The Back Rows

Why fighting your lazy phases only makes productivity harder.

*NOTE: I use the word “laziness” because that’s what we often call it. But in reality, what we label as laziness is usually a low-energy cognitive or emotional cycle — a perfectly natural part of being human – which I’d like to context. So, before we get into it, it’s THAT laziness I’m talking about.

I’ve always been a firm believer in the Yin/Yang theory: the fundamental principle in Chinese culture and philosophy, representing the duality of opposites that complement and attract each other. You need darkness to know what light is, you need sadness to know what joy is, you need failure to know what success is, etc. And, you need laziness to know what productivity is.

We all know the days. You wake up with a vague sense of resistance clinging to you like fog, everything feels heavier than it should, you move slowly, avoid tasks instinctively, maybe guilt-trip yourself a little, maybe scroll all day without purpose. That’s it, you’re having a lazy day. 

A lazy day can stretch into two, a whole week, or even months. But then – almost without warning – your brain clicks and turns back on. You’re opening your laptop, and suddenly you’re absorbed. You’re typing fast. Ideas are connecting. You’re in motion. 

We tend to treat these two states – laziness and productivity – as enemies. One is the villain, the other the hero. But recently, I feel the urge to ask the question: what if they’re not at war at all? What if the lazy moments are setting the stage for the productive ones? 

Now, these questions are just for you reading this. I already know the answer to them, but I need to set the scene a little to bring you into my brain for you to follow that thought process. The one that leads to the idea that laziness and productivity are not opposites – they’re collaborators.

The Nature of Laziness and Productivity as Rhythms 

Constant productivity is a complete myth. It just doesn’t exist. It doesn’t behave like a straight line – it behaves like a tide. You have to consider that it’s a mix of human psychology, biology, and energy cycles – none of which are constant whatsoever. 

As human beings, we drift through natural cycles of focus and fatigue, expansion and contraction. There are moments when our minds feel wide open and eager, and others when they retreat inward. But we tend to forget that at the same time, they are quietly resetting, just as they need to. Unfortunately, because we live in a world obsessed with output, we interpret every ebb as a failure. And guess what? That makes us feel even worse, and pushes us to stay in that little bubble which becomes ignorant of its surroundings, therefore increasing the fear of failure and multiplying the “laziness” to go on for longer. 

So why are we fighting nature? Human nature itself never made it seem like resting was a terrible thing, we did. Society or whatever you want to call it did. Humans don’t run at a steady speed. Our bodies, moods, creativity, and cognitive abilities all obey natural rhythms which we have no control over, nor should we try to. Once you stop expecting constant output and start actually listening for those rhythms that determine your energy, laziness as we call it becomes less of a moral diagnosis and more of a signal. Going back to the metaphor I talked about, it becomes a tide pulling back before it inevitably returns, just like productivity. It’s part of the rhythm. 

What Laziness Actually Feels Like 

In my case, laziness is rarely just “not doing anything”, and maybe you’ll relate too. Here’s how I know I’m slipping into a lazy phase: 

1. My thoughts drift very often, and I forget what I’m thinking about half the time
2. Everything around me seems unimportant, and I treat it as such. I feel a weird emotional distance from my responsibilities
3. The smallest task on a to-do list in my worst enemy
4. My body refuses to move, I’ll oversleep, I’ll sit down all day, and the slightest movement will feel like someone hit me in the leg
5. I procrastinate, obviously
6. And of course, the endless scrolling or upped screen time. That one is the culmination of all of these by the way. They all need to happen for us to get to that point. 

Of course, our initial instinct is to interpret these as signs something is wrong with us, or we hear the words: “stop being so lazy!” As if we’re somehow doing it on purpose, or for self-destructive reasons. But really, these are completely normal, and happen to all of us! 

Instead of just stopping at these assumptions, why don’t we question if these low-energy states can be protective? What if they have a function? 

I believe that during these dips, the mind is often decompressing from overload. It’s reorganizing thoughts, processing emotions, recalibrating motivation. What we think looks like laziness is often the mind’s natural reset mechanism, a sort of internal “system reboot” that might be preparing us for something. 

The Hidden Role of Low-Energy Time — How Laziness Builds Momentum

The subconscious is always busy 

Science teaches us that even when you think you’re doing “nothing”, your subconscious is constantly at work. It’s rearranging pieces, marinating ideas, forming solutions in the background. So there is some consolation in that emotional strain releases gradually. We also know that the brain often works best when you step back from forcing it. It’s a force of its own, and that might be its greatest capacity. 

Slow momentum can feel like stillness

We think momentum arrives with motion, but momentum has phases as well. It needs some sort of buildup to get to the point where you really feel it. So these lazy phases you’re having may be sorting energy, clearing some mental clutter, or building the internal pressure that will eventually become an action. Some things need to go to make space for the big spurs.

Patience is strategic, not passive 

As I’m writing this, an important thought is popping through my mind: fighting your low-tide moments is actually quite counterproductive in itself. It’s going to drain more energy out of you that it will create. You’ll be stuck in a loop. Therefore, accepting them shortens the slump. You’ve heard the expression “ride the wave”, and this is the perfect place to apply it to your life. Because face it: you’re never going to be able to force or control any wave’s direction.

The Sudden Surge — When Productivity Arrives Unannounced

I know from personal experience to stop planning things when I’m feeling tired and uninspired, because it’s just not going to work. The shift out of laziness usually arrives quite suddenly for me. It manifests itself with a spark of clarity at a random time, a small desire to do just one thing (which is enough), a sense that a task feels lighter, and most of all: a return of curiosity. Whenever I feel curious again – whether it’s by looking up something, or writing something down that I found interesting, or anything else – I know the productivity is coming back. And I never am able to just predict when that’s going to happen, it just does. It’s something that you may not even realize is happening until you’re already in it.

That’s because the visible part of productivity starts suddenly – but the invisible part has been building for some time before that. The lazy period created space for it. It softened internal resistance, and restored the bandwidth you needed. Another expression which can be applied here too: when the tide turns, it turns quickly. And when you feel the productive wave rising, don’t analyze it or question it. Most importantly, don’t rush in planning it to death, because overstimulation and burnout are much stronger currents, and will take over. What I’ve been doing instead is just letting the momentum carry me, and that’s something that gives me great peace of mind. 

Making the Most Out of Productive Energy

Now, when you finally get the spark back, you don’t want to lose it, right? In the early stages of productivity, you might think that doing everything all at once is the key. But as we’ve just talked about, that’s not exactly the best method for getting things done AND making you feel better. Follow whatever feels easiest or most exciting. Flow needs space, not restrictions, so just go with it. What I usually like to do is find zones of comfort. Since I’m trying to help my mind and body get out of one, I want to make the transition a little easier. What am I okay with right now? I feel it out. Sometimes it works, and I’m able to get through something and feel accomplished. Other times, my body sends me signals by itself that it’s not ready to do a particular task or perform a particular action, so I just let it be for the moment. 

Once the energy stabilizes, then you can bring in planning or organization. You shouldn’t exclude it, at all. Trust me, I’m big on planning and organizing. But it’s important to know WHEN to implement them, because early structure can kind of kill your newly-found spark. Later structure can amplify it. And the truth is, the productivity wave will peak, as any cycle does. Accepting and respecting that natural crest keeps you from burning out and ensures you at least have some energy left over for the next cycle. It’s like ending on a high note, you’ll feel it for a longer period of time than abruptly extinguishing a flame of productivity because you weren’t ready. You understand the need to reset after. And this is the essential insight here which we started with: the laziness or drawback isn’t the opposite of productivity, it’s the recovery that allows productivity to exist.

Some Advice for Working With Your Productivity Tides

I – like you, like everyone – am a person in a constant state of learning. And luckily for me at least, I love learning. In any shape it finds me. So, I’m going to share a few tips I’m trying to work on for myself for getting rid of a negative state of mind when it comes to these two periods we indefinitely go through: 

• Keep a low-energy task list for the days when your brain refuses to cooperate. Whether you get them done or not, you’ll feel far more accomplished than you would have if you set bigger ones that would have freaked you out in that state.
• Use your “lazy” phases for reflection and soft thinking, not self-judgment. It’s completely okay to have those days, and you shouldn’t feel the weight of minutes passing by and impacting your future or anything. Take care of yourself first, the rest will come.
• Track your rhythms, you may notice daily, weekly, or monthly patterns. I know exactly which times of the month or even season I have these periods the most, and I also know certain habits I have that might impact them: when I eat, what I eat, if I didn’t exercise that week…
• Protect your high-energy windows. Turn off notifications, reduce noise, completely immerse yourself in what you’re doing, just like you immerse yourself in doom-scrolling. Except you know that this time, it’s for a good reason.
• Focus on cooperation, not discipline. This might be a controversial one, but I think it’s wise to sort of learn the dance rather than wage the war if you will. Completely understand your own body and mind’s phases and their relationship to one another before you enforce any sort of discipline for yourself. Then, we’ll talk.

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The fight between laziness and productivity is a battle we were never meant to win, because it’s the wrong battle altogether. Laziness is not a defect in our character, and productivity is not the proof of our worth. They are both parts of the same rhythm, the same tide. It’s all about how you bounce back from one and what it leads you to do. And when you learn to ride the tide between them, everything becomes easier.

Once you understand this, you stop wasting energy fighting your low moments and start using them. They’re never going to go away, so you might as well just do something about it!