Zen Productivity: How to Get More Done by Doing Nothing

“The value of our activity depends almost entirely on the humility to accept ourselves as we are.” ~ Thomas Merton

Have you ever daydreamed about having a few extra hours a day so you could get more done?

Do you ever wish that you didn’t need to eat or sleep so you could be more productive?

Do you steal time away from your most important relationships in the name of getting more done?

Productivity is all the rage.

There is so much material out there on how to do more in less time. We squeeze more and more things items our to-do lists. We allow our ambitions and goals to dictate how we spend our time.

But what external or internal pressures are pushing you to be more productive? Do you want to look like you have it together? Do you feel pressure from your family to meet all of their needs? Do you hope to appease your boss? Do you want to feel like your life is worth something?

While listening to Tim Ferris’ podcast, I was introduced to BJ Miller, senior director of the Zen Hospice Project in California. BJ Miller, through his work with the dying, learned how to live more fully.

BJ suffered an excruciating near death experience during college that left him without three limbs. In the interview BJ shared that, through his own suffering, he learned to relish things he once took for granted or considered mundane. He eventually learned how to be present to the sensations of his own body. He learned how to be fully present to what he was experiencing in each moment.

I found myself in the course if the interview longing for some of his perspective. I am often so caught up in my need to be productive that I am unaware and even uninterested in experiencing the small pleasures of just being. Sometimes I struggle with doing something for its own sake. Sometimes I struggle with being purposeless or not having goals.

I imagine I’m hardly alone. Our society simply does not value being purposeless. You can’t put a monetary value on simply being – or so we think.

Being Versus Doing

Consider these non-intuitive examples of how doing nothing and productivity relate to each other:

• Consider the times you had the courage to walk away from your work, only be hit with a flood of creative ideas and solutions to problems that dogged you.
• Consider the fact that many of our greatest scientific discoveries happened while the scientist was sleeping, taking a shower, or made the discovery totally by accident.
• Consider the fact that many of the great composers took daily walks.
• Realize that some of the most productive people in the world have an almost unhealthy obsession with sleep.
• Think about the popularity of meditation and mindfulness in our busy world today.

Even though most of us have experienced the interconnectedness between being and doing, we still pit them against each other. When value doing over being, our productivity suffers because the two are inextricably linked.

How to be more productive

Here are some ways to be more productive by doing nothing:

1. When you’re tired or lose focus at the end of the day, go to bed.
2. Take regular breaks while doing an activity and between activities.
3. Don’t feel guilty about taking breaks.
4. Trust that the work will get done – there are few things in life that need to get done right now.
5. Let calls go unanswered and emails go unchecked every once in awhile.
6. When you’re compulsively checking your smartphone, put it down and do nothing for 2 minutes.
7. When you’re feeling frustrated about falling behind in your work, shift your attention to your physical sensations – relish in your ability to feel and in being alive.
8. When you feel like you’re out of good ideas for work, go read something that you’ve always wanted to read – even if it’s totally unrelated to your field.
9. Stop thinking about your to-do list.

The Art of Being

Want to be more productive?

Take to heart the words of renowned psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi:

“If everything you do is for an ulterior motive – to be admired, to be in control, or to be wealthy – then chances are that you won’t enjoy the passing moment. And instead, you will spend most of your life feeling anxious or bored. On the other hand, if you learn to act for the simple joy of being alive, anxiety and boredom will disappear and you won’t waste or regret any moment of your life.”

It’s the best way to live a productive life.