August 2018

For many people, laziness is not a virtue; it is something that has to be overcome with daily habits and willpower. But what about the driven Type A personality who has been told by his/her doctor that the current lifestyle will almost certainly lead to a premature death? How can those people cultivate a more balanced existence, by letting a little laziness into their lives?

Psychologist Sandi Mann, author of The Upside of Downtime, and Jaye Derrick, assistant professor of psychology at the University of Houston, offer some tips to the more driven among us in a recent blog post. Their first insight is that many anxious perfectionists and overachievers don’t do well with downtime because they can’t manage to think of it as time well-spent. The solution? Put downtime on your schedule, and recognize that relaxing can improve productivity and performance. Basically, that means reframing your lazy time as work.