Minimalism Series: How To Be Stylish Even if You're Lazy

by Ari Takata-Vasquez

A close friend once described me as being the most productive lazy person, and it’s probably one of the most accurate descriptions of myself I’ve ever heard. I am secretly a really lazy person. I usually only spend about 10 or 15 minutes getting ready in the morning because I hit snooze 3 or 4 times and I probably watch more netflix and HBOgo than is actually healthy (who else is sad Big Little Lies and Girls is over?!?). But I balance out this laziness, by being very intentional. I highly value my sleeping time, so I make a concerted effort to make sure my mornings can be brief. I spend little time getting dressed in the morning because I am very careful about what makes it into my closet. I’m intentional about my purchases and make sure the things that make the cut are not only high quality but easy to wear.

 

I recently read a really amazing article in the Atlantic that talks about self-control as empathizing with your future self (read it here after you finish this awesome blog post). The cliff-notes version from the article is that we’re constantly struggling between impulsivity (getting rewarded now) and self-control (getting something even better later) and new research around the way our brains work brings empathy into the picture. The same part of our brain that controls selflessness and altruism is responsible for our ability to empathize with others and their perspectives. The article goes on to link our ability to empathize with others with our ability to empathize with our future-selves and therefore the ability to choose self-control over impulsivity.

This intentionality and self-control come into play when I’m considering making a purchase. I ask my current-self to empathize with my future-lazy-self. Will I be able to wear this easily? Does it work with my closet? Will I feel good wearing it because I know it was made with fair practices? Will it last a long time or will I need to buy it again because it wears too easily? It takes a little extra effort, but it pays off every day when I get dressed without the stress of “what to wear?!”. I know I’ve put together some questionable outfits in the past because ‘I had nothing to wear’ and all of my clothes were sitting in my lazy-self’s laundry basket. So, when I make purchases I also think about how my intentional curation will pay off again on laundry day. About 95% of my closet is black so I don’t worry about sorting colors and because of that most of my closet is accessible to me and not sitting in a laundry basket.

well curated wardrobe to make getting dressed easy

So the long and short of the secret to being stylish when you’re lazy is to be intentional. I actually don’t enjoy shopping at most places (I find it to be sort of exhausting to look through not only a bunch of styles and colors but then have to check the tags to see where they’re made). It’s part of why I started Viscera, I wanted to build a place where people can have a relaxed shopping experience knowing it’s all well curated and American-made. I created Viscera so us lazy people can spend less time in the mornings getting dressed and spend more time on other things, be it netflix or whatever your lazy vice is.