Feel Stuck? Do the Dishes!
In his book REST, author Alex Soo-Jung Kim Pang makes the most welcome case that “busyness isn’t useful.”
Have you ever had the feeling that perhaps being busy isn’t all that productive? Me too. So I was thrilled, recently, to stumble on Rest: Why You Get More Done When You Work Less by Alex Soo-Jung Kim Pang. Making the case for better practice through rigorous work balanced with exercise and rest. And many of his examples of fruitful practice are taken from the lives of writers.
In an interview with Scientific American, Pang said, “(The book) got started when I noticed a paradox in the lives of some really creative people: people like Charles Darwin, Stephen King, Maya Angelou, who are obsessed with their work. But when you look at how many hours a day they spent working, it’s a surprisingly small number.” I sincerely hoped Rest would tell me that I must sleep more and work less to become a better writer. And it did. Sort of. With caveats.
Novelist Anthony Doerr recommends walking the dog or doing the dishes when you’re stuck. This works for me, and I recommend this strategy to all of my students. Thanks to Pang, I now have some insight into why why it works. He breaks down a neuroscience study of the creative brain that showed the subconscious creative brain still working away while we’re doing idle, repetitive tasks after creative work.
So what counts as rest? Naps? Yes. Very common for effective practitioners, I was delighted to discover.
Jogging? Running? Swimming? Walking? Exercise of any kind? Yup. Those too. Your creative subconscious will work away on its own while you’re exercising.
The lesson for writers here is is cultivate a balance of focused writing time, day jobs, and rejuvenating exercise, particularly outdoors, to synthesize creative ideas. And remember that the time you spend actually writing need not be as much as you might think. Pang cites exemplary creative writers, including Charles Dickens (who fit writing into his life as a city clerk), Alice Munro (a mother), and Halldór Laxness, who all considered 4 hours per day to be a full writing day, but 90 minutes can be enough.
What a relief. Now, it’s about time for a nap.
In future posts, I’ll examine more ideas from my new bible, Rest, by Alex Soo-Jung Kim Pang, including conscience use of time, deliberate practice, and an expansion on Malcolm Gladwell’s 10,000 hours idea.
Laura Scott’s writing has appeared in Michigan Quarterly Review, Okey-Panky, No Tokens, Tin House’s Flash Friday, Monkeybicycle, and other publications. She serves as managing editor for Lavil: Life, Love, and Death in Port-au-Prince (McSweeney’s/Verso 2017), and is one of OneRoom’s novel writing coaches. Find out more here↓
