PDF Summary:Laziness Does Not Exist, by Devon Price

Do you feel that no matter how hard you work, it’s never enough? Are you often pressured to do even more—whether at your job, at home, or with friends? Do you sometimes feel that to do any less would mean letting everyone around you down?

In Laziness Does Not Exist, Devon Price argues that your drive to constantly push yourself is based on the lie that how hard you work determines your worth. This mindset creates unhealthy expectations and sucks all the joy out of your achievements. Worse yet, societal beliefs about work make us condemn ourselves for not living up to the high standards we create.

Price’s research in social psychology challenges many modern ideas regarding productivity and accomplishment. In this guide, we’ll explore common beliefs about hard work and laziness, how they poison different aspects of life, and how they’re especially harmful to marginalized communities. We’ll also hear from other productivity experts on the value of hard work and how far you can push yourself before doing more harm than good.

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To begin with, Price states that the human brain is not designed to concentrate for an entire eight-hour workday. When your ability to focus and be productive at your job starts to wane midway through your scheduled work hours, this isn't due to laziness but rather to the biological limits of human cognition. Price cites research that suggests most workers can only be fully productive for about three hours each day. This limit is felt hardest by knowledge workers who spend little time on rote, mindless tasks. These studies show that productivity declines sharply after 40 hours a week, and after 55 working hours, you may as well not even be at the office.

(Shortform note: Though Price largely argues against the quantity of work we do, it may also be that our approach to work is wrong. In Feel-Good Productivity, Ali Abdaal writes that building your work-life around discipline and endurance goes against the grain of how our bodies naturally function. The negative emotions associated with the “daily grind” produce stress hormones, which provide short-term motivation at the cost of harmful long-term side effects to your body and mind. Abdaal’s solution is to cultivate positive energy in your work by finding ways to enjoy it, to empower yourself, and to use your work to connect with other people. Harnessing these factors can make work energizing rather than a drain on your resources.)

The Consequence of Overwork

Nevertheless, we’ve been conditioned to feel shame if we can’t keep chugging away for eight hours or more every day. Price says that pushing yourself beyond your brain’s limits creates a cycle of overwork and collapse. People who are trapped in this cycle work intensely for as long as they can without breaks, then spend their time off incapable of doing anything but sitting on the couch and watching TV. And yet, you may feel guilty for taking even that much of a break, berating yourself for not doing more and pushing yourself to work even harder the next day and the next, to accomplish even more.

As a result, overwork leads to burnout, which is more than just exhaustion. Price describes several aspects of burnout, not the least of which is the erosion of your ability to find any joy or meaning in your work. Burned-out employees are often depressed, suffer from anxiety, show signs of reduced impulse control, and find it difficult to make good decisions. These consequences aren’t confined to your own work—when you burn out, it affects the performance of your whole organization. None of this should come as a surprise, yet we still feel compelled to work harder and harder, whether to climb the corporate ladder or just to keep from drowning in our growing to-do lists.

But Don’t You Need to Test Your Limits?

Price’s warning against working beyond your limits goes against the grain, as many other writers state that stretching your limits is necessary for growth. For instance, in Endure, Alex Hutchinson explains that in sports and exercise, persevering through your physical limits and mental barriers is crucial to learning resilience, increasing your stamina, and expanding your capabilities. Likewise, in The Comfort Crisis, Michael Easter argues that without testing your boundaries, you can’t discover your full potential, and that pushing beyond them boosts your confidence and lets you do more than you previously thought. The problem, then, may be knowing the difference between your real limits and your perceived limits.

For example, the world of extreme sports is full of athletes who pushed themselves past their limits to the point of injury and even death. In The Rise of Superman, Steven Kotler—a proponent of testing your personal boundaries—warns that when you achieve ambitious goals, you’re tempted to set even more ambitious ones. When this happens, Kotler says that there’s a risk of burning out or raising expectations so high that they become unwise or even dangerous to pursue. However, if you’re mindful of the risks and take steps to mitigate unhealthy outcomes, then by pushing your limits, you can gradually learn to handle harder challenges in a way that isn’t as toxic as the chronic overwork cycle Price argues against.

How to Ruin Your Personal Life

Unfortunately, our cultural myths about the sins of laziness follow us home from work into our private lives. The expectation that you should do your best at everything can warp your self-image and your relationships in several unhealthy ways. Price describes how the overwork cycle impacts your family life, your self-esteem, and even your enjoyment of leisure time.

First, Price explains that trying not to seem lazy can trap you in unhealthy family patterns. For instance, you may feel pressured to care for your parents to such a degree that you neglect your own needs and fail to set boundaries on how much they’re allowed to intrude on your life. Likewise, if you are a parent, you probably feel the weight of society’s countless, contradictory expectations for how you should be raising your kids. For many parents, the question always looms over their heads of how involved they should be in their children’s lives and what more they should be doing to guarantee the brightest future. Therefore, your family life can produce the same overwhelming overwork cycle that you may suffer at your job.

Too Much Family Time

Putting healthy limits on family engagement as Price recommends can easily become an emotional minefield. In The Art of Saying NO, Damon Zahariades emphasizes that setting boundaries with family members often feels like walking a tightrope between guilt over letting someone down and the need for self-care. Nevertheless, he says you can do it by being clear and direct, using positive language, and taking ownership of your decisions. When dealing with parents, Zahariades suggests communicating your availability and willingness to help, using that as a guide to establish clear boundaries. With children, he recommends positive reinforcement and explaining proper boundaries in an age-appropriate way.

The question Price raises about how much parenting work is appropriate may be an even harder one to tackle. While society is full of conflicting parenting advice, research suggests some parenting styles are more effective than others. In Grit, Angela Duckworth describes authoritative parenting—a parenting style that combines disciplined guidance with emotional support—as the option that leads to the best outcomes for children, and studies tend to back her up. However, Duckworth also writes that it’s important for parents to demonstrate perseverance, which may clash with Price’s implication that parents should not teach kids to overwork.

Similar pressures to do too much for others can reach beyond your immediate family. Price discusses how placing other people’s needs above your own can lead you to assume inappropriate responsibility for others' emotional well-being. For instance, if you have a friend with financial or emotional problems, you can easily become trapped in a cycle of always having to do more to help them. This draws from the same emotional well as feeling that “you can always do more” at work or in your family life. In friendships, this hurts you by making your relationships one-sided and draining. It also hurts your friend if they reflexively turn to you to solve their problems instead of changing their behavior or seeking professional help.

(Shortform note: When taken to its toxic extreme, this pattern can lead to codependency. In Codependent No More, Melody Beattie defines codependency as a condition in which a person grows obsessed with another’s well-being and loses sight of themself. Codependents see themselves as responsible for everyone else but struggle to take care of their personal needs. Beattie states that codependency is a reaction to prolonged stress, and while it’s often associated with substance abuse, the source of stress can also be subtle, such as a difficult relationship. In Price’s example, it might be possible to become codependent with an overly needy friend who refuses to turn to anyone else for help.)

Keeping Up Appearances

Meanwhile, thanks to social media and the entertainment industry, we’re bombarded with unrealistic lifestyle expectations that would take endless work to live up to. Images of fancy homes and sportscars might drive you to work excessive overtime, neglecting the good things you already have. Pictures of models and actors with giant muscles, trim figures, and perfect skin might make you feel ashamed for not working out more or following the latest skincare trend. Price writes that constant exposure to these fantasies of perfection is deadly to your self-esteem, and yet they’re everywhere—we can’t escape them.

(Shortform note: Price’s warning about the dangers of unrealistic lifestyle ideals is based on social comparison theory, first developed by psychologist Leon Festinger in 1954. This theory suggests that people constantly compare themselves to others because they determine their social and personal worth based on how they measure up. In the age of social media, big-budget entertainment, and fashion magazines, such constant comparison distorts many people’s vision for how their lives should turn out, resulting in anxiety, burnout, health issues, and financial woes as they strive to meet unattainable goals.)

As if dictating lifestyle expectations weren’t enough, social media has “gamified” our lives, says Price, turning even hobbies and leisure activities into chances to compare our achievements to others. For instance, if you post your workout stats online, you’ll feel a brief reward as others “like” your progress, but then you’ll feel compelled to work even harder to outdo those who exercise more than you. The same goes for any activity—sharing how many books you read online, showing off your latest crafting projects, or posting how quickly you solved an online crossword. When hobbies turn into competition, the need to one-up other people can sap out all the joy from what you do while pressuring you to work harder at it.

(Shortform note: If done right, gamifying your life might actually make many of your tasks more enjoyable. In Barking Up the Wrong Tree, Eric Barker suggests that reframing some aspects of your life as a game can motivate you to push through setbacks and stick to your long-term plans. However, instead of letting social media drive your game—as Price says we too often do—Barker writes that you should write the rules yourself. Start by choosing realistic goals to make sure “winning” is possible, then regularly increase the difficulty of your challenges and incorporate regular feedback into your process. For instance, if you’re learning a new skill, set increasingly difficult benchmarks and tests, with rewards along the way.)

Carrying the Weight of the World

Price says that for some people, unhealthy views on productivity drive them to try to stay constantly informed, both by following the news at all hours and by sliding down informational rabbit holes on every topic that strikes them as important. While it may be important to keep abreast of current events, studies show that too much news exposure leads to anxiety, stress-induced physical ailments, and a decreased sense of personal agency. Still, you might feel you’d be lazy if you were to reduce your information intake—shouldn’t you try to know everything you can? Price reminds us that consuming an endless flood of information isn’t as empowering as we tend to assume; instead, it usually makes us feel hopeless.

(Shortform note: If you’re one of the obsessive news-checkers Price describes, it may not be your fault—modern news media is designed to be addictive. In Indistractable, Nir Eyal explains that news feeds, with their “infinite scroll” layout, are one of the most addictive features of social media since they don’t offer a natural place to stop browsing. To short-circuit this design and regain control of what you view online, you can install news feed blockers, save your frequently visited URLs to skip past social media homepages entirely, and block social media’s ability to send you notifications. Eyal observes that when you deactivate these features, social media and news sites become less entertaining and, conversely, more useful.)

Despite—or perhaps because of—the overwhelming amount of bad news we’re exposed to, many people feel motivated to make a positive change in the world. This is fine—Price doesn’t argue against activism, but once again, he points out that too much is too much. Unrealistic productivity expectations might drive you to support too many causes, eventually resulting in burnout. Price argues that even with all the world’s problems, you should focus just on those that are closest to your heart and trust other people to care about the rest. You can be more effective if you concentrate and moderate your altruistic efforts without giving up your well-being in the process. Otherwise, you won’t be able to help anyone.

(Shortform note: While Price blames productivity culture for activism burnout, another factor that undercuts altruism is the emotional energy you bring to it. Many people support causes out of feelings of obligation or anxiety, but in Pleasure Activism, adrienne maree brown argues that activism can be more powerful if you focus on what brings you joy. You can begin by cultivating an awareness of what things in life bring you the most satisfaction. Then, prioritize causes that genuinely inspire you, and work to build networks of support in those spaces where everyone can openly be themselves. People who feel connected are more energized, so activists who engage in this mindset can avoid burnout and amplify their impact through joy and cooperation.)

The Added Weight of Marginalization

While the fear of being considered lazy plagues every level of society, Price argues that it’s especially hard-hitting for people who face discrimination due to ethnicity, gender, disability, or sexual orientation. People in these groups often feel compelled to work more than others just to prove their worth, while societal roles and expectations can add to their already-heavy loads.

Price says that to succeed professionally, members of underrepresented groups are often forced to suppress their identities and conform to cultural norms in the workplace. Many marginalized people use achievements to “earn” acceptance in their careers. Their fear that they’ll be labeled as lazy for not overperforming is valid, thanks to a long history of prejudice that promotes that message. However, constantly trying to prove your worth is exhausting and unfulfilling. Regardless, our productivity-obsessed culture makes lots of people work doubly hard—both to overcome harmful identity-based stereotypes and to conform to societal expectations about achievement.

(Shortform note: Another consequence of the extra burden that marginalized people experience is that productivity culture perpetuates the cycle of marginalization. In Rest Is Resistance, Tricia Hersey explains that because people lower on the income scale have to work longer just to make ends meet, they’re unable to get the amount of sleep needed to maintain mental and physical health. In the US, because poverty rates are higher among Black Americans, this means that Black people on average get fewer hours of sleep, leading to a higher rate of health issues that stem from exhaustion. Therefore, instead of hard work helping people gain acceptance, as Price says many are pressured to do, it leads to burnout and physical collapse.)

Stereotypes and expectations don’t stay confined to work—they follow many of us home. In particular, Price writes that thanks to traditional gender norms, women shoulder an unequal burden of domestic labor on top of their careers. This includes housework, parenting duties, arranging social gatherings, and providing emotional care for family members. For modern women, all this work comes after being drained and exhausted by overwork at work. And yet, even in the 21st century, many women find themselves taking on the weight of what Price argues are long-outdated gender role expectations.

(Shortform note: In Burnout, Amelia and Emily Nagoski argue that the extra working burden Price illustrates for women isn’t limited to their careers and family life. In addition, they must work for their voices to be heard within the confines of patriarchal society while also working to meet unrealistic body standards that are promulgated through various media and advertisements. The Nagosaki sisters suggest that to avoid burning out from all this overwork, you must manage both your stressors and the stress they cause—a process that, in its way, asks for even more work in the name of self-care.)

Laziness Is Good

If overwork is slowly killing us all, then clearly we need to set new expectations regarding how productive we can be. Price suggests a fundamental change in how we view “laziness”—not as a serious failure to be productive, but as a natural, positive biological response that lets us know when we need to slow down. Price argues that the urge to be lazy is a sign that you need rest, that regular down-time is a necessity, and that relaxation boosts productivity.

The first thing Price says you need to recognize is that when you feel tired and unmotivated, these are biological warning signs you should listen to. Perhaps you’ve simply been pushing too hard at work, doing too much at home, snacking instead of eating right, or not leaving enough time for sleep. These signals might also reveal underlying physical or mental health issues that need to be addressed, such as poor lifestyle habits, anxiety, depression, or a host of physical ailments whose symptoms include low energy and fatigue. For many of these conditions, trying to “power through” them delays proper treatment and makes matters worse.

(Shortform note: Many of the issues tied to “laziness” that Price discusses can be traced back to not getting enough sleep. In Why We Sleep, Matthew Walker warns that too much sleep deprivation leads to a growing deficit between the amount of sleep you need and the amount of sleep you get. This comes at a cost to your abilities to concentrate and control your emotions. Worse, sleep deprivation has been linked to a list of health problems including heart disease, obesity, and even Alzheimer’s. To reverse the effects of a sleep deficit, Walker suggests keeping a regular sleep schedule, avoiding alcohol and caffeine before bed, exercising, and eating a normal diet—all of which may be challenging if you’re overworked.)

The Importance of Rest

The next attitude Price says to adjust is the thought that “wasting time” is a waste of time. Instead, it’s healthier to acknowledge that human beings can't be productive every moment of the day. Building time in your schedule to simply do nothing can improve your mood, boost emotional healing, and make space for self-reflection and discovery. In this way, “wasted time” isn’t wasted at all—it’s productive in that it helps you build a healthier, more well-balanced you. If you’re constantly giving your all to your job, other people, and your daily grind, you’re missing out on yourself to the point that you can even lose track of who you really are.

The benefits of rest go beyond self-care. Downtime is essential for creativity and problem-solving. Price cites studies demonstrating that breakthrough ideas often come during periods of rest or distraction, not during focused work time. Many creative professionals back this up with anecdotes about having their best ideas while exercising, walking through a park, or detaching in some other way. These creative benefits even apply when people slack off at work. For example, research suggests that when employees take breaks to browse the internet on company time, it actually improves their productivity and helps them stay focused throughout the day.

Productive Relaxation

Even some productivity gurus agree with Price about the limits of productivity. In Deep Work, Cal Newport cites research showing that even the most productive people can only practice intense concentration for up to four hours per day. Also, according to Newport, downtime is productive for two reasons. First, he explains what Price observes about rest and problem-solving via the theory that your subconscious never stops working, and when you slow down, your unconscious mind becomes more effective than when you’re concentrating. Second, he admits that your ability to focus needs to be periodically recharged, so resting serves to make you more productive tomorrow once you’ve run out of fuel today.

Though Price frames downtime as being somewhat idle, you can also relax actively, instead of passively. In Focus, Daniel Goleman suggests recharging your attention by getting fully lost in pleasurable activities that still engage all of your senses, like cooking, martial arts, and dancing. Likewise, in Digital Minimalism, Cal Newport argues that demanding activities are more rewarding than passive ones, so you should use more of your leisure time for activities such as exercise and creative hobbies that provide greater mental and physical benefits than idly passing the time. Both Goleman and Newport recommend unplugging from screen-based media as a way to begin.

Deprogram Your Beliefs About Laziness

The biggest barrier to accepting that so-called laziness can be good for you is the cultural belief we discussed at the beginning of this guide— that how much you accomplish defines you. Price refutes any equivalence between your productivity, your moral character, and your worth as a person. To undo this belief, he says you’ll have to decouple your ideas about productivity from your self-image and your views of other people while learning to focus on personal growth and setting boundaries around how much you can do.

(Shortform note: The mindset Price prescribes is what Brené Brown refers to as worthiness. In The Gifts of Imperfection, she defines worthiness as the conviction that you are good enough as you are, flaws and all. Brown connects worthiness to the inherent values of vulnerability, compassion, and connection with others. The opposite of worthiness is shame: the feeling that you don’t deserve to be loved because you’re not good enough—or, in the context of Price’s book, because you’re not working hard enough. Brown argues that if you cultivate worthiness in place of shame, you’ll develop inner strength, get more joy out of life, and find that you’re truly able to be yourself.)

Price says the key to overcoming the belief that how much you do equals how much you’re worth is to learn compassion, both for yourself and others. In your own life, you’ll have to come to terms with the fact that letting yourself be lazy means you won’t achieve as much—and that’s OK. You won’t be the perfect worker, the perfect parent, or the perfect friend, but those were never achievable goals, and chasing them isn’t good for your physical or mental health. Instead, Price suggests that you can strive to be as good a worker, parent, or friend as you can while still prioritizing your personal needs. This isn’t selfish—it’s self-care that pays higher dividends than spreading yourself thin and working down to the bone.

(Shortform note: The challenge in following Price’s advice to accept imperfection is that it might be painful—especially if you’ve been taught all your life to strive to do the best you can. However, even that pain can be useful, especially if you’re willing to sit with that discomfort. In The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F∗ck, Mark Manson argues that discomfort promotes growth and that letting yourself experience discomfort toughens you up while making you more empathetic towards other people’s struggles. According to Manson, letting yourself feel the pain of your imperfections doesn’t mean “giving up” on yourself. Instead, it’s an act of self-compassion that nurtures your growth as a person.)

Also, Price argues that you shouldn’t look down on those who don’t fit society’s “hard-working” standards. It’s important to acknowledge that systemic issues like racism, classism, and ableism affect what opportunities people have, what unseen struggles they face, and how much they can achieve. We’re taught to label those we believe to be underachievers as “lazy,” when instead we should ask what obstacles they have that we know nothing about. Perhaps that employee who’s chronically late is caring for an elderly parent. Perhaps a person who can’t get a job was forced to quit school for mental health reasons. Price says the “lazy” label masks a host of real problems that ought to be addressed with kindness, not scorn.

(Shortform note: Price’s examples of calling other people lazy are, in psychological terms, a result of a cognitive bias called the fundamental attribution error, in which we blame someone else’s behavior on their personality and not their circumstances. According to neuroscientific research, this error occurs during a process called “mentalization,” in which you try to guess at the other person’s thought process. When mentalizing, you focus so much on what the other person thinks and intends that you ignore external influences on their behavior. This process is mostly unconscious, so it’s hard to recognize when the error occurs. Nevertheless, it’s a bias to be aware of when judging someone else’s character by their apparent success.)

Learn to Be Lazy

To escape from the trap of measuring yourself and others in terms of accomplishments, Price suggests that you need to shift your focus from external achievements to internal growth. A crucial part of this is understanding that personal growth isn’t a competition—it’s not something you track on social media or use to compare your progress to others. Instead, it’s a gradual process of change, healing, and awareness. As you slow down to focus on your needs and rediscover who you are, you don’t have to tick off any boxes on a scorecard. Instead, just be aware of each positive step and enjoy them as they come without needing to do more.

(Shortform note: When applying Price’s advice, keep in mind that the point of slowing down and tending to your needs is not to make you more productive in the long run. In Rest Is Resistance, Tricia Hersey criticizes many popular rejuvenation techniques for doing just that—disguising productivity-boosting sessions as opportunities to rest and recharge. In particular, she cites corporate retreats as a prime example of pseudo-growth and development. Hersey says that self-care, rest, and healing aren’t things you should tend to only on special occasions, but should rather be an ongoing part of your life.)

Price says the other vital step you’ll have to take is to learn not to be ashamed of limits on your time and energy. The majority of psychologists recognize that setting boundaries is crucial for healthy relationships. Price takes this a step further to argue that you should feel free to set boundaries in every aspect of your life—how much effort you put into work, how much you’ll do to support your friends and family, and how much you’ll be involved in any activity. As suggested before, this isn’t selfish behavior. Instead, think of maintaining healthy limits as playing the long game—by tending to your own well-being, you maximize how much you can give to yourself, your loved ones, and the world at large over a long, happy lifetime.

Setting Boundaries

Though the boundaries Price discusses are important, establishing and maintaining them can be a challenge. In Set Boundaries, Find Peace, therapist Nedra Glover Tawwab offers a three-step boundary-setting process that begins with identifying what your boundaries are. These include how you wish to share your time and how you expect other people to treat you. The next step is to clearly communicate your boundaries, so that everyone understands your expectations. Lastly, you’ll have to enforce your boundaries, often by restating them when you feel they’ve been crossed.

Tawwab argues that it’s especially important to state your boundaries in the workplace since your coworkers don’t know you as well as your friends and family do. Though we usually think of boundaries in terms of personal interactions, they also apply to how much time and energy you’re willing to pour into your career, your creative endeavors, and any other ambitions that are important to you.