Easy Doesn’t Mean Lazy
Have you ever found a way to make something easier, only to feel a little guilty about it after you did?
You find a shortcut that saves you half an hour. You buy something that eliminates an annoying chore. You figure out how to do in ten minutes what used to take you forty-five.
And instead of simply enjoying the extra time, a little voice in your head starts asking whether you should be doing more.
After all, if it wasn’t difficult, did you really accomplish anything?
I think that’s a strange way to look at things. And yet, it’s surprisingly easy to fall into.
We spend so much of our lives looking for ways to make things better, faster, and easier. But when we actually succeed, we sometimes act as though we’ve done something wrong.
Since when did making life easier become something we need to feel guilty about?
Somewhere Along the Way, We Started Equating Hard Work With Worth
Most of us grew up hearing some version of the same messages.
Work hard. Don’t take shortcuts. Nothing worthwhile comes easy. If you want something badly enough, you have to work for it.
And there’s nothing inherently wrong with hard work. Sometimes things really ARE difficult, and getting through them requires patience, persistence, and a whole lot of effort.
The problem starts when we begin treating difficulty as proof that something is worthwhile.
If we spent three hours cleaning the house, we feel productive. If we found a way to keep things reasonably clean in thirty minutes, we might feel as though we haven’t done enough.
If we cook an elaborate dinner from scratch, we feel accomplished. If we put together a simple, healthy meal in fifteen minutes, we sometimes feel like we should have tried harder.
But why?
The house is clean. Everyone is fed. The thing that needed to happen happened.
The amount of effort something requires isn’t necessarily a measure of its value.
We Don’t Have to Earn the Right to Make Things Easier
Think about how many things we use every day specifically because someone figured out an easier way to do something.
Washing machines. Dishwashers. Automatic bill payments. Grocery delivery. GPS. Reminders on our phones.
We generally don’t look at someone using a washing machine and think, Wow. They really should be scrubbing those clothes by hand.
We recognize that the machine makes a necessary task easier.
Yet we don’t always extend that same logic to the smaller choices we make in our own lives.
I’ve talked before about how we often make life harder than it needs to be, simply because we don’t stop to question the way we’ve always done things.
We feel guilty about buying pre-cut vegetables because we could chop them ourselves. We hesitate to pay a little extra for something that saves us time. We keep doing things the hard way because that’s how we’ve always done them.
Sometimes the easier option isn’t financially practical, or it doesn’t give us the result we want. That’s fine.
But when it IS practical, and it works?
We don’t have to justify making life easier.
Easy and Lazy Aren’t the Same Thing
I think it’s worth separating these two ideas.
Making something easier means finding a way to get the result you want with less unnecessary effort.
Being lazy is a judgment we often attach to ourselves when we think we aren’t doing enough.
Those aren’t interchangeable.
If you move your laundry basket closer to where clothes actually pile up, you haven’t become lazy. You’ve made it easier to keep the room clean.
If you prepare three simple dinners instead of seven elaborate ones, you haven’t stopped caring about feeding your family. You’ve found a way to make dinner work better for your life.
If you set up automatic payments so you don’t have to remember every due date, you haven’t become less responsible. You’ve created a system that helps you stay responsible.
In fact, making something easier often takes thought, experimentation, and creativity.
You noticed a problem, considered the options, and found a better way to handle it.
Why shouldn’t that count as an accomplishment?
Sometimes We Make Things Harder Just to Feel Like We’re Doing Enough
Here’s something I’ve caught myself doing.
I’ll figure out a way to save time on something, and then immediately start thinking about what else I can fit into the time I just saved.
It’s almost as though the extra time isn’t allowed to exist unless I fill it with another productive activity.
But if I make a task easier and immediately replace it with three more tasks, have I really made my life easier?
I’ve made myself more efficient, certainly. But that’s not necessarily the same thing.
Sometimes the whole point of making something easier is to have a little more breathing room.
To sit down without feeling rushed. To enjoy dinner instead of spending the entire evening preparing and cleaning up after it. To have a few minutes when nothing urgently needs your attention.
And I think we need to get better at allowing that to be enough.
You don’t have to turn every minute you save into another minute of work.
Think About What You’re Actually Trying to Accomplish
One question I find helpful when I’m tempted to make something more complicated than it needs to be is:
What’s the actual goal here?
If the goal is to have clean clothes, does the laundry process need to be elaborate?
If the goal is to eat a reasonably healthy dinner, does everything have to be made from scratch?
If the goal is to move your body more, does it only count if you change into workout clothes and complete a full exercise session?
I walk on my treadmill while I work. I’ve been doing it regularly for quite a while now, and one of the reasons it works is that I made it easy to do.
I moved my workspace closer to the treadmill. I keep comfortable shoes nearby. I can get some walking in without having to carve an entirely separate block of time out of my day.
Would it somehow count more if I made myself drive to a gym every time I wanted to walk?
Of course not.
The goal is to move more. I’ve found a way to do that that fits my actual life.
And that’s what matters.
The same idea applies to so many other areas of life.
Before you dismiss an easier solution, ask yourself whether you’re sacrificing something important or simply eliminating unnecessary effort.
There’s a big difference.
You Can Be Proud of Making Something Easier
I actually think we should give ourselves more credit for the things we’ve figured out how to simplify.
That annoying task you no longer have to think about? You solved a problem.
The routine that used to take an hour and now takes twenty minutes? You improved a system.
The little change that makes your mornings less stressful? That’s a win.
We tend to celebrate the big accomplishments that require enormous amounts of work. But the quiet improvements deserve some appreciation too.
Especially because they keep helping us.
You make one small change today, and tomorrow benefits. So does next week. And potentially every week after that.
That’s also why I love doing little favors for Future Me.
Not a bad return on a little bit of effort!
Let Something Be Easy This Week
Here’s something I’d love for you to try.
Notice one thing in your life that’s already easier than it used to be.
It could be a shortcut you’ve discovered, something you’ve automated, a routine you’ve simplified, or a small purchase that makes an everyday task less annoying.
Now pay attention to how you feel about it.
Are you enjoying the improvement? Or do you find yourself thinking that you should be doing more, trying harder, or using the time you saved for something else?
If you notice that little bit of guilt creeping in, ask yourself:
Why do I feel guilty when something in my life becomes easier?
You don’t necessarily need to change anything else.
Just give yourself permission to appreciate the fact that something is working.
Life is going to hand us plenty of difficult things without our help. We don’t need to manufacture extra difficulty to prove that we’re trying hard enough.
Sometimes the easier way really is the better way.
And when you find it, you’re allowed to enjoy it.
Want More Ways to Make Life Easier?
If you’d like help making small, realistic improvements that fit your actual life, take a look at Designed for Real Life.
It walks you through identifying one thing you’d like to improve, figuring out what’s making it harder than it needs to be, and designing a solution that works with your real schedule, energy, and responsibilities.
Because making life easier isn’t cheating.
It’s kind of the point.
