Time out, please. Your worries have vanished, little annoyances don’t get your goat any more, you feel quite, you look better, you’re nicer to live with, you’re making more progress. Not yet? It will come.
Anyway, you may still be making extra work for yourself. You may still be less lazy than you should be.
Now don’t let anyone kid you about laziness. It pays! But you’ve got to be lazy in the right way. That is, never too lazy to do what you should, but always too lazy to do what you shouldn’t.
The best proof is the greatest body of laws ever written. Only two of the Ten Commandments tell you to do something. Eight others tell you what not to do. And you had better now, either, if you want to avoid tension.
As it happens, the bad thing — morally, mentally, physically — is always the unnecessary, the undesirable thing. It has no place in the scheme of intelligent laziness. Yet let’s try a sampling of how much tense effort you may waste every day. If you know how to be lazy, you can answer “no” to each of these questions:
• Do you press down so hard that you frequently break off the points of pencils as you write? If so, you are entirely too tense and are working too hard. Learn to write with the minimum of pressure.
• Do you find yourself standing or pacing about when you could just as well be sitting? It’s easier to sit than to stand. Be lazy and sit down when you can.
• Do you talk or argue more than you listen? See how many things you can safely leave unsaid. Besides saving your voice and energy, it can keep you friends.
• Do you put off doing disagreeable tasks? Be too lazy to carry them in your mind any longer than you must. Do them first and get them over with. You’ll be surprised to find how much tension you’ll avoid.
• Do you try to hide your mistakes? It takes more time and effort than frankly admitting them as soon as you can. Don’t add a heavy conscience and jumpy nerves to your burdens. Own up and see how relaxed it makes you feel.
• Do you always write out your name and address on packages, letters and postcards? Discover the rubber stamp or treat yourself to printed letterheads or labels. Save work.
• Do you try to dodge creditors? It’s more fun to play tag with the children, probably a good deal less strenuous and certainly very much easier on your nerves. Tell your creditors the truth and see what happens.
• Do you strain your mind to remember things, and get all worked up when you can’t? Ge the habit of jotting down memos, and spare your mind. As one profound philosopher has noted, “A short pencil is better than a long memory.”
• Do you keep imaginary pets called “grudges”? Try a different kind of pet for a change. Even a wildcat can do more good. Ask your enemy what all the fuss is about and clear the atmosphere. You’ll feel easier.
On the positive side, here are some questions to which your answer should be “yes”:
• Have you discovered the effort-saving utility of marketing carts for you shopping, or wheel trays, toy wagons and baskets for carrying things around the house?
• Are you a work-planner? Before starting to work on a job, are you careful to see that you have on hand all the tools and materials you will need, to avoid losing time and temper in looking for them later?
• Are you a step-saver? Do you organize your activities to avoid needless trips, especially up and down stairs? Do you keep ladders, tools, ash-trays, lamp bulbs, searchlights, etc., always ready where you are most likely to need them?
• Are you a stock-taker? Do you avoid household scenes and flurries of excitement by keeping a simple inventory of necessary items such as toothpaste, shaving cream, razor blades, and so forth so that you never run out of them?
Life can be easier and lazier in lots of little ways that total big relaxation. Try them and see.