The Forgotten Art Of Doing Nothing

Let’s face it. We’re all addicted to technology. Scuttling around, trying to do something productive every minute. We’re also the first generation in the history of mankind with a plethora of apps and devices to help us maximize our productivity, and our potential. Thanks to my ever-handy smart phone, my brain 24x7 processing all the bits of information I feed into it, churning them into useful bits.

Life is short. Time is money. Perhaps that’s why we’re all running around like crazy trying to squeeze the most out of our day. Possibly this is why we all constantly check our mails to stay on top of issues – last thing at night, and first thing when we get up in the morning. Or the way we’re constantly browsing on Pulse or Zite – to stay on top of trends and learn something while we’re on the go, waiting for the lift, or standing in line. What would happen to the world if, god forbid, we didn’t see that mail, or post that comment, or hit the like button right now. It’s not that we’re consciously trying to increase the valuations of Evernote and the hundreds of other ‘productivity’ apps out there, but it’s just so pre-historic to not have one, or a few, of them installed on your smart phone filled with ‘To-do’ lists.

The more I add to my day, the more items I check off from my to-do list. Strangely, the more I ‘get things done’, it seems, the less I enjoy them.

The wise son came to my rescue. One rainy afternoon, as I was frantically typing away at my laptop, he called out from the balcony. “Mumma, come here. Come here fast”. As usual, I dallied, while I sent out that mail. When the yelling became rather frantic, I went out grudgingly. You know, I have *important* work to be done.

“Mumma, come sit with me. Come watch the dinosaur in the cloud”. And he made me sit there with him. For the next 27 minutes, I was doing nothing but watching the clouds and smiling at each other. Honestly, they were the most satisfactory 27 minutes of my day, rather week. Months later, I still remember it. I don’t remember the mail I was so frantically working on. Sometimes, perhaps, the most productive thing is to do nothing.

It’s easier said than done. My rational brain doesn’t like sitting idle. I try to reason with it, like I always do – with data and research. I started looking around for data and studies to back up my thoughts and found pointers everywhere. Sleeping longer, being more mindful of your breathing, can amongst things, it seems improve your creativity, and even increase your metabolism. There’s even a study by Psychological Science showing that just having the option to do nothing, increases our productivity.

Even Peter Drucker pointed out, “There is one question the effective decision-maker asks: ‘Is a decision really necessary?’ One alternative is always the alternative of doing nothing. If the answer to the question ‘What will happen if we do nothing?’ is ‘It will take care of itself,’ one does not interfere.”

Who am I to argue with the greatest management guru! Or my son. So I’m trying out this new productivity hack - the forgotten art of doing nothing. My son even helped me find an amazingly clutter-free app on my mobile specially designed for this. What’s more it works with just a single button. They call it the “Power” button. The moment I switch it off, I feel a heady rush of the power. My focus, my productivity, and my contentment increase immediately—without any lag. It feels simply awesome. Go ahead. Try it out for yourself. And do your friends a favor – spread the word!

Sometimes, our brain, our hearts and our souls, just need that little void to recharge.