The amazing benefits of doing nothing

This principle is as old as Buddha or Marcus Aurelius: sometimes we need to step back and look at our life from the side in order to see it in its true light . Especially if we want to be productive. Want details? Yes please!

Highlights of the article:
• In an age of constant movement and ubiquitous communication, perhaps a little silence is what we lack.
• Recent studies have shown that Americans work less hours than in the 1960s, but feel that they have less time.
• Writer Pico Ayer argues that when we feel overwhelmed, we usually know how to deal with this situation.
• Maybe we just need to do nothing or go “nowhere”, even if it's only for five minutes ?!
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And now - the word author. I have a friend, an outstanding astrophysicist, who sets an alarm so that he rings every 15 minutes when he is at work. As soon as he hears the bell, he closes his eyes, takes a deep breath and brings himself into a state of composure.

In the aggregate, pauses make up only 1% of his working time — 9 seconds out of every 900, and yet these reminders help him avoid overheating and look at his work as part of something bigger.
This man - not a slacker, not an eccentric and not a follower of the new-age, 33 years he worked at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, Einstein's old haven. I first met him at the World Economic Forum in Davos.

He is an experienced scientist who knows from empirical research that often the best way to accomplish a task is to distance yourself from it. It is not by chance that a pause in a musical work helps to see its beauty.
As John Pierpont Morgan said about his habit of doing a two-month break in business every year:

In 10 months I can do as much as I would never have done in 12.

This principle is as old as Buddha or Marcus Aurelius: sometimes we need to step back and look at our life from the side in order to see it in its true light. Especially if we want to be productive (reflections on how to build a life strategy from Oliver Amberton are here).
It is not by chance that the word “holiday” (day off) comes from the phrase holy day, and the longest book of the Torah speaks of the Great Saturday. If you want to advance in any area, the best way to do this is to temporarily retreat.



Was the need for breaks ever as relevant as it is now?

Sociologists, studying the working schedules of Americans, found that they, on average, work less hours a week at home and in the office than in the 1960s, but feel more engaged.

It seems that the more time-saving equipment we have, the less time we have.
As the researchers found out, it takes 25 minutes to get away from a phone call or email, and the average person deals with such distractions every 11 minutes. This means - we never catch up with the goal, we are always breathless, we are always lagging behind (perhaps because we haven’t found our calling ?!).

Many people know that Google regularly gives its employees an extra 20% of their paid vacation time, so that their brains can reboot, installs meditation programs and trampolines to give the mind a field of imagination.
Intel has experimented with giving its 300 employees from among managers and engineers four “quiet hours” every Thursday morning. They were asked in this period of time not to answer calls, e-mails and not to participate in idle chatter. And the results were so encouraging that the program was proposed to be extended.

One-third of US companies now have programs to reduce stress, because the stress of employees costs them $ 300 trillion a year, and the World Health Organization called stress an epidemic of the 21st century.
But what about those of us who do not work in such enlightened companies, where employees are sent to the psychological health club as often as to the fitness club?

Well, you can always lend a helping hand. Today, many go jogging every day, practice yoga or prepare after work, taking conscious actions to take a break from technology and return to simple human affairs.

A friend from Google reminds me that you can always just go into the conference room, close the door behind you and close your eyes.
When I was working on a very hard work on the 25th floor in an office in Midtown Manhattan, I liked to take a long tea break at noon and drank a few cups of tea. And - amazed at how much better and more focused I worked after that.
We all happen to feel scattered and confused when we try to keep up with the accelerating world. But almost all of us have a solution to this problem - we simply don’t do anything for a while or go for a walk somewhere without any goal.

Once I found myself on a plane that was supposed to make a 12-hour journey from Frankfurt to Los Angeles, and a young, attractive German woman sat next to me.
She entered into a friendly and very lively conversation for about 30 minutes, and then turned away politely and sat in her seat. She never included any video and did not get the book. She did not even sleep. She just sat motionless for the next 12 hours.
When we were preparing for boarding, I asked her about it, and she explained that she, like a social worker, had a very exhausting job. At that time, she was going to Hawaii, where she was supposed to spend five weeks of vacation, and she wanted to use the flight time to get rid of stress.

On my next flight, I tried to do the same - no films, no work-related reading. Just an opportunity to let my mind go for a walk or let it do nothing at all.

When I woke up the next morning, I felt able to change the world (and perhaps finally follow my dreams ?).