In Creative Pursuit of Laziness

I remember in school we studied an English poem – Leisure by W.H. Davies which has stuck with me all this while especially these lines – “A poor life this if, full of care, We have no time to stand and stare.” At the time, I was probably too young to understand what the poet meant to convey for I, like most of us, have grown up with the idea that success, as it were, is only achieved by working extremely hard and by single minded devotion to set goals to guarantee a “good” life. While the desired end might be common, the means vary.



Life is not a race to the finish line. It’s about being comfortably paced, enjoying moments and little pleasures, chewing on food almost in bovine spirit, being active but lazy too (I promise if you think about it enough, it ceases to be an oxymoron), staring at the night sky figuring out the rabbit on the moon, at the expanse of oceans, at clouds that sometimes resemble an old smoke pipe and another time literally a castle in the air! Take time.[break]



The popular opinion is that to become worthy and successful, you have to work extremely hard. An easy life is not enriching. The contrarian view is to sit back, relax, and find ways to get your work done. Efficiency stems from basic human desire to not strain much and yet achieve a lot. Invariably, the latter argument is one most people will scorn at because toiling to achieve goals is only but noble. I’m going to play the devil’s advocate and justify my perspective on why being lazy ain’t that bad after all.



Fred Gratzon calls himself the most unemployable and laziest man on earth. He is among the only five people, in the history of the US government, who was fired from a civil service job. Yet, and fortunately for him, in 1979 he founded The Great Midwestern Ice cream Company which was rated the best ice cream by People magazine in 1984 and Nancy Reagan insisted on it being served in the White House functions. Fred also founded the Telegroup – a long distance international calling service which was among the fastest growing companies according to Times in the 90s. While he had no real expertise in either of the fields and he started his ice cream company right in the winters, his ability to find great people to make up for his lack of aptitude took him a long way. The reason this example is important at the moment is because he is one of the few people who actively advocate taking a laid back approach.



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Being relaxed and not hyper-active doesn’t mean you’re not pushing yourself. It’s about keeping a thinking mind and as I often say, laziness not just necessity is the mother of invention. When I’m lazy to do something, I find creative solutions to my problems at work that increase not just efficiency but rid the job of monotony. I’ve heard people say that technology makes us lazy but the kind of strides the industry is making is actually a result of catering to inherent human attraction to indolent ways. I don’t remember the last time I went to a library to research on a paper. I’ve chosen a smartphone on the basis of how many extra swipes I save! In the same light, the famed Google glasses and Siri on iPhone (to use voice search instead of typing) probably take not just innovation but laziness to a different level – in a good way though.



Even in our daily lives we become so busy with doing well at work, vying for the next promotion, the next performance bonus or just keeping a competitive edge that we miss out – on life! A friend of mine, who is the VP, Operations at a startup company is a smart intuitive person who slogs it out six days a week, close to more than twelve hours a day. He enjoys his work and is a great manager who’d take ice cream for his juniors to cheer them up but in the midst of all the years he toiled, he’s put aside things he loves doing for the ever so elusive “sometime later”. The little joys he used to find in sculpting, photography or traveling has been put on hold for a right time in future. As urbane worries go, the balancing act, jargoned as work-life balance breeds in itself the idea to allow ourselves to just be – do nothing probably just laze in the winter sun, unwind peeling oranges or pick the book bought but stacked on the to-read pile for lack of time.



Let me admit this, I’m not particularly agile, I like things I need to be within an arm stretch away so I don’t have to move around much; I sometimes wear two socks from different pairs because I’m too lazy to hunt for the right one in the mess of my dresser; I’m caught staring at the ceiling or into space, but that’s what I do best – use brain power more than physical labor. My indolent ways are a boon to my creative pursuits just like the inventers of the automatic banana peeler, remote controlled tissue boxes, automatic bed maker, self stirring mug for coffee or the tea bagging penguin! As I idly bask in reflected glory of these seemingly great minds, I also wonder along John Steinbeck’s lines – “We wonder why, it has become sinful to be lazy. One could argue, particularly if one had a gift for laziness, that it is relaxation pregnant of activity, a sense of rest from which directed effort may arise, whereas most busy-ness is merely a kind of nervous tic.”



The writer has the mind of a maverick and fancies challenging the limits of her thoughts.

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