How doing nothing drastically improved my productivity
A workday can be pretty intense. Fuelled by caffeine, it’s easy enough to get started. Lunch provides the right amount of energy to keep going. But around 3 PM it strikes — the death of all productivity.
I often end up aimlessly browsing stupid websites before noticing I’m not getting anything done. After hours of work, it’s just too easy to lose focus. But as it turns out, doing nothing is actually key to get back into the flow.
10 minutes of nothing
If you’ve never tried it, meditation sounds boring as hell. Sitting still, doing nothing, completely zoning out — voluntarily? I can think of a lot of things I’d rather do.
Even though meditation has a serious marketing problem, it also has a ton of benefits. The age-old practice can ease anxiety and stress — two things modern life makes us deal with more than ever.
Some smart companies have been taking advantage of this, building apps and services to make meditation into the cool thing to do. When a friend told me how much she was loving it, I decided to give it a shot.
Meditation can be fun?
When you first see Headspace, it’s hard not to fall in love. Its interface is riddled with quirky characters and painted in friendly colours — it couldn’t be more accessible. In a series of 10-minute lessons, the most soothing disembodied voice turned me from possibly the least mindful guy on earth into a true zen master.
The app advises doing one session per day, preferably in the morning or evening. And while that works fine for most people, I didn’t discover the app’s full potential until I started playing around with my scheduling.
When I totally forgot about my morning meditation one day, I ended up just doing it at work. That’s when I figured it out — the office is the perfect place to meditate.
Feeling good, feeling great
It’s 3PM, and you’re tired. Find a quiet spot, open up Headspace and it’ll turn your workday upside down.
For those ten minutes you spend with your eyes closed, there are no unread emails, no deadlines and no angry customers. There’s just you and a couple of breathing exercises. And when you come back into the real world, there’s the overwhelming feeling of total relaxation — you’re ready to knock out those last few hours of work.
The key is to schedule your sessions, so you don’t forget. Every day at 3PM, I get nudged by a notification that serves as a reminder — that’s all I need to get away from my desk and into my head.
You just need to take some time off every day. There’s no employer who wouldn’t allow you take a 10 minute break — especially when it helps you to take on the rest of the day at full force. You’ll be happy you did it.
If you feel you don’t get enough done during the day, also check out the Pomodoro technique — another simple trick to stay productive.
