I Love Being Lazy. It’s Good For My Writing.
I don’t want a productive day
“I always forget how important the empty days are, how important it may be sometimes not to expect to produce anything, even a few lines in a journal. A day when one has not pushed oneself to the limit seems a damaged, damaging day, a sinful day. Not so! The most valuable thing one can do for the psyche, occasionally, is to let it rest, wander, live in the changing light of a room.”
— May Sarton —
I don’t know if you are like me, but my to-do list often looked something like this: Make a to-do list, try to finish the most important task first thing in the morning, then rush doing the next important things, cross off my to-do list and feel a sense of relief and accomplishment. If I finished early that day, I would take on more tasks to avoid “wasting” my time so that I could have a so-called “productive” day.
When I just started Medium, the desire to feel a sense of accomplishment caught me again. I tried to write like crazy, despite my busy schedule, in order to reach my first 100 follower threshold as soon as I could. I thought this was just for the beginning stage. Till I reached this threshold, till I became the Medium Partner Program’s writer, I could then slow down. But it turned out that when I gained 100 followers, I wanted to slave even more to cross another threshold — 500 followers. Greedy!
Don’t get me wrong, I know ambitions make us progress. And I’m the type of person who is all about progress. However, I realize there are things in life that can’t be rushed. Sometimes, the harder we work, the less productive we become. It’s true with my writing. Pushing myself to write beyond my ability and the time I have just kills my creativity and inspiration. It doesn’t affect only my health or my well — being, but it also affects negatively the quality of my writing. Consequently, less valuable content is created.
I don’t need another productive day. I need to rest. So that I can bounce back stronger and give even more.
If you succumb to the idea that when you stop doing, you are “wasting” your time, then I dare you to have one day of doing NOTHING: unscheduled day, no phone or social media, no working or learning. Just rest and exist. You think it would be easy but actually, it’s harder than you think.
Many of us have lost the ability to truly rest. If we are by ourselves for 10 minutes, I believe many of us will grab our phone, or turn on the TV and watch something. We are often inclined to look for distractions when we are alone. We have lost the capacity to rest.
Whenever animals in the forest are wounded, they rest. They look for a very quiet place and just stay there without moving for many days. They know it’s the best way for their body to heal. During this time they may not even eat or drink. The wisdom of stopping and healing is still alive in animals, but we human beings have lost the capacity to rest.” — Thich Nhat Hanh.
Trust me, truly resting is never a waste. Don’t just think it’s good for your well — being or mental health, it brings more benefits to your creativity than you expect, especially when you are a writer or a creative in general.
Many of my good ideas didn’t come from when I tried to push myself to work, they often came out of nowhere while I was resting, showering, having a walk, or was being bored of waiting in a long line and doing nothing.
When you allow your body to rest and heal like wild animals in the forest, you then write or work in a joyful way. You write like you are not writing, you work but not in a hard labor way. Aimless. No struggle. No trying to attain anything. You are just creating for its own sake. This way you can spread even more joy and bring more value to your readers through your “healing” words.
So don’t just rest for yourself. Rest for readers as well.
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