Coffee and I are old friends (coffee is older than me of course) and I do a lot of thinking over coffee. With this in mind I decided to start a little concept called thoughts over coffee which I'll be doing from time to time.
I don't like laziness or reward it and while I don't have anything against down-time, relaxation, doing nothing and such other legitimate activities being lazy grinds my gears. There's many different forms of laziness including below.
Laziness - Oh, you're too tired?
I get tired, we all do, and it's totally fine when it happens. When I'm tired I try to find some sleep, but if I cannot I don't make it an excuse not to do something that needs doing or to not give my full effort - That's laziness.
There's situations that require our best effort and some of those are very important. Should a mother fail to care for her baby because she's tired? Should a doctor walk away from an emergency case during their hospital shift because of tiredness? I'm sure it happens, but that doesn't make it right.
It comes down to finding the right motivation - the mind is capable of pushing the body to great feats of endurance - and I often find that through achieving something small and low-effort the mind can be re-energised, kick-started so to speak, and that is often enough to set the wheels back in motion allowing a person to break through their tiredness and get things done.
I'm not judging, but I think far too many people blame their inaction on tiredness or other such excuses when in fact it's just laziness.
What do you reckon? If you want to comment below then go ahead, I'm interested in your thoughts and experiences.
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As a few commented, it depends on the situation - surgeon, driver etc. I, personally, try to push through and get it all done. When I feel that I'm not achieving anything anymore, I stop, and take a rest. It's a better rest then, feeling that I got something done and deserve to rest. It's not the most healthy mindset, and I try to organize my life in a way that prevents getting tired.
In my experience, being tired makes me less efficient as well. A lot of times it works better for me to be rest in time (meaning, when I notice that I'm not achieving/being efficient), and then get back to it refreshed. The thing is that resting is not easy in that case, as my mind is still roaming through the tasks. I got better at it, through meditation techniques.
Now that Lily is with her mom, I did lose a lot of structure. No more schedules, no more deadlines, no more appointments. It's nice, I can rest well, but I notice that it also makes me "lazy" in a sense. As I have more time, I waste more of it.
I like moments of rest, even if that's a small detachment to "regroup" switch off mentally for a few moments...it helps to refresh and reset and that makes me more productive. Moments of rest and recovery are not lazy moments, they're essential.
There's this joke someone mentioned to me a while back:
"When a man tells you he'll do something, he will do it. No matter how long it takes."
Obviously it's a joke about men being lazy sometimes. But hey, they'll get the task done anyway!
I have to admit, I often get into these kind of situations.
My lady had been working remote since we moved back near her hometown. Her workstation need to be hardwired, from modem to pc.
I bought her a long cable and cable/wire management kits to go with it.
While I did setup the cable run from our living room to her workstation, I have yet to complete installing the cable protectors/covers that go on the wall. It's not in anyone's way anyway and I didn't think of it as a priority.
But you're right. I just need the motivation to get it over with. Also setting priorities would help complete tasks like this.
She cleaned that room yesterday. Maybe it's my turn to finally finish installing these things on the wall....
Yep, stuff like this happens all the time and to most of us I guess. We either prioritise other things or diminish the importance of tasks so they move out of our focus and get left undone.
I do agree to a large extent.. Most of the cases people try to rationalise to themselves using excuses. One example I can think of is getting active and exercise. It's something that I am working on and putting more focus this year, finding pockets of time to exercise and head down to the gym, etc. It's so simple to say "I am tired from work", "I don't have time", but interestingly, most of us have the time to catch up with friends over coffee, watch Netflix and chill at home, or go shopping or even vacations, but not exercise. And of course, I used to be guilty of that.
That's a good example and I think most of us have made that excuse at one time or another, I know I have.
Thank you!
I found time to nap today. After retrieval of my abandoned Prime at 5 am. This morning. Only been a handful of times I have had to leave it unattended off-site. I never rest well. And I have been the victim of vandalism and hit and run over the years
What a shitty week. Delivery at 7 am Monday. Another roll out at 3 am deal. It never ends my friend.
I can't imagine it feels good to leave the rig out there somewhere for people do who knows what to it.
Hopefully things improve.
There's just one thing you should definitely not do when too tired.
Drive. Operate a Vehicle.
Everything else, you can probably manage, and that won't be lazy.
Uhh, can I add another one? Be a surgeon.
As I've said countless times, I don't do coffee, I rawdog fatigue.
No one wants a tired surgeon.
Neither tired nor one high on caffeine with shaking hands. I guess there are some jobs that require genuine resting.
Yep, indeed...coffee isn't the answer to everything.
Question - what does "rawdog" mean? I can kind of get a sense out of context, but not entirely...
To do something without taking on available comforts.
Eg: walking without shoes, taking a plane trip without any entertainment, or dealing with a morning without coffee.
Thank you! I like that word.
I've definitely been in that place, where tiredness feels like an excuse for laziness haha. Sometimes it's just about breaking down those large tasks into manageable chunks. It's like, one small step at a time, right? Even if it's just for a minute
Exactly, well said!
Sometimes it's the little things that motivate us the most!
This is an excellent reflection you offer.
Thank you!
You're welcome and for sure sometimes the smallest things can be of the greatest motivation.
I'm a lot lazier in my age than I ever was before. I don't usually blame it on being tired, it's just that many times now I'm now highly unmotivated...LOL! ....and I let it make me a procrastinator on things that don't affect anyone but me. I've decided there are many things that don't matter if they get done or not. I've changed my priorities. I'm good at adjusting my life to fit what I want to do more than what I should do. It's a super power !!
I'm not sure I see that as lazy per se, I see it as a shift of priorities and believe it's legititto do so. There's things I used to attach at full effort and now I don't apply as much effort to them due to other things having more importance...it's just a natural progression I suppose.
Well.... I tried my hardest here to claim laziness as a lifestyle, but you are not cooperating.
😄
Lol...
It makes me a little angry to see lazy people. Resting is legitimate, as you say, but the endless list of excuses and ridiculous excuses has often made me angry, especially from people who have worked with me. I couldn't help it.
I believe that motivation, whether it's achieving a small goal or something else, must exist, otherwise those moments of laziness are a waste of time, and time is very valuable.
Someone I know could have doubled their profits with little effort, but they didn't and settled for half... and they weren't doing anything useful at the time, simply because they were too lazy to do it. That's not for me.
Yeah, lazy people are worthless pieces of shit as far as I'm concerned.
I don't understand them, to be honest. What a wasted life.
When one doesn't want to do something out of laziness, tiredness is just one of the long list of justifications that attempt to disguise her(laziness). People do that a lot. I've been in positions in which mind pushes and supress tiredness to accomplish one important goal, and you are right, is a matter of motivation. Responsibilities most be assumed and what needs to be done must be. I've been lazy sometimes, a silent lazy, not in front of responsibility though.
I think everyone has had lazy moments, it's the perpetually lazy (and entitled) people that annoy me.
I have to admit, they annoy me too. Those who say...
I would add laziness + lack of discipline.
As a mes student, I often feel exhausted and completely unmotivated (burnout is common these days), but by maintaining a bit of discipline, sooner or later, everything else falls into place.
In today’s society, there is a significant lack of discipline, and yes, I’m young, but I believe that growing up with a military father and what that entails has given me a bit of an advantage in this regard. Whenever I have maintained discipline, the results come.
I agree with you, small victories are the beginning of something bigger.
Coffee is older than you?
Discipline is everything, without it an individual's life will not be as good as it could be and an individual will not be as good as they can be.
I agree with you.
In your reflection you talk about whether a physician should stop treating a patient because he or she is tired. And I would like to give an example of something that happened to me and saved my life:
In 1994 I arrived at an emergency referral with leptospirosis complicated by hepato-renal insufficiency. When I arrived at the hospital, it was 3 o'clock in the afternoon and I was attended by a doctor who was coming off 24 hours on call. In order not to write too much, I must tell you that until he left me in special care, ordered all kinds of tests and gave me the diagnosis of my disease, he did not leave, and when he did, it was already after 9 pm.
That is the opposite of laziness.
Happy Sunday and a better week.
Cheers and best regards.
It sounds like you got a responsible doctor, you're lucky as many do not.
It happens that I'm tired, between work, kid, short sleep time, but in the end of the day all things you gotta do are important, life doesn't leave room for tiredness when it calls, my saying is "you gotta do what you gotta do" tired or not
That's right and it's the reality for most of us; we just have to keep grinding.
I believe I am not a lazy person - quite the opposite -my problem being that I feel guilty when I am relaxing and always feel I should be doing something - and hate wasting my time
Relaxing and being lazy are two different things; people should do one and not be the other - you know which.
Mmmm sometimes the work will kill you time and let you only a little to you and is necessary to take a nap.
Enjoy the coffee.
For sure.
!GIFU
!LOL
This is such a thoughtful take on laziness versus genuine tiredness, I totally agree that sometimes we mistake laziness for needing rest, and it’s important to find that motivation to push through when it truly matters. The point about small achievements re-energizing us is spot on. Thanks for sharing your perspective
Indeed, thanks for paraphrasing my post.
Lol
Tiredness is normal, but it shouldn’t always be a reason to stop trying. Like you said, sometimes just starting with a small task can help us find the energy to keep going.
I agree.