and forget about our responsibilities.
I believe moments of bad lazy days are perfectly fine.
There will be days when we just don’t want to do anything.
During these moments, a bad lazy day is the rest we need.
Just don’t make bad lazy days a habit, that’s all I ask.
Have it, get it done, and get back on the level-up grind.
The Art of Laziness
A lot of high performers are lazy.
They have learned their field so well that they can spot the levers (areas within a field that produces the most returns).
High performers understand that their time is limited, so rather than working on everything, they are laser-focused on the levers.
While an ignorant person works super hard.
They have no clue what the levers are.
So, they work really hard on everything, but don’t accomplish much.
Good lazy is when you know your field so well that you work on the levers and eliminate bloated processes from your workflow.
Bad lazy is when you are postponing your dreams.
After we are good lazy, we feel proud.
After we are bad lazy, we feel shameful.
‘How did I wake up at 2 pm again?? Oh well, since I wasted the top half of the day, let me waste the bottom half of the day as well.’
^This is how we begin the path towards leveling down.
Sure, we can all have certain lapses of judgment.
We stack up 3 bad lazy days in a row.
All good.
Just don’t make it a lifestyle.
For more insights into mindset, check out the Level Up Mentality book.
🧠Ebook
🧠Paperback/Kindle
🧠Audiobook
