God rests

After creating everything in six days, even the Creator found time for a lazy day. You should, too.

Irving publishes "Rip Van Winkle"

Washington Irving's character Rip Van Winkle wasn't lazy per se. But he did drink some booze and sleep for 20 years. Homeboy even missed the American Revolution!

The leisure class is born

Used to be that only the wealthy could afford to do nothing. But in the middle 1800s, working classes began to enjoy a measure of financial security that allowed them to have lazy days.

Linklater releases "Slacker"

Richard Linklater's film follows a bunch of people whom film critic Peter Travers described as "a generation of bristling minds unable to turn their thoughts into action." You know — lazy people.

We did nada.

In honor of future National Lazy Days, we wrote this without doing any difficult research. Salute!

Don't plan anything. Be lazy. Wake up. Then go back to bed. Then get out of bed. Or stay there. Just don't do anything. It's National Lazy Day! Enjoy!

Park yourself inside a cushy inner tube and let the river take you downstream.

Although sitting around doing nothing but checking our phones for text messages or Facebook notifications may seem like a lazy thing to do%2c it's not. It's far too active a thing for National Lazy Day.

Or at least his characters did — with one of them opining that "to do nothing at all is the most difficult thing in the world%2c the most difficult and the most intellectual."

They've just evolved to conserve energy. (Still%2c they move so slowly that algae has time to grow on their fur%2c turning them green and providing a measure of camouflage in the trees.)

The origin of the word "lazy" is uncertain%2c but it likely derives from the Middle Low German word "lasich%2c" which meant%2c well%2c lazy.

This is a go-go-go world and we're constantly go-go-going. We need a day to do nothing%2c and we aim to do it — with as little effort as possible.

Science and medicine all point to the same conclusion: We work too hard for too long. National Lazy Day reminds us to step back%2c take a deep breath and just be alive and lazy for once.

Observing National Lazy Day means we can reconnect with the things we love — like our families and the great outdoors. Just be sure that — whether you're with family or outside in nature or both — you don't actually do anything. Just. Be. Lazy. For once in your life.