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How to tell the difference between being burnt out and just being lazy? (lemmy.ml)
submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml
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I work a rather demanding job and I've constantly been feeling tired and underperformant compared to my colleagues for the past few months. I keep evading responsibilities or putting them off until the last minute.

Many people would kill to be where I am. Yet, I show up every day unmotivated.

There were several stressful years leading up to my current job and I'm wondering if I'm burnt out at this point or if I'm just not pulling my weight.

Edit: Thank you all for your support and guidance. I haven't given too many details here, but personal life has been moving along smoothly, chores get done, etc. But I definitely need to reconsider where I'm going with my job.

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[–] 20 points 1 year ago (1 child)

But what’s the root cause of your laziness?

I’m not being snarky - it’s a serious question. For myself, I’ve found that digging down to figure out where some of my behavioral traits are rooted is an extremely valuable and informative exercise.

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  • [–] 5 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    Isn't lazyness just evolutionary trait? The need to conserve energy?

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  • [–] 3 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    If lazyness is an evolutionary trait to conserve energy, why do we get bored (pushing us to spend energy) once we do so?

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  • [–] 6 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    I'm not an expert, just read it somewhere. But I'd guess it might be because our current lives are miles away from the ones we evolved for and may not get the stimuli we require.

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  • [–] 1 point 1 year ago (1 child)

    So then, which stimuli do you get and don't get that make you lazy and, for example, stop you from doing the dishes?

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  • [–] 1 point 1 year ago (1 child)

    As I said, not an expert on this topic. But I feel like you are combining two different things.

    Doing dishes is persumably something you don't enjoy and your survival is not dependent on it -> you conserve energy.

    Boredom, I think, comes from the brain not having enough stimuli.

    I see it as two different things. But you are better of asking someone who knows more.

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  • [–] 1 point 1 year ago (1 child)

    I was trying to get you to question the believe that lazyness is an evolutionary trait. Like the post you replied to said: Find the root cause of your lazyness.

    Because it's almost always not an evolutionary trait, it's avoiding negative emotions. As you said: Doing dishes (bad) -> do nothing (good) But, with boredom, this would result in this: Doing dishes (bad) -> do nothing (good) -> boredom (bad)

    Thus, we get negative emotions again. But we can avoid the final negative emotions by lying on the couch and spending energy looking at a screen. And our chain looks like this: Doing dishes (bad) -> looking at screen (good)

    Because being bored is hard. If you want to see how hard it is, decide to just stare at a blank wall for the next 30min-1h instead and watch your brain fight this decision as hard as it can.

    Thus saying "I'm lazy" and "being lazy is an evolutionary trait" results in "I can't do anything about me being lazy". And that is an easy way to avoid having to face and work through those negative emotions.

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  • [–] 1 point 1 year ago

    Fair enough. I was not going for "it's evolutionary, so let's just do nothing". The whole argument herr is thay laziness doesn't exist, because there is a root cause. Well, this is just semantics really. Being lazy is not wanting to do something. Is there a root cause behind it? Sure. If you go far enough it's just biology (allegedly).

    Does tiredness not exist? There is usually a root cause to you being tired.

    I feel like this "lazyness doesn't exists" is there just because being lazy has negative conotations. I think being lazy is good. Sometimes you do need to wind down and save what energy you have. This ofc shouldn't be an excuse to not do anything ever. There is something as too much of a good thing and all that.

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