While cruising through the Internet recently I came across this quote, “Doing nothing is better than being busy doing nothing.” It purportedly was uttered by Lau Tzu (aka Loazi), a 6th century BC Toaist philosopher. So it surely must say something profound about the existential meaning of life, even though there’s some question about whether Lau Tzu actually existed or, if he did exist, whether he indeed actually said this. Be that as it may, it provides a good lead-in for today’s Andy’s Corner – with the added benefit of lending an air of intellectual sophistication.
One of the reasons the idea of doing nothing interests me is that, contrary to what we would think, it’s actually quite difficult to accomplish. Just ask the students who took my sociology of deviance courses back in the 1990s (if any of them can still recall those classes).
To demonstrate the dynamics of deviant behavior in public I would ask students to do a “simple” exercise. They were to find a relatively busy public place and then do nothing. Doing nothing meant that they had to stand in one place for 10 to 15 minutes, with a neutral facial expression, shoulders relaxed, and eyes focused somewhere in front of them. If anyone asked them what they were doing they were to answer “nothing.” They were then to write about their experiences (this was well before AI, so they probably wrote their own papers!).
Predictably, students found this a difficult assignment. Many reported that they felt extremely self-conscious and uncomfortable and were relieved when the time was up. I’m sure they’d have preferred doing at least something rather than nothing.
[Editor’s note: this exercise was not my brainstorm; I lifted it from Bernard McGrane’s 1994 book, The Un-TV and the 10 MPH Car: Personal Freedom and Everyday Life. To see some rigorous research on the topic you might enjoy taking a peek at Making something out of nothing: Breaching everyday life by standing still in a public place published in 2020 in The Sociological Review]
I’ve since learned that the concept of doing nothing is not the exclusive intellectual property of quirky professors trying to motivate students to think about social norms. A Google search unearthed numerous discussions on the virtues (and vices) of “doing nothing” in our busy-centric culture.
Much of this discussion was sparked by a 2019 NY Times piece entitled “The Case for Doing Nothing” by journalist and author Olga Mecking. In the article she argues that “busyness” is ingrained in our collective psyche:
Running from place to place and laboring over long to-do lists have increasingly become ways to communicate status: I’m so busy because I’m just so important, the thinking goes.
Mecking points out that this drive to always be busy (or to appear busy) can actually be harmful. She associates this obsession with anxiety disorders and stress-related diseases, as well as, gasp, “millennial burnout” (just imagine what it would be like if all 72.1 million millenials in the U.S. were burned out!).
Fortunately, Mecking suggests a way out of “that madness.” You guessed it – the way out is doing nothing, or what the Dutch call niksen. Although difficult to define, Mecking suggests that niksen is like “a car whose engine is running but isn’t going anywhere.” Her message is that in order to keep our brains fresh and our creative energy perking we have to figure out how to step away from our to-do lists and compulsion to appear busy . And while not easy, she asserts that it is well worth the effort.
Arthur C. Brooks, in an Atlantic Magazine publication (How to Embrace Doing Nothing) agrees that achieving idleness is difficult but rewarding. While in this short blog I can’t do justice to his discussion, which by the way is fascinating and worth reading, I will share the three steps he suggests to improve our “slothful skills.”
- Start small.
Before trying to go sit on a beach doing nothing for a whole week, start with a few minutes each day. - Go on an unstructured vacation.
- Choose “soft fascination”
… activities that can gently hold your attention while also leaving you plenty of bandwidth to mentally meander… you might find it by walking in nature, or watching the waves.
Despite all I have read about the benefits of doing nothing and of the suggestions on how to go about it, I still find it illusive. Most of my doing nothing is on the “busy doing nothing” side of things. My on-line scrabble sessions, my daily morning competitions with Ann doing the NY Times Wordle and Spelling Bee puzzles, and even my three-times-a-week cycling outings with friends are a touch beyond the “soft fascination” level recommended by Arthur C. Brooks.
Maybe the closest I come to a “soft fascination” activity is when cleaning the kitchen. As I confessed in an earlier Andy’s Corner (entitled Andy is My Name, Cleaning is My Game), the rather mindless job of cleaning up after meals is my time to escape the pressures of our daily to-do lists and allows me to engage in some private mindless mind games. Even if you may think that doing the dishes is just being busy at doing nothing, it leaves me refreshed and ready to face the real world again – with the added benefit of a clean kitchen. Isn’t that what the meaning of life is all about?