You can’t ignore a book with a title like Laziness Does Not Exist. It’s bold. Many lawyers might argue that it’s controversial. As soon as I heard it, I knew I had to read it.
Most of you probably aren’t surprised that a mindfulness teacher was interested in a book about laziness. After all, I encourage other lawyers to spend more time doing nothing in this blog on a weekly basis.
But, of course, idleness is not something we lawyers take to easily. As I will share in this review, I loved Laziness Does Not Exist (“LDNE”) by Devon Price because it helps us unpack why we dislike and fear laziness so much. (paid link) It also offers sound practices for gradually unwinding our individual and societal issues around laziness.
Keep reading to learn more about why I liked the book so much and what it may offer to you.
The Book Offers Deep Insights for Lawyers who May Fear Laziness.
Despite it’s seemingly simple title, LDNE is more than an argument about the nonexistence of laziness. Instead, it’s more of a conversation about our cultural and individual feelings about work and effort. It posits that a collection of values around work and productivity have congealed into “the laziness lie.”
These assumptions, asserting that passivity is bad and activity is good, often manipulate us all into a pattern of overwork. As a mindfulness practitioner and teacher, I was already attuned to many red flags of this nature. For instance, I understand that rest is essential and not a reward for good behavior. I have written many times before about the connection between overwork, exhaustion, and striving for perfection. And I have even talked about the idea that doing nothing can sometimes be a power move.
Even so, as I read LDNE, I was repeatedly impressed by how much Price offered deep insights on these subjects. He didn’t skim the surface by making a generic plea for us to appreciate the importance of self-care. Instead, he went deep in explaining how laziness got such a bad rap in our culture. Then he invites each of us to explore how our own fear of being regarded as lazy causes each of us to overwork, whether at work, with our personal habits, or even in our relationships.
In various ways, the book is full of insights. It reframes fundamental issues that will change your mind, whether you start off believing in laziness or not.
It Also Shares Useful Tips to Help Lawyers to Set Boundaries.
More significantly, the insights in LDNE weren’t offered just to produce “aha” moments. Instead, they are intended to help each of us give ourselves a break. LDNE does this by offering a variety of useful strategies and practices to get oneself out of the grind created by the laziness lie.
Most relevant to lawyers, these include tips and strategies for managing one’s work day and work life. For instance, it explained that small breaks at work can actually boost productivity.Th
Quite correctly, though, the tips are not just restricted to work. In this age of political polarization and upheaval, I found the chapters four and five to be the most useful. In these chapters, Price discussed the traps we can set for ourselves when we get too invested in world and political events or when we try to maximize our achievement even in our leisure time.
I found these chapters useful because I have struggled with both of these things. Despite my busy and stressful law practice, I have still found it a challenge to not take on every social cause as my personal mission. It also can be tough for lawyers to turn our competitive and goal-oriented personas from work when he get home.
This can cause us to track and document on social media every activity in our lives to the point where we leave ourselves no place to rest. It was helpful that the chapters both offered permission and practical strategies to gradually find more ease with these life activities.
Encourages compassion and understanding for yourself and others
Perhaps my favorite thing about LDNE is that the overall mission of the book is one that encourages greater compassion and understanding for oneself and others. In the end, the big message that you may get from reading LDNE is that calling someone, including yourself, lazy is often the result of failing to look closely or clearly at a situation.
Price encourages us all to stop reflexively calling ourselves or others lazy when we struggle. Instead, he asks us to look more closely to understand what may be causing the problem. In many situations doing so may help us identify a very logical reason why effort, work, and motivation are a challenge.
But I also appreciated that LDNE also addressed the reality that many of us, especially lawyers, tend to criticize ourselves more than anyone else for alleged laziness. Though I would not call LDNE a self-help book, it does offer some helpful strategies in this regard. It wisely discussed the value of meditation, simply feeling one’s feelings, and even writing about one’s experiences as helpful ways of confronting our own personal hang-ups and self-judgments when it comes to laziness.
Laziness Does Not Exist Is a Good Read for Lawyers
Overall, Laziness Does Not Exist by Devon Price is an easy to read, insightful, and well-structured book that will change your mind. It will help you identify the ways that worries about laziness come up in your own life and work. It may help you develop strategies to work a little less in ways that aren’t consistent with your values. But the end goal isn’t lazy at all. It is courage to look more clearly at the world, yourself, and other people so that you can act with greater kindness and compassion.
Want to learn more about mindfulness and compassion? Check out my new book, How to Be a Badass Lawyer, for a simple guide to creating a meditation practice of your own in 30 days. And to share mindfulness with your little one, check out my new children’s book, Mommy Needs a Minute.
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