Keeping busy is often over-rated. Some of your best moments might be spent doing nothing.
I know you want to keep busy. I know you’ve probably spent a life-time trying to become more productive. I know you might be criticized if you are found without a task at hand.
I know that these days we might not have to conserve energy to flee from predators, but we might consider conserving energy for the important stuff? Being idle is not the same thing as being lazy.
Ask Jack Welch, as chairman and CEO of General Electric. He spent an hour each day in what he called “looking out of the window time,” Or chemist August Kekulé (Ki-cu-lay), who discovered the ring shape of the benzene molecule. By all accounts he was daydreaming. This scientist’s idle moment made a major impact on practical chemistry back in the late 19th century.
I can’t guarantee you’ll be a chemistry wiz or management wizard, but chilling out might just help.
Neel Burton, author of Hypersanity, says that at the very least idle moments can help you “observe life, gather inspiration, maintain perspective, sidestep nonsense and pettiness, reduce inefficiency and half-living, and conserve health and stamina for truly important tasks and problems.”
Go for it. Chill out.
Ed Zinkiewicz,
...the retired guy
p.s. Please click the little red heart below this post.
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