Jim Murray

7 years ago · 4 min. reading time · ~10 ·

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The Inherent Value Of Doing Nothing

The Inherent Value Of Doing Nothing

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YOUR DAILY BUZZ

 

Productivity isnt
about the quantity
of work you can
cram nto an
given enod. o Lil
but about the quality
you put nto
whatever time
you spend working.

www.bebee.comI hit the wall today.
Ran out of gas. Had the biscuit. Completely stalled out.
For literally the past 8 weeks I have been actively engaged in the act of moving out and moving in. I have been riding the Queen Elizabeth Highway with carloads of stuff. I have been packing and packing and unpacking and unpacking. I have been spending vast quantities of money on new things for my new house. I have been shuffling and making decisions and screwing in screws and measuring and cutting and discussing with my wife what goes where and then trying all that out and then trying variations.
But today I hit the wall. I had just set up our new TV in my wife’s basement studio where she is now happily engaged in any number of crafty pursuits and watching another in the seemingly endless series called The Gilmore girls. Fast talking, smart-ass women who seem to constantly be each other cheerleaders.

Living In The Void

It came over me like a wave and engulfed me. For the next while, I told myself, I don’t want to look at another tool or cardboard box or room setting that’s not quite right yet or assemble-it yourself Ikea engineering masterpiece.
I just want to do nothing physical. I don’t want to lift or move or adjust or organize anything outside of my own thoughts.
Don’t get me wrong. I’m very happy with the results of all the last eight weeks of activity. We are, for all intents and purposes, moved in. My clients are more or less not around, and the weather outside is frightfully cold and windy.
Besides all the stuff related to Jim & Heatherizing our house, we only have two more house-related trips to make to Toronto. One to clean the old house and touch up all the areas that need touching up and another to sign the house over to our buyer. Then we are done.
I was hoping to carry my energy level right to the bitter end of this process.
But what can I say? I just ran out of gas.

Tomorrow & Tomorrow & Tomorrow

I have no doubt that I will wake up tomorrow morning with all the ambition I need to keep on keepin’ on. But for now, I’m taking a time out. I even made a coffee so I can call it a coffee break.
As I was contemplating all this, it occurred to me that there is a good business lesson here.
It has to do with the concept of productivity. I created this little meme you see on your right and down below to illustrate my point.

Productivity Is Too Often Confused With Slave Driving

But the lesson to be taken from it is that you can only be productive for so many hours in the day. After you reach what you honestly feel is your limit, the idea of pushing yourself beyond is kind of pointless. Because you will not be anywhere near as productive, and the time you spend pushing yourself can pretty much be filed under ‘useless and pointless pursuits’.
Not to mention, getting in the habit of doing that will eventually screw you up physically.

9006

Jim Murray, Strategist, Writer
& beBee Brand Ambassador

I work with small to mid-sized businesses,
designers, art/creative directors & consultants
fo create results driven, strategically focused
communication in all on & offline media

       
       
       
      

 

| am also a communications mentor, lyricist

& prolific op/ed blogger. Your Story Well Told

      

Email: onanc

 

mail com | Skype: jimbobmuré1
You see articles about Chinese workers who are basically enslaved by their overlords and they push themselves to a point of absolute exhaustion every day. Man, I sure as hell wouldn’t want to own a smartphone made by one of those poor souls on their 14th hour of work.
One of the most important things that I learned early on is the value of doing nothing.
For writers, doing nothing doesn’t actually mean doing nothing. It means doing whatever it is you need to do without the pressure of having to deliver something to meet a deadline.
I am in that state of mind right now. It doesn’t matter at all to anyone in the world, not even me, when I get this piece finished. I could stop right now if I wanted to. But I won’t, because there is a lot of therapeutic value in being able to just write without the pressure of it being something people are paying you to do.
It’s not really much different than if I had woodworking as a hobby. I finish up my deadline-focused stuff and then go down to the basement and build a Muskoka chair.
This kind of activity, as opposed to taking stuff from you, actually helps you regenerate. And after you have regenerated yourself you go back to your work with renewed vitality and purpose and all kinds of other good things.

The Psychotic Corporation
e9b75b14.pngIn today’s corporate world, there is a lot of pressure put on people to perform beyond their ability to do so productively. And that’s kind of sad for those people. But it’s also kind of stupid for those who are making them do that. 99% of the time it’s a lose-lose scenario.

But because corporations are, for the most part, psychotic entities, this sort of thing will continue unabated and too many people will go through life in a perpetual state of near exhaustion. And the corporations who drive these people will never really achieve optimal productivity from their employees.
The net result is that I am happy I don’t work for one of those corporations and I am sad for the people who do.
But I’m not gonna hammer too hard on that, because, as previously stated, I’m on a coffee break and that would be too much like work.
PS: After a nice dinner and a Neflix movie (Genius- highly recommended for Jude Law's amazing portrayal of American literary icon, Thomas Wolfe), I went downstairs, cleaned out and reorganized a storage closet, did the ironing and got almost as smart about my new smart TV as the TV itself is. Turns out all I needed was a little normalcy.

If this post resonated with you let me know. Feedback is always valuable. So is sharing and releventing. Thx.

e36ef46f.png

If your business has reached the point where talking to a communication professional would be the preferred option to banging your head against the wall or whatever, lets talk.

Download my free ebook, Small Business Communication For The Real World, here:
 https://onwordsandupwords.wordpress.com/2013/11/24/small-business-communications-for-the-real-world/

All my profile and contact information can be accessed here:
https://www.bebee.com/producer/@jim-murray/this-post-is-my-about-page



All content copyright 2017 Jim Murray


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Comments

Jim Murray

7 years ago #23

#23
Thanks \ud83d\udc1d Fatima Williams. Your comment was right on the peso.

Jim Murray

7 years ago #22

#26
Making honey is never an issue. Putting getting all my stuff organized so I can sit around and make the honey, while temporary, is a think that obsessive compulsive people need to get done.
Jim Murray that picture is too funny !! LOL

🐝 Fatima G. Williams

7 years ago #20

"Because corporations are, for the most part, psychotic entities, this sort of thing will continue unabated and too many people will go through life in a perpetual state of near exhaustion." I lived ( 16 hours) and worked in an organisation like this for 5 years. Only to see those psychotic entities drive away talented individuals who had the ability to replace them one day ! They drove them insane trying to micro manage even their loo breaks. I stood up for them as much as I could. But the truth is each one needs to stand up for his own and our education system does NOT train everyone do that. They're caught like a net of fish by these large giants and the end result they suffocate. I was always asked. " How do you get away talking like that - be it the CEO I express my opinion without fear. If it's not right, You may GOD and still wrong. To me " Right is Right Even if nobody does it ; and Wrong is Wrong even if everyone does it" Lucky for me I got away with my ability to do exactly what you propose in this buzz. I always take those coffee breaks no matter the pile on my head. Because I know that cup of coffee makes me deliver and at the end of the Day. Delivery is all that matters to THEM and to me satisfaction of getting things done my way ! Thanks for letting me rant out through this buzz Jim Murray

🐝 Fatima G. Williams

7 years ago #19

"Because corporations are, for the most part, psychotic entities, this sort of thing will continue unabated and too many people will go through life in a perpetual state of near exhaustion." I lived ( 16 hours) and worked in an organisation like this for 5 years. Only to see those psychotic entities drive away talented individuals who had the ability to replace them one day ! They drove them insane trying to micro manage even their loo breaks. I stood up for them as much as I could. But the truth is each one needs to stand up for his own and our education system does train everyone do that. They're caught like a net of fish by these large giants and the end result they suffocate. I was always asked. " How do you get away talking like that - be it the CEO I express my opinion without fear. If it's not right, You may GOD and still wrong. To me " Right is Right Even if nobody does it ; and Wrong is Wrong even if everyone does it" Lucky for me I got away with my ability to do exactly what you propose in this buzz. I always take those coffee breaks no matter the pile on my head. Because I know that cup of coffee makes me deliver and at the end of the Day. Delivery is all that matters to THEM and to me satisfaction of getting things done my way ! Thanks for letting me rant out through this buzz Jim Murray

Jim Murray

7 years ago #18

#19
Thanks Paul Walters. I'm doing just fine with a power nap and some blogging time.

Phil Friedman

7 years ago #17

#19
Yea, well Paul, I was going to write a book about procrastination, but ... guess what .., :-D

Paul Walters

7 years ago #16

Jim Murray I offer in depth tutorials on procrastination here in bali. Once you have reached my lofty heights I will then move you on to the difficult and in depth nature of embracing sloth!!!

Jim Murray

7 years ago #15

#12
@Preston. I admire anyone who appreciates the idea of just taking a break and letting your brain recharge. That's what breaks are for.

Jim Murray

7 years ago #14

#13
Javier \ud83d\udc1d beBee....that's pretty clever for a Spanish guy :)

Jim Murray

7 years ago #13

#15
Cheers, Milos Djukic

Milos Djukic

7 years ago #12

Even nothing is something, sometimes. I currently do not do anything. Cheers Jim Murray
Zzzzzzzzzzzzz Bzzzzzzzzzzz

Jim Murray

7 years ago #10

#2
Thanks Don \ud83d\udc1d Kerr. I feel your pain, but not as often as I used to.

Phil Friedman

7 years ago #9

Yep, I can manage to do nothing at times... and value those times. Of course, I have to do it up on the roof, where my AAA-personality type wife can't get up to see what I'm not doing. :-)
Does our brain really rest? In the army, the veterans used to arrive at dawn and asked you, Do you sleep or are you awake? The ability of the human being made you able to answer, "I am awake" and not remember anything. Have a nice rest

Kevin Pashuk

7 years ago #7

Sometimes, nothing replaces the restorative qualities of going into your 'nothing box'. For a highly unscientific, but funny, explanation of what I mean by 'nothing box', check out Mark Gungor's the tale of 2 brains. https://youtu.be/SWiBRL-bxiA

Lyon Brave

7 years ago #6

Pushing people to exhaustion is counter productive, so is micromanaging. It drives brilliant people like me away, lol.

don kerr

7 years ago #5

#4
Gotta get me one of those!

Wayne Yoshida

7 years ago #4

#2
Hey Don - Looks like a great topic to Buzz about. This could be a great help when I appear to be dozing in front of my computer at the Office Space. Products like this do help: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7BrWrhYcycM

Jim Murray

7 years ago #3

#1
Thanks Wayne Yoshida. Yes it's great therapy, he said as he headed out to re-organize the shed.

don kerr

7 years ago #2

Jim Murray Clearly a well-deserved respite from the hurly burly. This in particular resonated with me, "For writers, doing nothing doesn’t actually mean doing nothing. It means doing whatever it is you need to do without the pressure of having to deliver something to meet a deadline." The deadline, whether self-imposed or externally enforced is at once our Damocles sword and our motivation - at times. I'm in one of those dilemmas right now where the deadline looms but the words need to percolate. Writing of percolating, time to make a fresh java. Don't have the fancy new equipment you're enjoying - yet - but still have lots of paper cone filters to use up. Enjoy your break.

Wayne Yoshida

7 years ago #1

Good to see you finally relax, Jim! As for me, I love doing nothing sometimes. And no one needs a million dollars (US or Canadian) to do it, as in this famous movie scene: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rQ-bp_A61MI

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