Doing nothing definitely sounds like the complete opposite of being productive, but once you’ve tried it you’ll experience how creative can it actually be.
The week had been insanely busy for me.
Not only have I been really busy at work, but also creating things and planning how my new place would look like, has totally drained me of the power to think.
However, the busy schedule made me realize that there is something that could help increase my creativity without hampering my daily routine.
I made appointments with myself to do nothing.
And as a research result proved, giving my brain some downtime improved my mental health and helped the brain act as an incubation centre.
In today’s fact changing world, we are becoming victims of information overload.
Introspection and reflection have become tasks which we ‘just want to finish off.’ But working harder is not synonymous to working smarter. Which is why taking sometime off and setting yourself regular intervals of doing absolutely nothing could be the best thing you could do to nurture your imagination and inspire innovation.
What good can boredom be
While most of us find it hard to accept that boredom can be of any good, I personally believe that in most cases it is boredom that accelerates our imagination and creativity. Think about it. You had a really busy week working your brain off at work and without giving your mind some rest. In a relaxed mode, a number of ideas click through your mind, one of which could make you a star. Agree or not, but our frenetic activities in a tech savvy world is ultimately leading to a psychological burnout.
Doing nothing or having absolutely nothing to do are opportunities for stimulating unconscious thought process.
And your boredom provides these thought processes an incubation period, which could turn out as the best way you resolved a complex issue.
We generally tend to think that if we keep ourselves occupied we will be able to relax for the rest of the spare time. However, the thinking is delusional. Keeping yourself occupied generally results in two things: either your to-do list grows longer or you develop a repentance about how could you do things better.
Doing nothing definitely sounds like the complete opposite of being productive, but once you’ve tried it you’ll experience how creative can it actually be (speaking from personal experience). No wonder, tech giants like Google adopts a company policy that allows staff a lot of free time.
Allowing your mind to rest and incubate does not make a huge change in your life. It just makes a little change in your thought process. And once you’ve experienced the benefits, you’re definitely going to make it a part of your regular schedule.
Happy boredom!
