"Laziness Does Not Exist" by Dr. Devon Price is a breath of fresh air for anyone who feels constantly behind in the productivity game. Price, a self-described former overachiever, uses their own experiences to challenge the pervasive "laziness lie" that tells us we're never doing enough.

The book delves into the historical roots of this mentality, tracing it back to the Puritans. It then explores how modern technology has further blurred the lines between work and life, making it even harder to switch off.

Price argues convincingly that busyness isn't a badge of honor, and that feeling constantly drained can actually hinder our productivity.

Here are some additional thoughts that resonated with me:

-The concept of "rest being productive" was a game-changer.
-The chapter on the history of laziness was fascinating (and eye-opening!).

I highly recommend this book to anyone feeling overwhelmed or struggling with guilt about taking breaks.

This should be required reading for students and those working in corporate jobs in the US. Our culture stresses the importance of working hard; however, rest is rarely mentioned. Devon Price describes the outcome of not resting in several instances as a warning to those who ignore the warning signs of burnout. This book was written in a similar style as Quiet by Susan Cain.

Interesting book that has changed the way I work. It helped me realize I'd rather work 15 hours a week for decent money than work 40 hours and be rich.

This is the year I’m finally going to clean out all my NetGalley ARCs and get caught up. Hopefully. We’re starting off with “Laziness Does Not Exist” by Devon Price. This book was a deep look into what Price deems “The Laziness Lie,” the idea that we have to be constantly achieving, striving, and going in order to be viewed as worthy members of society- especially to avoid being called lazy.

I think Price hits a key cultural element, maybe even a collective fear, in their research. We, as americans, hate the idea of being called lazy. Lazy is no good, almost sinful to many, and so we do everything we can to avoid this title. Including working ourselves to death and pushing on when everything is telling us we just need a break. It was interesting to check my own preconceived notions of lazy.

While this book was good, at times it felt like Price would rather be tackling social justice issues, over laziness issues. The examples given were interesting, but the breakdown of where people are considered lazy got a little too into the weeds for me.

In the end, I gave this book 3 stars. It was an interesting read with lots of details and real life stories, but overall it was more than the average reader might wish to tackle… Now I’m off to go take a nap and bask in all my laziness- er, I mean rest.

Thanks to NetGalley and Atria Books for the ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

I picked up this book based on the description. I recently read Can’t Even: How Millennials Became the Burnout Generation, and these two books touched on very similar themes that counter a popular narrative that “kids today” don’t know what hard work is. And it’s not even just Millennials who deal with this (though I do see them receiving the brunt of it), it’s anyone working in a post-2008 recession-era who is underpaid and watched their job benefits dry up. Whatever expectations we had about going to college and scoring a well-paying job in a field you enjoy has… not happened for so many of us. It’s a constant conversation I see play out on social media, even as recently this week, of how my generation in particular was told to go to college (which entailed going into debt) and we would practically be guaranteed a good job when we go our degree. But how many baristas do you know how have master’s degrees? I know plenty of retail workers with bachelor’s and master’s degrees. And even if you do land a full-time professional job, it may not pay you well enough to live off of. I took my first professional library job with a starting salary of $32,000. If I hadn’t been living with my grandmother at the time, I would not have been able to survive on that salary. Student loans and spiking gas prices alone would have forced me to either take another job or not be able to pay rent. I got a master’s degree to get out of retail, and then continued to be paid retail-like wages until I found another job over a year later.

Anyway, Laziness Does Not Exist hit a few heads of nails for me. I found a lot of truth in the author’s narrative, on how underpaid so many of us are, how the gig economy has resulted in people who are working three different gig jobs with no benefits in the hope that maybe one of them will be the breakthrough they need to only need to work one job, and how we have been conditioned to believe that if we’re not doing something productive in nearly every aspect of our life, we’re lazy and unworthy of praise or assistance. The author interviewed numerous people with similar stories of wrecking their health in the pursuit of being productive. Some haven’t been able to change anything about their working lives, and others have gratefully been able to make changes to have a less stressful existence.

One critique I have of the book is the author is based in Chicago (I don’t mind that, I’m also from Chicago), and a lot of their interviews are with people they know in Chicago. I think registering how people in big American cities deal with this particular issue is valid and needed, and certainly a good basis to build off of, but I would be VERY interested in hearing how people outside this particular bubble of people grasp the concept of laziness and how to combat it. Does a Southern baptist minister recognize this with his congregation? Do office workers in a smaller college town also have these problems? Do people in the Boomer generation see this as a problem with the people they employ, and with themselves? Really, this book is only a starting point of addressing the problem of workers being deemed “lazy” if they aren’t constantly seen as working and hustling. (Think about how most cashiers in chain stores aren’t provided with chairs, and must be on their feet for their full shift.)

I found a lot to identify with in this book, and think it enters very well with the issues we have with people working full-time not being paid enough to live off of those full-time hours. How retail and food&beverage workers have been considered “essential” during our current crisis, but as soon as people demand better pay the jobs are suddenly seen as menial and not for people to stay in long term especially if they would simply get a better education.

The book ends up being a little bit of a therapy session, with the author identifying problems that persist, and offering mindset changes and other more concrete solutions and troubleshoots to combating them. I appreciated having that to help balance out the kind of despair that permeates through the narrative of so many workers who seem similar to me and my friends who struggle with how we define work and what their boundaries are. I would like to see follow-up from this book where business owners are confronted with what their workers endure and how that gets exploited. That may be WAY too big of a project for this one author, but using this book and the knowledge it contains can only add to the mounting evidence that the American work culture is broken and not helpful to those it should be benefiting.

Around the time I was reading this book, I also saw this article from Jill Lepore on “What’s Wrong With the Way We Work?” that also stresses many of the same points as author Devon Price does. This is going to keep being brought up again and again until something changes. And now my senses are heightened to recognize it.

“This isn’t getting the work of the world done,” my mother used to tell me when I was young and talking on the phone to friends instead of cleaning my room or putting away the dishes or whatever else needed to be done. I still don’t know exactly what the work of the world is, but it sounds so ominously important it made me believe that my laziness was in some ways contributing to world failure.
Her words still echo through my life. Even now, though I know that world will go on even if I watch a whole night’s worth of “Downtown Abbey” episodes, I remember what my mother said and I turn off the T.V.
Now, after reading “Laziness Does Not Exist" (Atria 2020; $27) by Devon Price, PhD, a Clinical Assistant Professor, Loyola University Chicago, I may reconsider that long ago lesson.
““Laziness does not exist means there is no slothful, shameful feeling inside of us called laziness that is to blame when we fail or disappoint someone or simply lack motivation,” says Price after I asked him to define his book title. “There are always structural, external factors as well as inner personal struggles that explain why someone is not meeting goals.”
Instead, Price says that often when someone is written off as lazy, the problem is actually that they’ve been asked to do far too much, and not given credit for the immense work that they are doing.
“Fighting depression is a full time job,” he says. “Raising children in a global pandemic is a full-time job. Taking a full course load while working a job is too much to deal with flawlessly. So many people are overwhelmed and overworked, yet because they have been asked to do more than they can handle, these incredibly ambitious people are branded as lazy.”
So how do we deal with these feelings?
Price recommends first observing the situation neutrally while trying to determine where the feeling is coming from and what do you have to learn from it.
“Sometimes, we lack motivation to do something because the task just does not matter to us -- so ask yourself, do I really have to do this task? Does it matter to me, or have I just been told that I should do it? When someone is feeling lazy and beating themselves up for it, that is almost always a sign they need to cut a bunch of obligations out of their life, so they have time to rest and reorient themselves, to focus on their true priorities. “
Self-efficacy, a confidence in one’s own ability to get things done, also comes into play.
Price describes this as a very grounded form of confidence -- the confidence in one's own capabilities.
“When a person has high self-efficacy for a particular skill or task, they trust their instincts, and know how to break a large task down into smaller parts, so they're way less likely to get stuck in doubt, perfectionism, or inhibition,” he says. “A lot of times when someone is struggling or procrastinating such as failing to write a paper for class, for example, it's because they don't trust themselves to do it well enough, or they don't know how to take the big project and divide it into tiny bites. Unfortunately, we live in a very perfectionistic culture where lots of teachers and managers micro-manage and nitpick the people they are supposed to be mentoring, so we actually destroy a lot of people's self-efficacy in the process. “

Price believes that we also need to act like all human lives have equal value and deserve equal support with no proof needed.

“On a more personal level, we need to approach other people with generosity and trust,” he says. “I don't need proof that a person on the corner asking for change deserves my money. I can trust that if he's in that spot, he clearly needs it, and I don't get to decide what his needs at that moment look like or how he lives his life. In general, we need to stop policing one another and viewing all needs and limitations as suspicious.”

What: Devon Price Virtual Events
When: Thursday, January 7 at 7 p.m.
Sponsored by: Women & Children First; Moderator: Christie Tate
Cost: The event is free. Registration is at :https://www.eventbrite.com/e/virtual-book-launch-laziness-does-not-exist-by-devon-price-tickets-131139942097
FYI: https://www.womenandchildrenfirst.com/event/virtual-book-launch-laziness-does-not-exist-devon-price

When: Thursday, February 25 at 7 p.m. CT
7:00 PM CT
Hosted by Loyola University / Chicago
Link to join in: https://luc.zoom.us/j/87434549563

Laziness Does Not Exist by Devon Price is a non-fiction title arguing the thesis that the belief we are not doing or being enough and are lazy is not only untrue, but is an incorrect belief we can attribute to roots in Puritanism and the lack of boundaries associated with modern workplaces. The book touches on topics such as capitalism, technology, and societal beliefs that contribute to constantly believing we (or others) are lazy if they do not meet a goal or do not act in a narrow way. I think it would be helpful for the author to provide further information on how to combat the resistance people experience which can then look like laziness. I appreciate the book highlighting the importance of compassion, rather than shaming and blaming ourselves for being lazy as Brene Brown says we are stuck in inaction with the shame and blame cycle. It is important to note that this book is NOT for everyone as it makes several assumptions such as working in an office job, having flexibility in your workplace, and that you are in a safe spot professionally. I would recommend this book for individuals who meet those assumptions but not necessarily for individuals in volatile fields, jobs with inflexible management or job descriptions, and work in non-office spaces since the advice is not always relevant for those individuals. Overall this book left me with a lot to reflect and I am interested in seeing what I think of this book down the line.

Many thanks to the publisher Atria Books and Netgalley for the ARC in return for an honest review.

Devon Price, author of Laziness Does Not Exist, is a social psychologist. In this book, they discuss how humans have been taught that time spent doing nothing is time wasted. There is constant societal pressure to do more. Even people with packed professional and social calendars are made to feel like they are still not accomplishing enough.

Price also unpacks the cruel way in which the word "lazy" is applied to people as a way to blame them for their circumstances. We see this frequently in reference to a child struggling in class, someone with mental illness, or a person who finds themselves homeless.

This is a criticism of society as well as capitalism. Humans are collectively working harder than ever, and it is killing us. Price gives several anecdotes (their own and those collected in interviews) of people whose health was seriously damaged by chronic overwork and stress. I've known for a while that consistent stress can weaken your body. My health has definitely been impacted by stress in the past. But seeing Price describe how bad it got for some of these people, really made me stop and acknowledge it.

The way that we're taught to push past any warning signs that we might need a break is seriously damaging. And eventually, our bodies will force us to stop. Which is terrifying.

While Price is really hoping society will alter its view of laziness, they recognize that individuals need help now. Ultimately, they want you to recognize when your body is begging you to slow down, and not be hard on yourself when you're feeling "lazy." Hopefully something as small as removing the guilt associated with laziness will make those moments more restful. Some of the suggestions will not be accessible to everyone. Unfortunately, personal privilege will affect how much you can implement Price's solutions. It will be harder to take a sick day instead of working through a cold if your job doesn't offer sick days. Things like that. Though Price isn't unaware of the industries that take advantage of less privileged workers, escaping the grind is in itself a privilege.

Still, I think Price is right. Laziness is a lie. And we all deserve to enjoy the time we spend being "lazy" rather than feel guilty about it.

This was a fascinating read. And hopefully, if you feel guilty whenever you take a break, Laziness Does Not Exist will be a validating experience for you.

This book made me feel… called out.

In the best way possible.

Because I felt seen. I felt validated and affirmed. I did not feel so alone in the cycles of burnout and bone-deep fatigue that I persistently subject myself to—cycles that were driven, ultimately, by a pathological fear of somehow exposing the laziness that I was convinced festered at my core. My productivity and accomplishments were a facade I had to effortfully, continually maintain.

And it’s EXHAUSTING.

I’d say this was the best book I could’ve read at this moment. I say this because I’m about to start my second semester of grad school in a few days and I don’t feel ready whatsoever to face it. Devon Price’s words have been a balm for my anxieties, opening a space for me to better understand and forgive myself. It's helped ease my transition back into so-called “productivity.”

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The minute I set eyes on its gradient-shaded cover, I was immediately intrigued by Laziness Does Not Exist. Don’t lie to me: the title alone piqued your interest, too. Whether skeptic or desperate grad student (guess which one I am), I think we’d all like to get to the bottom of the affliction—the bane of our capitalist, industrial clime, if you will—known as laziness.

Moreover, Price is a social psychologist and an activist, another reason I knew I had to read their book. I’m a psych grad and currently doing my Master’s in counselling & clinical psychology, and I’ve been fighting all my (admittedly not-so-long) academic career to carve out a space for activism in psychology, a social scientific field that’s notorious for its inability—read: unwillingness—to get with the social-justice-times.

Price’s insights have been invaluable in helping me see the ways in which my self-identified “over-ness”—over-stressing, overworking, over-planning, over-managing—have hurt me both in the short- and long-term. They discuss and criticize capitalism, the pervasiveness of digital tech, and our cultural patterns of social media use, to name but a few topics. They touch on the impact of mental health and illness.

I cannot underscore enough: everyone should read their book.



Thank you NetGalley and Atria Books for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Laziness Does Not Exist was requested and read by me just from the title alone. Devon Price exceeded my expectations and was the justification I needed when feeling lazy about myself. A lot of my personal goals haven’t been fulfilled, especially lately with a pandemic going on. “We expect ourselves to achieve at a superhuman level, and when we fail to do so, we chastise ourselves for being lazy”.

The book really resonates with me because it made me feel validated and seen. There were so many points where I was like “wow that is so true” and I ended up highlighting so much of the book. It may be my most highlighted book of all time. There is criticism of society, capitalism, technology, and social media but also tackles other issues that may get in the way such as mental illness. While I agree with a lot of points in this book, I do think there’s a line between being burnt out from exhaustion or just being plain lazy. Sometimes I am the latter but that is okay with me. The book also offers some self-help tools which I thought were helpful points.

This ARC was provided by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Ironically, this book took me a really long time to get through. ;) I really enjoyed the read though, and it was very thought provoking. Price challenges everything about the lazy stereotype, and does so very convincingly. The author is a non-binary college professor and the book is filled with examples of people who appeared lazy but were in fact exhibiting absolutely appropriate behavior. They point out that our modern work ethic was very strategically designed to support slavery and capitalism, that is supports completely false beliefs about hard work, that it makes us all actually less productive and unhealthy, and that it keeps us from treating each other (or ourselves) with compassion.

This is a fantastic read and one that should be on everyone's must-read list for 2021. You may not agree with it all (I didn't at the start, but got it by the end), but it is likely to make for some great discussions and personal realizations.

I read a digital ARC of this book for review.

An important reminder and detailed look into how an obsession with productivity has affected. Some well-written insights, interesting perspective, and good reminders all mixed together. Some of the practical application rang a little naive or unrealistic, but if readers can digest and accept some of the challenge of the message, I'm sure they can figure out how to apply it in their own lives and make positive change.

I can’t say enough about this book. For me it was the perfect mix of highlighting the issues with our culture of productivity, the way the policing of our time affects our lives, and how we can work to fight against it. Price uses both qualitative and quantitative research to appeal to everyone, and the writing made it easy to read. I’ve been working on fighting this laziness lie within myself, but a strong case is made for the ways that those who are most vulnerable in society are trapped even more by this system that treats people as a means towards greater productivity. And none of us really benefit because we can never do or be enough. It takes a lot of work to undo these “shoulds” in our minds, but this book is a great place to start.

With all the books out there about go, go, go, do, do, do, succeed, succeed, succeed, this was a wonderful change and much needed book. He talks of our struggles, and how the laziness lie can lead us to believe we just aren’t working hard enough when things aren’t working out or that we should always been overachieving. He demystifies myths beliefs such as having a simple life (I love mine) makes us lazy, or the effects of achievement hunting. But the author also reveals why we might feel so fatigued (we likely do way more than we give ourselves credit for!) and gives great tips on how to learn and grow and enjoy productivity in positive ways that combat the laziness lie. Highly recommended.

I expected this to be mostly capitalist criticism (which I am super into), as it turns out it was that but mostly self-care. Still, it definitely deviates from most self-care books just by virtue of being anti-capitalist and presenting the somewhat radical idea presented in its title. Basically, it's anti-capitalist enough for your lefty comrades to enjoy but self-help enough that you could gift it to your liberal friends and family and they wouldn't be too scandalized.

Personally, even as someone who has criticized rugged individualism and the obsession with productivity for many years, I still learned a lot and had many of my viewpoints challenged by this book. Who knew accepting laziness could be so much work? Some of my favorite sections included the history of how America's aversion to laziness were built (spoiler alert: it's a whole lot of white supremacy) and the conclusion, which focused on how compassion towards what we perceive as others' laziness will help us love ourselves more.

What I connected less to were the copious descriptions of burnout, even though there were definitely times in the past when I could relate. I think this is mostly because there have been at least a handful of books and thousands of think pieces written about burnout in the last few years, so those didn't really feel like anything revolutionary compared to other parts of the book. It's pretty hard to argue with the notion that burnout is bad both for the capitalist machine and for actual human beings, and reading descriptions of people experiencing burnout is never a good time (Price even acknowledges how much of a toll these interviews took on their own health), so I wish this took up less of the book.

The other thing that peeved me was the most of the advice for dealing with burnout and "the laziness lie" at work assumed that the person reading (a) has a white-collar job which is salaried and probably provides benefits, (b) that their supervisor is understanding and flexible, (c) that they have enough power and say in their job to enact changes to it, (d) that they won't lose their job by enacting those changes or saying "no" to their assigned tasks and (e) that dropping a few of their job responsibilities won't cause them to be unable to pay for basic living expenses. These all seem like pretty rare privileges at any time but especially during COVID times.

Still though, I would recommend this book, and think it would make a great gift to any friends who need a little compassion in their lives or for book clubs to discuss.

I cannot tell you how much I needed to read this book! I kept seeing myself in all of the author's descriptions of how people end up berating themselves for being "lazy" when actually the problem is the way society demands too much of us. I see a lot of this same thinking in my students (juniors and seniors in high school, who are overburdened with trying to create the perfect resume and transcript for college applications), and it breaks my heart to see how society is twisting their minds.

Reading this book opened my eyes to the ways in which society has conditioned us to believe that we are only worthy when we are being actively productive; that is, doing something to earn earn approval from others, rarely ourselves. Dr. Price helped me see that doing less was actually better for me, since it allowed my poor brain to take a break and for me to rest and energize myself to tackle the things in life that really matter.

The best kind of non-Fiction book that reads like a well researched paper or article from a journalist but is framed through a social science, psychology, social justice lens. The authors personal stories, diverse examples of folks throughout, and use of charts and information brought the message home. Highly recommend this book and the demystification of the Laziness Lie.