Term for Laziness that Backfires

Question

What is the term for when someone is lazy and it backfires and they end up doing more work than they would have if they just hadn't been lazy in the first place?

Answer 1

shortsighted

There’s a phrase in Spanish — "flojo trabaja doble" — which translates as "a lazy person works twice as hard." I mutter it to myself when I’m struggling to unload all the groceries in one trip instead of just making multiple trips. What happened was I was "shortsighted":

Lacking in foresight — TFD

If I’d thought ahead, I would have realized unloading everything at once would be much more cumbersome than splitting it up.

Answer 2

A stitch in time saves nine.

If you don't mend small things now, you'll have a lot more to do later.

Answer 3

late in the day TFD an idiom

• Having progressed too far to accommodate changes now.

As in:

I know that font looks hideous, but with 300 copies already printed, it's too late in the day to do anything about it.