YouAlberta
By Sam
Let me introduce the philosophy of ambitious laziness. While these two words sound contradictory, they actually pair together quite nicely. Laziness and ambition serve to balance each other out. When I use laziness here I don't mean not wanting to do anything, but rather I use laziness to mean "being unwilling to work." Laziness in this way is about preserving free time and avoiding overwork, to which ambitious people (i.e. students with packed schedules) may fall prey.
So, without any further ado, here are some guidelines for how you too can be ambitiously lazy:
1. Set aside free time
Instead of thinking of free time (i.e. time not devoted to "productive activities") as something leftover when the work is done, the ambitiously lazy person blocks off such time. Rather than waiting for it to come, it is important to actively schedule in time for doing the things you love. What I do personally is block off "fun" activities in purple in my Google calendar and "work" activities in "blue." The trick is to have enough purple in a given week. Once you've set time aside for enjoyable activities, protect them fiercely!
2. Get things started in advance
I know, this one sounds counter-intuitive, but trust me, you save yourself a lot of grief by getting started on work in advance. The ambitiously lazy person differs from the simply lazy person in that they still want to achieve great things, but they just don't want to spend their entire life working. If you get things started in advance, you can attack it bit by bit and avoid burdening yourself excessively at any one time. Getting things started in advance also allows you to avoid stress and give yourself some buffer time should you need it.
3. Be purposeful with your time (AKA avoid time-sucks)
The ambitiously lazy person doesn't simply let work, obligations, or distractions happen to them. Sure, distractions will inevitably find everyone, but what sets the ambitiously lazy person apart is being aware of when they're not purposefully doing something and getting back on track. It's really easy to spend a half hour scrolling through the Instagram discover feed or a few hours passively binging a TV show. The simply lazy person will just let distractions happen to them while the simply ambitious person will often let their work/obligations pile up. The ambitiously lazy person, however, is fiercely protective of their time and (for the most part) only does things they want to do, whether work or play.
4. Know when you don't need to do something
Number 4 perfectly illustrates the delicate balance between ambition and laziness. Whereas the ambitious person often wants to be as hands-on as possible in order to achieve success, the lazy person wants to be as hands-off as possible in order to achieve, you know… nothing. The ambitiously lazy person, however, knows when to delegate and defer work and when to do it themselves. I myself often fall prey to 'doing too much' and in such cases, I need to take a step back and remind myself that certain work can wait, or that I don't need to do it all on my own.
5. Combine things you need to do
This could also be called "errand stacking." If you have to get a haircut, for instance, think about other things you need to do around your barbershop that could be conveniently combined into your trip. The ambitiously lazy person seeks to combine non-fun tasks as much as possible to minimize the time spent doing them. This logic also applies to grouping tasks together to maximize how efficiently you can take care of them. For instance, responding to your emails as they come may not be the best use of your time. Instead, you can set aside a specific time, say once every 3 hours to respond to emails - saving you time and energy.
6. Know your priorities, live your priorities
Ultimately, being ambitiously lazy comes down to priorities. If you value your time and you know what your priorities are in life, you won't have any trouble with the ambitiously lazy lifestyle. Most of the time, we don't seriously reflect on our priorities and how they manifest themselves in our day to day lives. Being busy doesn't just happen to people, it is allowed to happen either explicitly or implicitly. The ambitiously lazy person has thought seriously about what they value in life and thus they live out those values every day, having designed their life to meet their priorities as much as they can.