“Wind Down” — The Most Underrated Productivity Advice
With year-end, chances are you came at least across one post that talks about setting new years resolutions. The human mind takes advantage of these new beginnings, the start of the year, months, etc. During these times, you magically remember everything you have failed to do and think to yourself you can do it now and you just need a fresh start.
Now don’t get me wrong. Setting intentions and resolutions for the new year is a really good opportunity to rethink our goals and habits. And if it works for you, congrats. However, the way we approach our resolutions is often based on what we think achieving them will make us feel. This phenomenon — using how we feel in the moment to predict how we will feel in the future — is called affective forecasting. And it makes sense: When you make a New Year’s resolution, you feel good about it at that moment, so you predict that you are going to feel good about it in the future.
This happens because we lack understanding of what we actually want or need. To better grasp what’s going on within, take a little time utterly alone where you are not distracted by a video that tells you to make a vision board or an article that lists goals for the year. In a society where productivity and hustling are praised, what we need is a window to wind down and relax, to have enough time for introspection without external influence. This helps in better understanding what’s going on in your brain, and thus you have a better chance of controlling it.
Here are 3 main reasons or “themes” why doing nothing once in a while generates more progress than you might think:
1. Mindfulness — Learning to be present
In today’s age, we are overwhelmed not only by the digital distraction around us but also by the constant thoughts of what we should be doing next or what we should be finishing before a certain time. We are always pulled out of the present moment and in reality, this only makes us forget to live.
When one learns to stop for a moment, on a frequent basis, they take back the power of living. In that amount of time, you learn to just BE, you allow yourself to exist outside of what you do or what you think you should be doing. When you bring this kind of mindfulness to your life, you begin to be aware of the things that are ongoing in your life that you are grateful for or things that you are ready to let go of. This presence in the present moment allows you to take the pressure off by recognizing the growth you achieved and acknowledge that just for that time when you are allowing yourself to rest, what you have is enough and that you are enough.
“The secret to having it all is knowing you already do.”
2. Creativity — Getting a fresh eye
“To maximize gains from long-term practice individuals must avoid exhaustion and limit practice to an amount from which they can completely recover on a daily or weekly basis,” explains Dr. K. Anders Ericsson, a professor at Florida State University and an expert in performance. The gains are also what we encounter and learn daily.
You give your brain an opportunity to process experiences, organize memories, and solidify learning when you give yourself time to do nothing. You can control your emotions and keep your capacity to concentrate when you’re sleeping.
Your creativity benefits from downtime as well. We try to avoid feeling bored at all costs but we tend to forget that boredom is one of the many sources of all creative ideas and thoughts.
3. Health — Physical and Mental Rest
The most obvious and overlooked reason why we need to just stop and wind down is the impact on our overall health.
Similar to the brain gains, the body needs time to assimilate what’s happening and adjust to any ongoing changes. Taking time to relax will do just that.
Additionally, as you insert the habit of relaxing regularly into your system, you also start to let go of the burdens you carry and you start detaching from your anxiety slowly but surely.
On an ending note, don’t forget to slow down, take a moment to express gratitude to your loved ones, and just be.
“True happiness is to enjoy the present, without anxious dependence upon the future, not to amuse ourselves with either hopes or fears but to rest satisfied with what we have, which is sufficient, for he that is so wants nothing. The greatest blessings of mankind are within us and within our reach. A wise man is content with his lot, whatever it may be, without wishing for what he has not.” — Seneca
And a happy 2023.
