THAT'S MEN: Laziness isn't just a matter of laying about doing nothing; those taking the lazy way need to work on their lazy skills
RESOLVING TO sharpen up your act for 2010? Why bother? Lazy sods get just as much thanks as the rest and do less harm.
I have long been of this view – now I have backing from no less a source than the Management-Issues blog which worries about such things as “What does ‘responsible leadership’ really mean?” and “How do you manage brilliant people?”
In his article, Peter Taylor, author of The Lazy Project Manager, reminds us of these wise words from SF writer Robert Heinlein: "Progress isn't made by early risers. It's made by lazy men trying to find easier ways to do something."
Taylor suggests an alternative to buzzing around like a mosquito on steroids: productive laziness.
Productive laziness is based on the Pareto Principle which could be summed up as saying that 80 per cent of results are produced by 20 per cent of effort.
The productively lazy person will take the Pareto Principle to heart with whimpers of joy and without looking too closely into whether that is what the Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto actually meant.
The lazy office warrior will apply his or her (yes, Virginia, there are lazy women) mind to identifying the 20 per cent of work he needs to do.
Meanwhile, less gifted colleagues will be huffing and puffing their way through the other thoroughly useless 80 per cent – especially if they have made a devil’s pact in the form of a New Year resolution.
But laziness isn’t just a matter of laying about doing nothing, no sir. Those who take the lazy way need, in Peter Taylor’s words, to “hone their lazy skills, so that they learn how to become successful through the efficient deployment of resources”.
Quite right.
This is serious stuff. Generalfeldmarschall von Moltke, who ran the Prussian Army for 30 years, espoused the same principles.
He divided his officers into four groups.
First were those who were mentally dull and physically lazy. Given fairly unchallenging work these, he believed, would do no harm and might even come up with the odd good idea.
Second were the mentally bright and physically energetic. This lot, he rightly believed, would torment everybody around them with micromanagement. They were best used as glorified messengers and supervisors, ensuring things were done and checking details.
The mentally dull and physically energetic had to be watched really, really carefully because of their capacity to make trouble – he saw no role for them at all.
Last but not least were the mentally bright but physically lazy. These, in von Moltke’s view, were the cream of the crop. They were bright enough to know what was required and lazy enough to seek out the simplest possible way to do it. These he promoted right to the top.
Walter Chrysler, founder of the Chrysler Corporation, put von Moltke’s views into practice, saying, “Whenever there is a hard job to be done I assign it to a lazy man; he is sure to find an easy way of doing it.”
I myself, as anyone who knows me could tell you, have been following the same principles since I learned, in Naas CBS, that if you studied your Latin diligently for the first year, the teacher left you in peace for the next four.
I have since applied the Pareto Principle to every area of my life and have so far got away with it.
This is a particularly challenging time of year for the lazy. The Superego which, according to Freud, lectures and reprimands us endlessly, is bellowing away about the importance of New Year resolutions, doing better, pulling up your socks and all that. The Ideal Self which imagines that, given the right breaks, you would be slim, trim, energetic, attractive and dynamic whispers seductively in your ear: just a few resolutions will make a better person of you.
Have nothing to do with either of these frauds. Stick to productive laziness.
And repeat, as often as necessary, the approving words of the Gospel: “ . . . they toil not, neither do they spin”. Etcetera.
(Editorial note: In accordance with the Pareto Principle, 80 per cent of this article is based on The power of productive laziness on www.management-issues.com).
Padraig O’Morain (pomorain@ireland.com) is a counsellor accredited by the Irish Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy. His book,
Light Mind - Mindfulness for Daily Living
, is published by Veritas