Project Lazy Newsletter | Issue 2 | 22nd December 2025
Hello everyone,
We hope you've been keeping well. Thank you for your interest in Project Lazy – it means a lot to have you as part of this community. We're excited to share what we've been working on and to give you a glimpse of what's ahead, including an opportunity to join us for a creative writing workshop.
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✨ Recent Highlights✨
1. New team member
We're delighted to welcome Shristi Shakya to the team! Shristi is an interdisciplinary scholar whose research examines gender, social inclusion, and development. She brings valuable expertise in social science research, critical policy analysis and community engagement to our work. Shristi is currently mapping how the term 'lazy' is used across academic disciplines, policy debates, and everyday discourse. She'll also be helping to shape our community engagement initiatives.
2. Project Lazy on BBC Radio 4
In December, Prof. Katrien Devolder joined a panel on BBC Radio 4's 'Free Thinking' to discuss idleness and laziness.
Her key points:
Busyness can itself be a form of laziness
Idleness doesn't necessarily amount to laziness
What appears to be 'laziness' is often 'justified effort management'
Laziness can manifest either in exerting insufficient effort towards a goal or in failing to set a sufficiently ambitious goal
You can listen to the episode here.
3. Research on AI use in education and laziness
You've probably seen the headlines: 'How AI is Making Us Lazy and Slowing Our Brains,' 'Is AI Making Us Lazy?' These stem from recent studies showing that using ChatGPT may reduce activity in specific brain areas.
Prof. Devolder and Shristi are working on a paper that addresses these concerns whilst exploring how AI use might actually challenge problematic educational practices – particularly by revealing questionable assumptions about what it means to be a 'productive student'.
Prof Devolder presented initial findings at workshops on AI Ethics organised by the Uehiro Oxford Institute with Akita University (Japan) and at the University of Oxford's AI Ethics Day.
4. More than 60,000 Reads
Prof. Devolder's article 'Why being ‘lazy’ at work might actually be a good thing’ has been read 60,774 times since its publication on 1 April 2025, propelling it into The Conversation’s top 10 most-read articles from the University of Oxford.
A snippet from the article:
"The tendency to judge others as lazy often stems from overvaluing effort, long hours and constant busyness. What’s really important is that our effort is directed at the right goal, recognising that it is a limited resource. Learning to distinguish between truly lazy behaviour and justified effort management can be liberating. It can allow you to more confidently resist the pressure to be constantly productive – and to do so without guilt."
🌱 What’s Next
Creative writing workshop in April: we’d love you to join us!
We're partnering with writer Nicola Sayers to run a three-hour creative writing workshop in which participants from a range of personal and professional backgrounds come together to explore their ideas about productivity and laziness.
Using creative writing as a tool for self-examination, the workshop offers a chance to think more deeply about your own values around work, how you approach it, how you're seen by others, and how you see others.
When? Wednesday 2 April 2026 - 09:30-12:30.
Where? In Oxford
If you'd like to participate, please write to lazinessproject@gmail.com. Spaces are limited.
2. Stay tuned for our Instagram launch
We're launching a Project Lazy Instagram page soon as part of building a community interested in questions around 'laziness'.
Expect to see: thought-provoking questions, relevant research findings, community contributions, and ideas that push the boundaries of how we think about productivity, effort, and rest.
We'd love your suggestions for the type of content you'd like to see – feel free to drop us a line!
✨Community and Culture Corner ✨
One of our lovely community members, Clara, has shared her writing with us, and was happy for us to share it with you:
"The cup is warm in my hands; the room is still. I don’t need to speak to feel real. The quiet lets me expand, gently, like sunlight moving across a wall. This is where I belong, in the space between noise, where everything makes sense." - Clara Martins de Barros
If you like to share your art or writing with us, please feel free to do so, and let us know if we can include it in one of our newsletters. You can also send us any quotes/paintings or other art that made you think about ‘laziness’!
In the meantime, we wish you happy and restful holidays! Your voices and insights continue to shape this work in meaningful ways!
Best wishes,
The Project Lazy Team