In a world that glorifies busyness and celebrates productivity, I recently embarked on a daring adventure – I did absolutely nothing for a week!
As a consultant, I was always focused on productivity and getting things done. So ‘doing nothing’ was particularly hard.
But the holidays offered a great time and excuse to try something different.
Efficient and Overworked?
As I was busy doing nothing, I looked back at the start of my professional life. Back then, work was super inefficient.
Creating slides took forever – there were no templates and there was no auto-save! We used floppy disks to send data (and hoped they would not get damaged during transit). Checking email meant dialing the ISP and waiting to be connected.
Fast forward to the present; technology and automation have made everything more efficient.
Economists had predicted that with all these improvements, we would be working 15 hours a week. However, instead of working less, we are now working more than ever before.
Beware the barrenness of a busy life.
Socrates
Value of Leisure
Not only are we working more than ever, we actively hate leisure. Being busy is a badge of honor and doing nothing seems like we are wasting time.
We equate leisure with laziness.
Anything we do has to lead to something. We do not do any activity just for the sake of doing it.
Even though I had taken last week off, deep down, I felt guilty that I was not being productive – whatever that term means.
However, I decided to stick with it for a week. In doing so, I learned:
- Truly relaxing takes effort – it is difficult to undo years of conditioning of staying busy
- Leisure can lead to some good ideas (for example, this article)
- Not waking up to the jarring sound of the alarm clock is refreshing
- Work continued to happen even when I was not working (no one is that important)
- Plans, Schedules, To-do lists are important, but it can be fun living without them for a while
Most importantly, I learned to appreciate a quieter and calmer pace of life. In this cacophony of modern existence, I found solace in silence and beauty of simply being.
So, as we step into this new year, let us carry forward the wisdom of leisure. Let us unshackle ourselves from the chains of perpetual busyness and grant ourselves the gift of idleness. For within the serenity of doing nothing, we might just stumble upon the most extraordinary somethings.
Happy New Year!
Related Article: The cult of overwork – Why we still value it and How to overcome it
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