Sign up with your email address to be the first to know about new products, VIP offers, blog features & more.

The Case for Doing Nothing

http://hellinthehallway.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/200_s.gif

Plans for the Weekend?

When someone asks me what my plans are for the weekend, I often answer.. nothing. In fact, my goal is to have nothing to do. My other answer is… “my goal is to do less, and then do less than that.”

The Cult of Productivity

If this doesn’t make sense to you, I understand. We live in a world where doing is more important that being.

“Ours is a culture that measures our worth as human beings by our efficiency, our earnings, our ability to perform this or that. The cult of productivity has its place, but worshipping at its altar daily robs us of the very capacity for joy and wonder that makes life worth living.” Brain Pickings Newsletter

The Case for Stillness

Are you a human being or a human “doing?” Learning to just be took practice for me.

We each have so many gifts; a unique way of looking at the world. We need that. We need you to be you. If all we do is, well… do…then we don’t take the time to know ourselves. To hear our own voice. To cultivate our own thoughts, to pay attention to our feelings, to remember what is important.

For today, can you stop doing so much? Can you sit in a chair and look out the window? Can you take a 5 minute walk? Can you step outside and look at the trees and the birds? Try it and let me know how it goes.

Image Credit: To Do List


4 Responses
  • kfayfay
    November 17, 2016

    Thank you! I appreciate the reminder to stop and smell the roses and how beneficial it can be.

  • Deborah
    November 17, 2016

    And thanks for your comment. It’s easy to miss what is beautiful & important in our noisy world.

  • Jane
    November 19, 2016

    I’m big on to-do lists, but several years ago, when I was working in a high-stress media job, I stopped making to-do lists for my weekend. That’s because I was only accomplishing 1/3 to 1/2 of my list (a lot of it housework) and then I would go to bed on Sunday nights feeling depressed that I hadn’t done as much as I wanted. I decided that was crazy. Instead, I focused my weekend on spending time with my husband and doing fun things like watching the LPGA on TV, just decompressing. I was much happier on Sunday nights!

  • Deborah
    November 23, 2016

    Fantastic advice. To do lists are meant to free us not enslave us! Yeah for relaxing!

    What do you think?

    Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *