Sometimes Unproductive Is Good for you

What if taking intentional breaks to rest and enjoy life actually made you more productive? What if choosing to be unproductive is good for you?

It’s not the work ethic our country is built on. Take this quote for example.

It is the working man who is the happy man. It is the idle man who is the miserable man.  

Benjamin Franklin

What if Benjamin Franklin got it wrong? What if being “idle” actually led to increased productivity and happiness?

How ridiculous! We responsible adults can’t afford to waste time. Our normal, hectic, modern life is all about getting things done.

Finished.

Checked off the list so we can move on to the next thing.

But, is that all there is in life? I hope not.

I’ve read several books lately that claim (backed by references to appropriate scientific studies) we can increase our personal productivity by taking time off to do stuff that is (or seems) unproductive.

You might be saying, “Oh boy, she’s really lost it now. I don’t have time to do all the necessary stuff, let alone think about doing something that isn’t even useful.”

I may not be as crazy as I sound.

My reading suggests that just as we need to keep our bodies healthy by eating right and exercising regularly, so we also need to keep our intellect and creative capacity healthy by feeding our interests and passions, and by exercising the creative and playful aspects of our being. Here are three ways to begin:

Take time to smell the flowers

Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where nature may heal and give strength to body and soul.  John Muir

In other words, we humans need time off to recharge. That’s why we take vacations, but one week per year is not enough. We need to take time every day to stop and breathe and think about the miracle that we are alive; and to notice the people and scenery we walk past without a glance because we are too focused on accomplishing something. We shouldn’t get so busy doing life we forget to live it.

Take time to explore

A mind that is stretched by a new experience can never go back to its old dimensions.    Oliver Wendell Homes, Jr.

The book The Accidental Creative: How to Be Brilliant at a Moment’s Notice, by Todd Henry, claims that to remain in top creative form we must not only take time to recharge, but we must also feed our creative juices. The wonder of creativity is that our minds can take ideas from totally unrelated things and combine them to create solutions or breakthroughs. But without a variety of worthwhile experiences to draw from, our thinking can grow stale. Taking time to experience new things, visit new places, and try new hobbies is a worthwhile investment. Who knows, that fly-tying class just might be the source of your next brilliant idea.

Take time to play

  When we stop playing, we start dying.  Stuart Brown, M.D.

In his book Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul, Stuart Brown explains why play makes humans better, happier, and more productive. By “play” he means some activity that is purposeless, something we do just for fun and something that we can lose ourselves in. For some people play means gardening, for others hiking, for others reading a good book. It’s not what you do that matters, it’s how it affects you. Play, Dr. Brown claims, helps our brains learn and remain flexible, more able to handle changes. Without play our thinking can become rigid, our work can become drudgery and our lives can become  joyless.

And I for one say this is good news! We have permission to do that thing we love to do, WITHOUT GUILT. It might be just what the doctor ordered to keep us sane, healthy and productive for the long haul.

What  “purposeless” activities do you practice on purpose?

Is there some activity that used to be important for you, something you think you can’t afford time for? Maybe the truth is, you can’t afford NOT to keep it in your life.

What new activity might you be brave enough, or curious enough to try? Go for it!

What relationship or task doesn’t give you the joy it once did? Maybe adding a dose of play will breath life back into it.

And finally, the next time you pass a flower (or a sunset, or a painting, or a DeLorean, or a puppy, or … ) –stop and NOTICE.