How you can become more productive by doing nothing
Listen to me first. I know being productive is all about getting as much done as quickly as possible, but in doing this, having time to sit back and relax is very beneficial.
Let me ask you something. When do you get the most of your ideas? Is it while you’re working or when you’re relaxed and thinking? My guess is the latter because that’s when I get my best ideas.
More things are taking away our free time — gadgets, social media, more work, etc. We don’t have time to reflect and come up with proper ideas. We have been conditioned to spend our free time doing something — rather than taking some time off to relax and meditate.
“Only from that space can you create your best work and your best life.” — Oprah on Meditation
It has become more difficult to unplug from everything and just be one with our minds. People mistake these times we spend away from work as a waste of time or being lazy, but that’s false.
I enjoy not doing anything at times, because it allows me to come up with ideas. To the people around, I’m lazying around, but to me, I’m doing deep work because that’s when I figure out and come up with things in my head.
No matter what it is, less would always mean more. Here are more reasons why doing less work makes you more productive
You give room for new ideas
When you’re always busy, you would be focused on the task you have on the table. You would constantly be battling to beat deadlines and get work done.
But when you can step back and relax a bit, you give room for more ideas which would create new experiences. I remember one time I let go of some clients. I had more free time on my hands, and it led me to start writing every day on Medium, which has brought more opportunities to me in turn. If I didn’t create more time for myself, I wouldn’t have thought of it in the first place.
Your Priorities become clearer
When you start seeing how valuable your time is, you would confidently say no to many things.
You prioritize more important things and outsource the less important things. The more you taste the freedom, the more you would want it. This would make us complete our daily tasks more effectively.
You get more time to rest
This should have been listed first because of how vital it is to our work. When we overwork, we get overwhelmed and depressed. It can also lead to a breakdown.
Rest is crucial to our health and gives us more energy to do the work we have to do.
It allows you to see how much you have accomplished
Do you ever look back at all you’ve done and be filled with pride? When you’re buried in work, you can hardly sit back and see how much you have accomplished.
When you can look back at your accomplishments, you would naturally want to do more because you have seen the value you have created and how it has benefitted others.
You gain more perspectives when you do less
When you can unplug from your normal activities, you would come back with more clarity. It lets you know where your strengths lie, and which activities you love doing.
David Allen, the author of Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity, said: “Your mind needs rest and free space, regularly, to function at its best. But if it’s overloaded with commitments inappropriately managed, its capabilities are seriously sub-optimized, for creative thinking and decision-making,” he says. “Whatever has your attention needs to be captured…”
How you can do less work every day to become more productivity
- I remember one post I made on Linkedin a while back of how we writers have different bursts of energy. How there are marathon writers and sprint writers — basically, marathon writers can work long hours without taking breaks, while sprint writers write in short bursts. Why am I saying this? Breaks are important. Try to see breaks as a good thing and don’t see it as being lazy. You deserve the break.
- Cut out the unnecessary. When you do this, you would see that majority of the activities that keep you busy during the day are not that important.
- Set timelines to get projects completed. If you don’t complete projects you’re meant to do, it will remain in your mind, making it challenging to rest. This happens to me a lot. When I don’t stick to the deadlines I set for myself, the project remains in my mind, making it hard for me to think of something else. What I’ve learned about setting timelines is, we actually can complete lots of things in shorter periods. If we give it an extensive stretch, we would hardly get the project completed.
- One thing at a time. When you try to get different things completed, you won’t get even one of them completed. Various activities, different inspirations. Multitasking would make your work sloppy and would make you overwhelmed. If you don’t complete a task during the timeline set, don’t start another one. Make sure you finish that project first.
Final Notes
Our productivity comes from our focus. When we can focus on the few things that are important to us, and say no to the rest, we would unlock a higher level of productivity.
“It’s not always that we need to do more but rather that we need to focus on less.”
Nathan W. Morris