By: Avi Wyler and Louise Wallraff
When I was in 7th grade, I was a huge procrastinator. When teachers gave me homework assignments, I was much more likely to put them off then do any of it. I’d go home, stay on my computer until bedtime, go to bed late, rinse and repeat. At my very worst, I was ignoring over 35 overdue assignments, wasn’t participating in extracurricular activities and was barely participating in class.
What I have just described is something that many people would consider laziness — I wasn’t getting work done, I wasn’t taking care of myself and, most importantly, there were no obvious signs that I was trying to change, or even cared. But here’s the thing: I was trying to change, and I did care. A lot. So much, in fact, that every afternoon spent on my computer was a desperate attempt to distract myself from how much stress my overdue work was giving me.
That feeling of anxiety is often felt by others that have had similar experiences to me. Most people want to do well and live good lives. Most people care about the work they put in. It’s not an issue of morality, or even work ethic. But then what is the issue? Why can’t so many people get themselves to do work? And is laziness even a thing?
To understand this, we first have to look at where the idea of productivity comes from, and that question is easy to answer. Since the moment America was founded, values of “self-reliance” and “diligence”, rooted in religious beliefs, have always been core principles of society. In fact, they were historically used to rationalize slavery and are still used to justify economic oppression: it was your fault you couldn’t do the work, not the fault of those who were putting it on your shoulders.
Today, we start preparing for our future jobs from kindergarten, and don’t get a break until 65, the average year of retirement. This is in order to make enough money to survive in America, with the average household expenditure costing 80,000, but also because it becomes our only purpose. When how hard we work is tied to our value as people, we live to work instead of work to live. It should not be this way. But what is actually happening in our bodies that causes us to feel that motivation at all?
Our motivation is tied to a host of different things. According to psychiatrists Elenor Simpson and Peter Balsam at the New York State Psychiatric Institute, whether we’re motivated to do something at all is related to the weighing of costs and benefits. This cost/benefit balance can change drastically depending upon how rewarding doing a task feels and the physical/mental state of our bodies.
If you are in an environment that causes you anxiety, being in a constant fight-or-flight mode can significantly impact your motivation. People that have less dopamine in their system also struggle with motivation because completing a task doesn’t feel as rewarding. And if you feel stuck, or overwork yourself, motivation can also crash significantly in the form of burnout.
Unfortunately, most people that suffer from motivation issues aren’t given the help or understanding necessary to get back on their feet, causing a cycle of procrastination that can lead to feelings of hopelessness.
The idea of laziness and a non-stop work ethic ingrained in our culture is detrimental to us as students. We are surrounded by it: from parents pressuring us to work harder and get A’s, from teachers and coaches piling more work on our plates, and from never ending clips on social media of successful people teaching us new strategies and techniques to achieve perfection. Our brains constantly checking off items on an imaginary checklist makes us feel like we can never get a break, and on top of that, phone notifications streaming in force us to always be “on.”
We need to stop being so hard on one another. Equating our bodies’ response to a stressful world as “laziness” only makes things worse. Instead, we should treat signs of toxic productivity seriously so we can stop feeling so burnt out all the time. To paraphrase Harvard Health Publishing, feelings like a false sense of urgency, the inability to relax, and guilt or shame about not accomplishing enough can be combatted with deep breathing, journaling, and examining your relationship with downtime.
Take a break! Make sure to find time in your week to actually relax or do the things you enjoy! Even if those suggestions don’t help, be comforted by the fact that many others are going through the same thing. There isn’t something wrong with you; the whole concept of productivity being tied to self worth just comes from a system that is trying to blame you for its own faults.
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