I’m amazed at how many work-a-holics there are in the world. Just today I read a blog post about a guy who was aggravated because he’d heard another man say he was just killing time. “How dare he!” the blog author thought as he considered clobbering the other man. “Doesn’t he know that time is precious, and I don’t have any of it? How dare he be unproductive and do nothing!”
The blog author then proceeds to discuss all the things he does and how he as a serious businessman doesn’t even have the time to sleep. His plan? Free up as much time as he can to do what he wants do and go where he wants to go. But to “waste” time or “kill” time? Forget it. I’m afraid this man is on the road to burnout.
Here are my issues with this type of thinking and why I believe sometimes it’s best to, yes, do nothing.
If You Don’t Take a Break, You’ll Burn Out
To live your life never wasting a moment, but always doing something is tough stuff. We all love a hero, and we all love the stories of people who accomplished great things. Those stories and people are inspiring and they push us to do more and be better people. We assume that to be like these people, we have to work harder and be better than the next guy. We believe that we don’t have any time to waste. To some extent, it is true. You don’t want to sit on an idea forever. Ideas don’t create income. Action creates income.
The human body has an amazing ability to adapt to situations, so we tend to push it to its limits over and over again. We do it in the name of productivity and entrepreneurship. The only problem is that without breaks, the body cannot replenish itself. Your brain reaches exhaustion, and your productivity goes downhill. Before too long, you’ve reached a burnout stage. You have a hard time thinking, your eyes might droop a little, and you can’t stay focused on the task ahead. The wheel is turning, but the hamster is dead.
So what do you do? You push through it, and before long you get another wave of energy. This can go on for hours, days, weeks, months, and even years before your body forces you to take a break. When it does force you to take a break, your motivation will be at it’s lowest level.
Recognize Burnout
I’ve personally run in the burnout mode for months at a time. For months I would arrive to work early, eat lunch at my desk, work clear through the day, and then leave work late. There were things that had to be done and projects that needed to be finished. I figured I could just keep pushing myself and I’d eventually accomplish everything, but I started to notice some embarrassing and somewhat frightening behaviors:
- My breaks were more frequent and longer. Instead of smaller breaks, I’d start taking long breaks… way too long, and my productivity would go downhill very fast. I would never fully complete my tasks because they required too much effort.
- My work became sub-par. The times when I wasn’t on break, I didn’t have the energy to do an amazing job. Quite frankly, from one professional to another, that’s embarrassing. Nobody who cares about their business wants crappy work.
- My negativity and grumpiness increased. I think it’s healthy to have a (very) small dose of negativity, but it’s extremely toxic to revel in it. When your brain and body are exhausted, it often turns to negative thoughts, words, and actions. A good example of this negative energy is found in the blog post I read and described above.
- I lost interest in my work. All of a sudden work became boring, uneventful, and downright burdensome. When work that used to be enjoyable suddenly becomes a chore, it’s time for a break.
- My productivity plummeted. Instead of working on the essential features and tasks for each project, I’d spend much more time kicking around and doing busy work. I was busy, but I didn’t really accomplish anything. You might know the feeling. You spend more time preparing and shuffling papers and reading than you do actually buckling down and finishing the project. What could have been done in 2 hours is finished in 6 or 8 hours.
Avoid (and recover from) Burnout by Taking a Break
When you integrate daily, healthy breaks into your work schedule you can avoid burnout, and even overcome it. If you work in an office, get outside for a bit, away from your desk.
What I’m saying is DO NOTHING. Don’t think about work, don’t talk about work, don’t even go to a store to pick up supplies for work. Instead, take a full-fledged break away from your desk, away from your monitor, and away from the environment that is leading you down the road to future burnout. Your brain and body need and deserve a break.
If you take breaks and allow yourself time to do nothing, when you get back to your desk, your brain will be refreshed and invigorated. Here are just a few quickly brainstormed activities that you can do to escape from work and do nothing, and essentially clear your mind. I consider it rescuing my mind from itself.
- Take a leisurely walk.
- Browse around inside an interesting store. I like going to Best Buy and demoing their sound systems.
- Take a nap.
- Relax at the park.
- Drive around some nice neighborhoods.
- Pamper yourself with a massage.
- Soak your feet in a stream or pond.
I’m sure you can probably think of a few other things that are essentially doing nothing, but allow your mind to clear itself.
The Benefits of Doing Nothing
We’ve covered why it’s important to do nothing. Just for a second, let’s focus on why doing nothing is actually doing more. When you do nothing, your brain and body relax. The fog of work and confusion lifts from your eyes and you’re able to see things that you’ve been missing. Many times your ideas are clearer and the path forward magically makes sense where before it was nothing but jumble.
Also consider that the irony of taking a break and doing nothing is that your brain will always be doing something. That’s why you think of brilliant ideas right before going to sleep, or when you’re just sitting in your car on the way to work. As goofy as it sounds, I’ve had brilliant ideas pop into my head while browsing Best Buy. I hop over to one of their computers and email it to myself.
If you want increased productivity, a better attitude, and the ability to separate what’s important from the busy work, then it’s essential to take a break.
Now it’s Your Turn
I’d like to know what you think. Am I off my rocker? Should a person expect to be productive and doing something every waking minute of their life?
Well said. Schedule into each day a time for reflection about where you are headed and how well you are getting there. Keep priorities in order. Living within your financial budget really helps reduce stress and burnout.
Hi Dad :)
Welcome to my blog! You make a great point about living within the financial budget. From personal experience, I can definitely say that it’s true! That’s a great post topic as well.
Hey Dad and Chris, a big wassup to y’all.
I think you make a great point about ideas coming to you when you are away from your project. It reminds me of a phenomenon I have personally experienced when it comes to hobbies. I am usually forced to take a break from a hobby for a month or so every year, when my family gets involved in a community project or some other activity that demands my time. Invariably, when I return to my hobby, I find that my skills have actually improved as a result of my taking time off. I don’t know why that is, but I have noticed it over and over again; giving myself a break from something improves my focus and skill. I think a break in the work day can accomplish the same thing on a smaller scale.
Conversely, frequent breaks because of lack of motivation or frustration translate into lost talent and productivity. The timely break / vacation / time for meditation is a great catalyst of progress.