How to Be Lazy

Method 1

Method 1 of 3:

Dedicate yourself to leisure

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1
Prioritize the quieter things in your life. Taking the kids to soccer practice, walking the dog, and taking on extra projects at work are not activities for an idler.Cloud watching?Meditate?Drink some tea?Now let's think.Identify things you enjoy doing, regardless of whether they are considered “productive.”
- What would you do if there was no problem with money?Imagine the perfect version of your day.When would you wake up?What would you do first?What would you do before lunch?List the top priorities in your life.
- What could you do now, today, to accomplish these things more easily?If you wanted to sit and drink coffee while reading the newspaper undisturbed, could you do that?What's keeping you from taking the idle time you want?
2
Stop putting yourself forward for overtime work. Helping your friend move, staying late at the office, taking time to help your neighbor paint the house?Holy activities, no doubt about it, but these types of things seriously deplete the idle time you desperately need.Do what you have to do and continue to be available for necessary chores and responsibilities, but stop showing up for extraordinary tasks.
- More and more, especially with the updates of new social networks and instant gratification media, we like to consider business as a culture.There's nothing wrong with setting aside time to do nothing.You don't have to have reasons to want to sit, drink a glass of wine, and stare into space.Here's how to stay healthy.
3
Throw away your planning. For some people, a perfectly structured schedule is an essential part of productivity that makes you feel a sense of accomplishment in your day.For others it is like a lead weight hanging around their neck.Who says you have to have lunch at 12.15 and that it takes exactly 30 minutes, and that you have to be at work at 12.45?Eat when you're hungry.Throw your programming in the trash.
- Stop wearing a watch if it does more to stress you out than help you be on time.Be productive through your personal workflow, not through the ticking clock.
- In some languages, the concept of how time works is very different.A schedule made in hours, from "lunch" to "coffee break", can be made based on our language.It's artificial.Tuvans, for example, conceive of the future behind us, because we cannot see it and are walking backwards towards it.It's also okay to think about the "value" of time differently.
4
Let go of the fear of missing something. Cell phones, social media and high-speed internet seriously reduce idle time.Try withdrawing from social media for a while and learn to disconnect.The “fear of missing something” is a serious and increasing phenomenon.^{[2]
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Research source} If you could once sit deep in thought and idle on the way home from work, now you have the whole world at your fingertips, from the Kardashians to the Klingons, right on your phone.Your high school friend's wedding photos.Fifty work emails.Are these all important parts of your day right now?Make yourself less available and more idle.
- In many ways technology helps us use time more wisely.Get used to responding to emails immediately, so you won't have to worry about responding later, taking up time from your idleness.If you miss a message, be patient.People shouldn't expect you to respond 24 hours a day, every day of the week.
5
Be ambitious of happiness and idleness. Ambition gets in the way.The desire for money, a “successful” career, and things like fame and recognition often make us unhappy and disappointed, and cause us to become mindless work addicts.Stop feeding your self and start feeding your idleness.Make happiness and idleness your greatest goals and let go of everything else.
- Some psychologists refer to this as a “position of control.” Some have an external focus, meaning they seek the approval of others, while others have an internal focus, meaning they seek only approval from themselves.^{[3]
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  Research source} Be happy by making yourself happy, not by working to have the recognition of others.If what you want to do is drink a beer and watch the sunset, you have a responsibility to drink a beer and watch the sunset.Foul.
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Method 2

Method 2 of 3:

Work Less

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1
Do more in less time. Bob Dylan claims to have written “Blowin' in the Wind” in five minutes, a song that represents an entire decade and cultural movement in most historical documentaries.Even if he did nothing else for the rest of his life except eat lunch, drink wine, and watch monster movies, that would have been a productive day.As the French say:“"Travailler moins, produire plus." Translation:the less you work, the more you produce.
- Although it may sound strange to you, being super productive for short periods of time will leave you more time to be idle.Steal time by compacting very meticulous and difficult work into half a day, then relax and work the rest of the time.
- Learn to focus on one thing at a time.Don't try to spread your talent and efforts all at once.Put your all into something and finish it as best you can, then put it away and forget it.You will be more productive with the time you have.
2
Have someone else do it for you. A good idler knows that the best person for a certain job is probably someone else.When the teacher asks if there are any volunteers, he looks at the desk.When the project manager needs young talent to launch the new project, keep your hands in your pockets.There's no reason to let contrived ideas about ambition and success get in the way of your important time for idleness.If idleness is important to you, control your self and let others take the reward.
- The difference between idleness and laziness is that the idle person can take care of himself, while the lazy person requires the assistance of others.To be truly slothful, you have to control your life, be able to do things, but choose not to do them.In other words, if you're 32 and living in your dad's basement watching cartoons and eating cereal as a meal all day, you can't consider that to be idleness.This is being lazy.Look after yourself, work for your happiness and stop being a burden to others.
3
Start meditating. Meditation can help calm stress, center you, and refocus your energy on your mind.Any good idle person spends most of their time daydreaming, so meditation should come naturally.You don't need to be a samurai or any type of monk to meditate.It's not complicated.
- Find a comfortable sitting position.A straight-backed chair is fine or on the floor in the lotus position, there is no better way to meditate, despite what they say.Sit with your back straight, keep your hands resting on your lap and remain seated.That's all.Focus on your breathing, watching your thoughts come and go like fish in a pond.Don't be your thoughts, observe them.Let them go.
- Zazen, the primary practice of Zen meditation, literally means “to simply sit.” There is no secret or mystical component to sitting and meditating.You just have to sit down.If this isn't idle behavior, nothing else is.
4
Sleep in as often as possible. John Keats, one of the most famous poets who ever lived, once said that a poet has a responsibility to sleep until 10 every day.Waking up at dawn is the behavior of an ambitious person, not an idler.No need to grab the day by the horns from dawn.Start your day gradually by sleeping in and getting up when you're ready to do so.
- Go to sleep when you feel like it.Take a nap when you feel like it.There's no reason to plan, remember?
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Method 3

Method 3 of 3:

Being a Professional Idler

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A career is like a stack of imaginary dominoes watched by an invisible guardian.If you throw away one, you might throw away the others, which will end up giving you a lot of money, a sexy bride, and a very fast car.Yes, certainly.Don't worry about the idea of a career, if you work now maybe it will pay off for the next ten years.Focus on the day.Focus on this minute.Focus on this moment.
Money distracts you from what you want.It's an excuse.Every failed musician who ever lived looked at an expensive piece of equipment and said:“Oh, if only I had had that equipment, I would have been the musician I wanted to be.” If you had that vacation home that your boss has or the trust fund that your college buddy has or the resume that your friend has, then you would be successful.Nothing stops you from having what you want, only yourself.^{[4]
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3
Reduce working hours as much as possible. Realize your cost base and how much you can do to earn what you need, working to have no more than you need.Don't spend money on silly material goods or status-defining branded items.Spend only on essentials.
- Realize the essential things and try to live a more spartan existence.Leonard Cohen, the famous singer, spent a few months in Canada writing stories for magazines before he became famous, spending his time on the sofa, saving the money he earned to live cheaply in Greece for the rest of the year, idly.Seems like a great deal.
- A good budget helps to have an idle life.Learn to spend less on extra things and save money to maintain a comfortable life without having to work too much.
4
Do work that isn't "work." Depending on your talent and skills, there are a number of different jobs available.No one can sit still all day, but finding a job doing something fun and working as little as possible will help you feel idle all the time.
- When you decide how to spend your ideal day, what do you do?If you would like to read, consider developing your skills as an editor, writer or content creator.If you would like to drink coffee all day, get a job as a barista.If you would like to walk in the woods, work in wildlife management.Spend your time doing what you love so it won't be work.
- Leave work at work.When you're home, you're home.When you're at work, you're at work.Don't waste time that could be idle thinking about work, talking about work, or doing no work at all.
5
Take as many days off as possible. It is estimated that around 400 million vacation days are typically left unused each year.^{[5]
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Research source} That's 400 million days that could have been used to rest, recover and focus on yourself but instead became work for someone else.If you have a day off available, take it.
- Don't glorify business.If you have a week off, who says you have to plan a stressful trip to the other side of the world?If it doesn't feel like a vacation, spend it at home, sleeping in, drinking coffee and doing what you like.Relax.Be idle.
6
Move to a place that celebrates recreational activities. It is true that some places consider the concept of leisure differently and are much more inclined to spend long lunches in restaurants, taking afternoon naps on the beach or cutting back on work to do other things during the day.If you're serious about being idle, consider moving or at least getting to know other cultures that take idleness seriously.
- Denmark is consistently rated as the country with the highest happiness rate, meaning more people consider themselves happy there than anywhere else in the world.It is no coincidence that Danes work less than 40 hours a week, take twice as much vacation as other countries and have a good tax-based social welfare infrastructure at their disposal.^{[6]
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