From the course: Time Management Tips

Embrace the power of doing nothing

From the course: Time Management Tips

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Embrace the power of doing nothing

- What would you say, if I asked you to do nothing? Absolutely nothing. Not read a book, not pull out your phone, just sit there. How long could you pull that off? For most people, the idea of doing nothing is frightening. The reason behind that is we live in a world that is used to constant stimulation, and our brains and our bodies have been conditioned to constantly be in motion. Yet there's so much value in doing nothing. Even being bored, occasionally, can be helpful. This space of nothing gives you opportunity to be more creative, it gives you space for personal reflection, and it can have the side benefit of reducing stress in your life. Let's talk about a few things that you can do to begin getting a little more comfortable with nothing. Number one is leave open space in your day. Now, I talk about the importance of having buffer space between appointments. This reduces the opportunity that you're going to multitask, but it also has the side benefit of giving you a little room to breathe, a little room to do nothing. There's value in just sitting and relaxing and processing what happened in a previous appointment, before you go into the next. Number two: When you find yourself with an opportunity to do nothing, do it. Just stop and sit there and allow yourself to enjoy nothing. For instance, often when I get on the bus at the airport, the first thing that I see everyone do is pull out their phone. Avoid that temptation and use that as an opportunity to practice nothingness. Number three is a little exercise I like to do with clients, which is I invite them to wait five minutes. Just five minutes. Set a timer, and during that five minutes, do nothing. Don't take notes. Just focus on your thoughts. Doing this will help condition your brain to be less used to constant stimulation, and conditioning is the most important tool that you have for productivity. And this leads to step four, which is after you've waited those five minutes, pull out a piece of paper and a pen, and write down whatever it was you were thinking about. Often, people are shocked at this process. In just those five minutes, they've learned things about them-self, about their career that they weren't even noticing before. Why? Because they were so used to constant stimulation. Some of the best business ideas my clients have come up with have come from a result of doing nothing. I now invite you to review the steps that I've shared with you, and practice this. Get your mind used to the power of doing nothing.

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