See it for what it is, fer hecksake.
Here’s some good general advice for anybody working anywhere — and for anyone working towards organizing a company culture — and for anyone managing a new time-management challenge doing remote work.
Get rid of “lazy.” It’s not helping.
At Clearview, we don’t really believe in the idea of laziness. We believe in the idea that people who are excited about what they’re working on — and feel like they’re contributing — are going to want to contribute and work.
The idea of laziness itself is, well… lazy. It’s a lazy way to describe the act of trying to work.
You could be trying to work when your body doesn’t want to work. You could be trying to work through a pile of blockers that you need to talk about with a wider team but you aren’t comfortable tabling. You could be trying to work in an overstimulating environment, or from an emotional situation where you can’t focus. You could be trying to work on a project you’re simply not stoked about anymore, and you need to get brave and raise that. Or you could be trying to work when you really just need to go for a run (or get onto your yoga mat) for a solid half hour. None of those situations frame somebody who’s simply lazy.
Since the idea of laziness is a lazy description for a complicated situation, we coach Clearviewers to address the underlying markers. To label someone “lazy” is to be ignorant of the fact that there’s a mismatch between what they’re trying (or supposed to be doing) and what they are actually aligned to be doing right now.
So, the next time you’re about to throw the “lazy” label around, try this:
1. Allow yourself (and your teammates) the opportunity to reset.
To be creative and productive, we need those resets. We need that connection to whatever it is that pulls us out of our heads and into our bodies; something to calm the nervous system and clear a path to good work.
2. Do what you need to do.
The best hours of the day to do activities and knock out errands are the hours that happen during the day. Putting off errands in order to sit listlessly in front of a computer only really works for so long. Go pick up the milk; go rent the tool you need to fix the corner of the deck your partner’s getting anxious about; go play with your kids in the middle of the day when they’re excited to hang out with you. Your work afterward will be so much better.
3. Honor the fact that your brain lives in a body.
There’s so much to dig into here that it merits its very own article, so hang in there for that.
See? Chances are, you’ll never spit the l-word again.
You’re welcome.