I keep a deck of Oblique Strategies cards on my desk and periodically pull one out to spark creativity or change perspective. This week's is "Do nothing for as long as possible."
Sounds easy in practice, but – if you're like me – doing nothing can be very challenging.
There are more ways than ever to fill up our time, but – of course – that time is finite. And, since smartphones allow us to be connected literally every waking moment, it is possible to be busy & distracted from when you wake up in the morning to when you go to bed at night.
While checking your email or socials repeatedly is a low-friction way to fill your time, it's hard to make the argument that it actually makes life better. We all need downtime – time to do nothing for as long as possible – to have the big mental and creative breakthroughs that open up new opportunities.
So how do you separate the tasks that really move the needle from the ones that merely keep you busy?
I heard a story (via this blog post) which seems to relate very directly to that Oblique Strategies card and the trap of being perpetually busy.
Here's the analogy: lions are great big predators and, despite their size, they are totally capable of hunting really small animals like field mice. But eating a field mouse doesn't offer a lot of reward relative to the amount of effort it takes a lion to catch one. They could catch & eat field mice all day long and still end up fatigued and unsatisfied. So lions typically ignore field mice and, instead, spend most of their time laying around.
In fact, when you observe lions it looks like they do nothing for as long as possible. They seem pretty content to hang out in the shade until hunger or circumstances force them to move. And here's where the antelope come in.
Antelope are big and fast and hard to catch. It takes a lot of effort for a lion to catch & kill an antelope, but once it does there's plenty of food to go around for both the lion and the pride. Everyone in the lion community does better when they hunt big animals and ignore the small ones.
So that brings us back to Eno. There are certainly days where a ton of busy work just needs to get done, and that's ok. Sometimes you have to suck it up and just plow through a bunch of mundane tasks.
But there are also times when doing nothing for as long as possible is the most productive thing you can do. It gives you time to think, to focus on something else. Perhaps your version of "doing nothing" is actually doing something else totally satisfying but with no practical application, like digging in the garden or taking a walk. What do you get from all that nothing? Context. Perspective. A different way to see your objectives once you get back to work.
In that way, doing nothing for as long as possible can actually be the most productive thing you can do when feeling stuck or frustrated. Instead of running around after all of those field mice, take a break in the shade and wait for an antelope to wander by.
What do you think? Does that resonate with you? Do you have any examples where taking some time for yourself, away from the distractions of busy work, lead to bigger & better opportunities? I'd love to hear from you – drop me email to let me know.
Thanks,
Timothy Iseler, CFP®
Founder & Lead Advisor
Iseler Financial, LLC | Durham NC | (919) 666-7604
Iseler Financial helps creative professionals remove stress while taking control of their financial lives. We'll help identify your current strengths and weaknesses, clarify and refine your long-term goals, and prioritize decisions to improve your financial well-being now and later. Reach out today to take the first step.
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