Irene Rose Rose's Key Ideas from The Art of Laziness
by T M Caufield

Whenever you’re trying to do something new, always try to keep it as simple as possible. Don’t try to do too much at one time. Don’t overthink about all the things that can go wrong. Most of the time, they don’t go wrong at all. What you should do is to start as soon as possible. You need to have urgency. The urge to do things fast. Not urgency in getting the desired results but the urgency in doing the work. Let’s say you want to learn how to create a website. You can start right now, or you can keep waiting.

We should set clear goals that are both possible and can be achieved quickly. Setting huge, ambitious goals is not bad, but the problem is if you're a super lazy person, you will not work toward that goal because it would seem too hard and impossible to achieve.

That’s why in the start you should set small easy goals that can be achieved.

Goals should also be clear. For example, a clear goal is that you want to lose 2 kilograms in 1 month. An unclear goal is that you want to be healthy.

A goal that can’t be measured and has no time duration is not a goal

If you don’t write down your goals on paper, you should start doing it now;

you will not regret it. If you have clearly written goals and read them regularly, they will motivate you. You will feel some guilt if you don’t do what you have written. Even if you achieve half of your goals, that’s still better than doing nothing.

Procrastination means avoiding doing a task that needs to be done by giving excuses to do it later. Without giving excuses, you will feel bad, and we don’t want to feel bad, so we give different types of excuses. The most popular one is “I’m waiting for the right time.” The time will never be right;

it can’t be perfect. There are always going to be obstacles in your way.

Many things will try their best to make you lazy and procrastinate, but you must overcome all of them.

Discipline means doing anything that needs to be done. If this means working hard, then you will work harder. If it means working smarter, then you will be working smarter. Never avoid doing the things you want to do just because they’re hard.

It’s hard to delay gratification because we want to enjoy things now.

Nothing is wrong with it, but the problem arises when you do things that harm your future. Actions that you will regret in the future, and you will be asking yourself why did I do that?

You must look in both directions: present and future. You must enjoy the present but not at the cost of your future. By being lazy, you don’t enjoy both your present and future.

You can’t do everything. We have limited energy and must spend it in the best way possible.

If you’re painting or creating something, then yes, it should be as perfect as possible, but if you’re doing something like cutting grass, which is going to regrow in a few weeks, don’t spend your entire day trying to be a perfectionist and trying to cut each blade of grass with perfection. 

You should be able to turn on and off the switch of perfectionism.

Sometimes it’s needed, and sometimes it’s not. Don’t make a default setting of always being a perfectionist. Change it according to circumstances.

Don’t hide your laziness with perfection.