Essay - Can the Way to Success Be Laziness

Save Yourself The Guilt Trip. Laziness And Procrastination Could Make You Successful

So why does Bill Gates hire a lazy person to do a difficult job? Because a lazy person will always find an easier way to do it. That's just like the second mouse getting the cheese while the first mouse lies dead in a trap. Lesson learnt: being too eager can get you into deep shit. 

Here are some ideas that prove being too lazy can actually get your work done faster.

1. Lazy to be lazy.

Quora user, Karthick Venkatesh, suggests setting a long password, so the next time you take an unofficial Facebook or Twitter scrolling break, chances are, you won't remember your password or you'll be too lazy to type it out. The result? You're back to work, scrolling breaks are out of the question.

2. Late latifs have some hope.

Maybe keeping those assignments last minute is a good idea after all, "If I wait until the last minute to work on something, the stress of it automatically narrows my focus to what’s important, and I quickly jettison the rest. I throw no work away, I work quickly and efficiently, and I get it done," says Caroline Sin, another Quora user. Starting in advance makes you do a more work than you actually need to.

3. Be lazy and clever, not lazy and stupid. 

Kurt Gebhard Adolf Philipp Freiherr von Hammerstein-Equord was Germany’s chief of the army before the Second World War. He said that all his officers were two of the following: clever, diligent, stupid or lazy.

According to the general, the most dangerous officer was one who was stupid and diligent. He couldn't be trusted with any responsibility because he would always make mischief.

However, officers who were both clever and lazy were qualified for the highest leadership duties. They were masters at avoiding “busywork” such as pointless meetings. He claimed, they delegate to others to get things done efficiently, and they focus on the essentials rather than being distracted by unnecessary extras.

4. Vital few, trivial many.

Believe in the 80-20 rule, focus on the vital 20% to deliver 80% of the results. Of the things you do during your day, only 20% really matter - in theory. Lazy people can cut down on 80% of their workload by identifying and focusing only on those things that are truly important.

In 2007, Tim Ferriss published his book, The 4-Hour Workweek, in which he extolled the virtues of the Pareto Principle and of working as little as possible. The self-help book was a worldwide success, selling 1.35 m copies in 35 languages.

According to Ferriss, to be truly productive, we must check our email just once a day and outsource every small daily task to virtual assistants, focusing only on those tasks that generate the largest return.

5. Mint money.

Wanna make money while you're lazy? Simple business models like Mc Donalds can shed some light on this. Produce simple products which can be sold and marketed in various combinations according to your customers needs. Packaging it differently to give it another identity reduces the time and effort.