This one is on productivity and what it means to be lazy.

I have for as long as I can remember had an idea in my mind that I should earn my rest

at the end of each day, that the responsibility of a life well lived was tied inextricably

to some meaningful level of output.

For most of the years of my adult life, I was in the habit of mentally

reviewing my day, of evaluating whether or not I had done enough, if there were still chores

left undone, responsibilities left unmet. Some nights I would get out of bed after this review

and complete some chores about the house until I felt satisfied that I had met this

nebulous personal standard. It's actually only recently that I've begun to shed some,

though not all, of this obsession with productivity, and I have been musing more and more on how to

strike a balance between avoiding laziness and creating an unhealthy relationship with work or productivity.

I do think a balance is possible, and more so I think it is important. And like many of the

relationships that I want to help you understand, there is no one right answer. Your relationship,

the balance you strike between productivity and rest, should be a relationship

that serves you, your goals and ambitions, and your loved ones. When thinking about this idea,

you need first to understand your relationship to productivity. I think about this relationship

in much the same way that the ideas of introversion and extroversion are often explained.

For some people, being productive depletes the tank.

Much like an introvert stuck at a party, being forced to be productive requires a significant effort,

an effort which is separate and often greater than the effort involved in the task.

For these productivity introverts, there must be enough energy available at the outset of any

task to overcome the inertial drain of its beginning and maintaining focus on a value-neutral

...