Establish a Lazy Routine

We’ve been on a month long vacation, *ahem* quarantine, and people are actually saying they “miss” work. 

They’re out there protesting n’ shit.

“Goddamn gimme my freedom. This is Murica!” they cry.

As if having their conveniences is more important than people’s lives.
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Look...stay the Fuck Home. It’s simple. Relax. Be lazy. Enjoy it.

But people are getting ancy and impatient. They’re feeling a bit of cabin fever. Heck, I get it. Even a procrastin8r like me is getting a little frustrated with being forced by law to stay indoors (though I’d probably stay inside anyway in all fairness).

I’m concerned that these protests may turn violent if the rules of the Stay at Home order aren’t lifted soon. That of course would increase the risk of infection spreading rapidly, greatly accelerating the death toll. It’s sort of a lose/lose situation.

Either we wait it out patiently and sacrifice our freedom to leave the house for a while, or rush back outside immediately and kill people.

You have two camps: Those in fear of a totalitarian state of the government and those in fear of a virus killing everybody.

The reality is, it’s going to kill some people and it will kill a lot more people if we don’t take precautions. The fact of the matter is, people won’t follow these precautions unless required to do so. I mean let’s be honest here. 

The freedom to choose whether or not to take precautions will result in too many people choosing NOT to, thus spreading the virus very quickly.

Man, just embrace laziness. Quit being fearful either way. Shut up. Sit your ass down and drink your goddman tea!
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 understand though. People want a sense of normalcy back in their lives, and in today’s blog we’re aiming to do that, all while remaining inside in our humble little lazy abode.

Seek not freedom out of your house. Seek freedom within your soul.

One simple thing you can do, as we touched on in last week’s blog is establish a solid lazy routine to follow every day. A routine allows you to achieve three vital things: Purpose, Structure, and Balance













Purpose

Getting up for work. It sucked, but it provided one thing that may be missing in your life during this isolation: a sense of purpose.

You had a reason to go to work - to make money, to pay bills, to provide for you and your family. You had a direction to go in. As much as you hated your job, it provided you a definite path to go down.

So if you say that you miss work, what you’re really missing is purpose.

What is purpose?

Purpose is simply a matter of finding meaning in what you’re doing. You can do seemingly “lazy” things as long as there is purpose and meaning behind doing them. 

If you are feeling guilty over lying on the couch all day watching movies, what you’re really telling yourself is NOT “I should stop being so lazy”, it’s “I feel a lack of meaning.”

Being Lazy is a good thing, or at least can be if used properly. You have to answer the WHY. Why are you lying on the couch watching movies all day?

Seriously. Think about this for a second. 

If your answer is “cause I’m a lazy fuck.” You’re wrong. That doesn’t even answer the question. Lying on the couch all day does make you a lazy fuck but it still doesn’t answer why you’re doing that in the first place.

So WHY...why is it you lie on the couch all day? Think about it. I’ll wait

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Good? Okay.

Now, if you’ve come to the conclusion that you don’t really have a reason 

“I dunno” or “it’s just something I do.” 

Then we can summarize together one thing:

You lack purpose.

If what you’re doing is merely a distraction to something worthy of more purpose (or an actual purpose for that matter), then you aren’t being lazy, you’re being idle.

If you get a sense of unworthiness in your laziness, then the key ingredient you’re missing is purpose. Procrastinate with Purpose. True laziness is fulfillment; true laziness is freedom.

There’s a difference between Laziness and Idleness, which is a topic we can expand on in the future. Laziness is simply a matter of feeling at ease, while simultaneously developing your purpose. Idleness, on the other hand, is lacking purpose behind what you’re doing (even people who “work hard” can technically be idle)

Now, back to our question as to WHY you lie on the couch all day. If you’ve come up with an answer such as “I like it”

Noooow, we’re onto something!

You could dive a little deeper. What is it you like about it? What makes it important to you?

You could say “Well, I like watching the fantasy. I like learning about the characters and seeing them develop. It  helps me understand myself as well as other people.”

Or maybe even “I am saving people’s lives by not going outside and lying in the comforts of my ass worn couch”

The takeaway here is to explore the meaning in everything you do (or everything that happens to you for that matter). There’s no problem with being lazy, as long as you have purpose for doing so.


When it comes to setting your routine, you want to make sure that you dedicate time towards fulfilling your purpose. Choose a specific activity (or set of activities) that give you a sense of meaning.

Careful though. There’s a fine line between “Finding Purpose” and “Making an Excuse.” 

Finding Purpose requires thoughtful contemplation, whereas Making an Excuse is just word vomit. 
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Finding Purpose is playing offense.
You carefully decide what you are going to do and how it will be beneficial to your physical, mental, or emotional well-being.

You procrastinate, plan, then take action. Finding Purpose is strategic and thoughtful. It’s proactive.


Making an Excuse is playing defense.
You haphazardly rush into doing something or just do it without any conscious awareness of your behavior.

You take action, without the proper planning (or procrastination)

Making an Excuse is irrational and emotional. It’s reactive.

With purpose comes focus. The greater sense of purpose you have, the more keen your focus is. Having a strong sense of meaning allows you to accomplish the Lazy principle of doing LESS with MORE focus.













Structure

Whereas Purpose is the foundation, the motivating factor behind your goal, or task of routine, Structure is the plan that leads you to completing it.

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Rather than dilly dallying or trying to figure out what to do with your time (then ending up wasting it), you deliberately construct a plan to achieve your goal, your purpose, and act upon it...even if that plan is sitting on the couch eating Cheetos and playing video games.

With Structure, you arrange your life in the way you want to live it. With Purpose, you understand WHY you want to live it that way. They sort of go hand in hand.

Purpose without Structure leads to never achieving much Structure without Purpose leads to a lack of fulfillment.

While it’s important to be organized, it’s equally as important to have ambition. You must both have meaning and the means to get there.


Now to clarify, I’m not saying you need to get out the white glove or be an organized perfectionist. You don’t need a daily planner full of notes.
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My room’s a mess, but I know where everything is goddamnit. That’s structure.

Structure is simply “the know how” of goal accomplishment. Nothing more, nothing less. It’s not as strict as you might think either.

It’s simply drawing a line from Point A to Point B.

It’s putting everything “in place” -- a place that makes sense to you. No one understands why I keep dirty clothes on the floor, but damnit -- it makes sense to me and it achieves my goal of doing laundry, eventually, somehow. Look, point is, it works for me. I value efficiency over presentation.

Find a purpose and maintain a structure that keeps you set on it. My purpose is to be efficient and I achieve that by throwing clothes on the floor.

Scheduling

You don’t need a hard ball schedule, but some time frame measures may be helpful. You can procrastinate as long as you want, as long as you plan when you’re going to do it and how long you’re going to do it for, ahead of time.
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Knowing what you plan to do with your time is the first step to taking control of it. You have to develop the habit of consciously choosing what to do with your time at any given moment. This doesn’t mean becoming unhinged if things don’t go “according to the plan”. You’re able to “go with the flow” and can handle unpredictable circumstances. It does mean, however, that you never feel like you “waste” time. 

Time is not wasted if you deliberately decided how to spend it. The only way to legitimately waste time is by failing to take notice of how you are spending it. Structure is awareness of how you spend your time, and the best way to become aware of it is to plan it ahead.

Whatever you resolve to do with your time is up to you, but the point is to be in control of your time and not let time control you. Keep your flexible schedule, but use it as a basic sort of "guideline".

Structure your life in such a way that you manage to do what you want and feel accomplished. Structure makes your life easier.

Taking a few minutes aside each night to plan tomorrow will save you hours of turmoil in thinking about what else you “should be” doing. By creating structure designed with purpose, by enacting on a schedule, you remove the “shoulds” from your life and live a life of desire rather than obligation.

Now that said, you don’t have to wake up early even if you think you “should.”

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Being a “Morning Person” is bullshit.

All these high achievers tell you to WAKE UP EARLY and get your day started. They tell you to rise and shine bright n’ early.

Man, fuck that.

These people are moronic.

Look, what works for one person in their routine may not necessarily work for another.
I mean heck, if waking up groggy eyed the minute the sun rises is your cup of tea, then more power to you.

I’m not saying “Don’t wake up early.” I’m saying “wake up when you want to”

More important than waking up at the ass crack of dawn is choosing to start your day at a specific time. Sleep in if you want, but wake up with purpose, then follow a structure.

I mean think of all the people working a night shift job.  It’s not like they have much of a choice in waking up early. Morning is their bed time. I certainly don’t; work a night shift job (or any job for that matter) but I follow that sort of sleep pattern. Wake up late. Stay up late. Rinse. Repeat.

That’s the idea that these people are trying to push - establishing a pattern that gets you into the flow of achieving your goals. You don’t need to wake up early in order to do that at all and that whole notion of “Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise” is complete and utter nonsense.

Everyone gets the same twenty four hours 

Doesn’t matter if you're Ellon Musk, Dwayne “the Rock” Johnson or some bum on the couch, you get the same amount of hours in a day.

You have the power to plan those hours accordingly.

You choose the goalpost and decide the path to get there. You take slow n steady steps towards your long-term goals every single day. You create small daily routine habits that lead to breaking big achievements.
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Balance

The final part of the equation in an effective routine is balance.

You shouldn't be grinding your ass off to the point where you burn out. While doing something practical, with purpose, is important, there's only so much energy you have The key is to do just enough to be productive while maintaining plenty of leisure to rejuvenate. 

Success is blood, sweat, tears...and snores!

Sometimes, you do need to just relax, take it easy, and not do anything productive. Give yourself time to take a break once in a while. But don't take a break too long. Remember your purpose.

An ideal routine is balanced between doing your mission and lounging around, completely embracing your laziness in leisure.

You don't have to do much, just enough to make slow n' steady progress towards your BIG goal.

Put your mind and body at ease once in a while, release your tension and stress. Call upon your inner sloth spirit animal to forget about any sort of purpose or structure for a bit. Then roll right back into fulfilling your dreams, slowly but surely.

Meditation is a perfect way to get into a Balance Mode -- taking time to completely engulf yourself in your deep inner-calm.

What you want to achieve though is a tranquil and present state of mind, unfazed by distractions, unworried by struggles. You want to be able to focus on what you need to do while simultaneously relaxing and letting it go.

Use a break to remind yourself that you're headed in the right direction and everything's good. Use it to clear your mind of any negativity.

You must move forward, but you must also stop and breathe. When you structure your routine, be sure it has a balance between driven purpose and total relaxation.

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You don’t need to save the world every day, but hey, staying on the couch may just save a life or two during the quarantine.

Look at how your actions (or inactions) fit into the bigger picture. Find your purpose. Then structure your life to make yourself fit into that picture.

Knowing what you want, why you want it (purpose), and how you’re going to get it (structure) is the main aim at establishing a routine, no matter how lazy it is.

 Don’t let this mess of a pandemic bring you down. Get together your routine and relax on into it.

Next week, we'll dive into the many lazy and awesome options you have during the quarantine, despite whatever lack of freedom you may be feeling.

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Take it easy,

N8