9.9.2026 – lazymaxxing fan

lazymaxxing fan
and finding low-effort ways
to improve my life

Adapted from the Guardian Opinion piece, Want to start lazymaxxing? Here are some low-effort ways to improve your life by Arwa Mahdawi where Ms. Mahdawi writes:

The rich world is currently in thrall to tech-enabled self-optimisation.

Or as some people (people you do not want to end up seated next to at a dinner party) call it: humanmaxxing.

We’re told we should track our biomarkers and optimise every second of our days, often in complicated and joyless ways. If that works for you, great.

But, personally, I’m a big fan of lazymaxxing and finding low-effort ways to improve my life.

Weekend lie-ins are obviously one, drinking coffee is another.

A 2025 study found that morning coffee drinkers were 16% less likely to die early of any cause.

Swearing is also surprisingly good for you: uttering a profanity can decrease physical pain and increase focus.

And while I can’t go so far as to say that bingeing Love is Blind has health-giving properties,

I did unearth research concluding that enjoying trashy films is a sign you’re a well-educated cultural omnivore.

I still haven’t found a study proving that lying on the couch, eating crisps, reading thrillers and ignoring your obligations is good for you, but I live in hope.

I tell people that I wake up ready to leap out of bed, start off my day with some calisthenics and then a quick 5 mile bike ride … but if I lie real still … the feeling goes away.

I tell people I like to avoid anything that makes me sweat which is why, of all activities, I prefer swimming as I can’t tell if I am sweating.

Nothing gets me going like a free afternoon and a rocking chair and a stack of books within reach.

When talking about things to do and see I embrace Dr. Johnson’s. “Worth seeing. Not worth going to see.” (He of a sea voyage is all the fun of jail with the chance of drowning thrown in fame).

One time at work, I had to go to this employee workshop where everyone was handed a deck of cards.

There was one word on each card.

Eager.

Helpful.

Dynamic.

Words like that.

We had to take the stack of cards and seperate them in half and keep the words that best described ourselves.

Then do it again.

Then do it again.

Then do it again until we had one card left.

Then we had to stand up and read our card outloud.

In a way I was kind of proud that I ended up with … lazy!

Years ago my brother Paul and I found ourselves going out to eat with a brother in law who told us all the many things he had on his plate that needed his attention.

After a few minutes, he paused and sighed and said, “I guess it’s better to have too much to do than not enough.”

Paul stared out the window for a moment and said, “I can get by without having too much do.”

For some reason, Paul and I have always got along.

I’m a big fan of lazymaxxing and finding low-effort ways to improve my life.