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Contrary to popular belief, it is not true that I do nothing. The truth is, I do nothing useful. Here's a Guardian article on how to do nothing: The perfect way to do nothing: how to embrace the art of idling  We are often so busy and yet when the opportunity arises to do nothing, we can find it uncomfortable. Here’s how to lean into boredom – and unlock the imagination You would think that, of all the things we do, you wouldn't need a how-to guide for doing nothing. It'd be like if Lifehacker put out a "You're drinking water wrong" article. Please, please don't tell me they already have. There are limits to my curiosity, and one of those limits is not wanting to know just where the bottom of the barrel is. On a rainy afternoon last weekend, plans got cancelled and I found myself at a loose end. Given that I’m someone who likes to have backup plans for my backup plans, my initial response was panic. Now what? I wandered aimlessly from room to room, grumpily tidying away random items. In fairness, cleaning is the thing I do when I've absolutely, completely, and totally run out of anything else to do. For good measure, I organised a triage box containing plant food, a mister and a watering can. Why are we still calling them "misters"? That's sexist as hell. Despite the palpable benefits, my initial reluctance to slow down is not unusual. Research has shown that people often underestimate the extent to which they will enjoy inactivity. There’s a tendency for human beings to prefer to do something, even something unpleasant, than the alternative. It is true that I do not enjoy inactivity. What I enjoy is doing things that benefit no one at all, such as playing video games. Well, I suppose if I pay for the video games, I'm benefiting someone. I'll have to try harder to benefit no one. This was proved to an extraordinary degree by Harvard University psychologists whose study revealed that given the choice between sitting alone with their thoughts for as little as six to 15 minutes or giving themselves an electric shock, participants preferred to be zapped. In fairness, lots of people enjoy being zapped. In skepticism, if you know that there will be no lasting negative (pun intended) effects from getting shocked, why not choose that over doing nothing? At least you're learning what it feels like to be shocked. A true study would determine if people would rather sit alone with their thoughts for 15 minutes, or have a finger cut off without anesthesia. But I suspect that would violate some pesky ethics rule. There’s another factor: guilt – particularly about appearing to be lazy. Increasingly, being busy carries a sense of status and moral superiority. “Many of us grew up with the phrase ‘the devil will find work for idle hands’,” says Treanor. Aw, man, I thought that was an American Puritan thing. You know, the group England kicked out. Many of us simply fear boredom. Sandi Mann is a psychologist at the University of Lancashire and author of The Science of Boredom. Her research revealed that boredom, far from being a bad thing, can make us more creative. I'm sorry. I'm truly, truly, sorry. But the idea of a boredom book being written by someone named Sandi Mann just triggers every absurdist neuron in my brain. ...because Sandman? Get it? Huh? Huh? I'll be here all week. When we’re alert and fully rational, our critical, judging mind is ruling the show. Or as Mann puts it: “If you’re daydreaming, you haven’t got that inhibition, that voice in your head saying, ‘Don’t be silly, that’s a ridiculous idea!’ Instead, our minds are free to roam outside the box looking for things we wouldn’t necessarily come up with when we are more conscious.” Assertion without evidence. (That "we" can be fully rational and that "we" have critical minds.) If you want to get better at being productively unproductive, there are strategies. “See it as an experiment and bring some lightness and play into it,” suggests Treanor. Nah. I just want to find ways to be even more completely useless. If you’re feeling really brave, she suggests going cold turkey and sitting doing nothing for two minutes. “Be proud of yourself for having a go. Acknowledge that it’s really hard and uncomfortable. You don’t have to judge yourself for not enjoying it. Next time you could try for longer.” But that's two minutes I could have spent looking at cat videos. There's a lot more at the link. You can go visit it. Or you can do something else. Or you can do nothing. Whatever. |
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