Quiet Productivity

In August I started a job where I interact with a wide variety of people from all walks of life, and in a capacity that is more than simple pleasantries. I like to engage them. Why they are in my office is generally due to some circumstance in life. This becomes a topic of conversation commonly. The statement that I actually know these people will never come out of my mouth, but I am starting to understand more about people in general, and how similar we all truly are.

I have a friend that I love dearly. She is strong, courageous and tenacious. She also is always in motion. One day when she was complaining about her to-do list, I asked her why she felt the need to constantly be on the go and her reply was simple, "How else does anything get done?"  

This happens at my work as well. In exhausted tones accented by copious eye-rolls people list to me all the things they *must* accomplish in a day, the running, the errands that fill the hours around work and family obligations.
Yet, no one can answer me when I ask them why this is so important.

But the answer is pretty clear, society has trained us so well that we feel if we are not moving we are not doing or accomplishing. If we are not actively engaged in every moment then we are lazy. If we are not out of the house, it is not a date.
How many times have we heard, or said, "I just want to sit, but I can't because..." or "I feel so lazy because I didn't accomplish.." task 34 out of 40 in one day.  How about, "I was so bad last night, I just sat and watched TV"?

Balderdash, I say.

In 2010 a LexisNexis Survey of 1,700 white collar workers in 5 industrialized nations showed that employees spend more than half of their time processing information instead of using that time to do their jobs. This information, flying at us from meetings, peers, internet, data, etc. may pertain to our job but it's filling our lives to a breaking point. A survey by Harris Interactive in 2012 showed that the average American takes only 9 vacation days per year, as opposed to the mandatory 20 of the EU. Most of those 9 days weren't actually spent on vacation but on other forms of "work".

We know what happens when our bodies are constantly engaged, they tire. They break.
So do our brains.
Essayist Time Kreider wrote in The New York Times, "Idleness is as indispensable to the brain as vitamin D is to the body, and deprived of it we suffer a mental affliction as disfiguring as rickets. The space and quiet idleness provides is, paradoxically, necessary to getting work done."

A collection of studies on the daily routines and habits of extraordinary athletes and musicians, and the habits of office workers has revealed that while relaxing and unwinding the brain does not shut down. Instead it becomes sharper.  In the same fashion that sleep primarily aids in many genetic, molecular and physiological processes, so does daytime downtime, thus enhancing creativity, cognizance, motivation and memory retention. The athletes and musicians spent time outside of their work more than those in an office setting. They took breaks. Took vacations. Spent time outside. Their performance and creativity was enhanced by the experience over those who did not. Scans of their brains showed centers for comprehension and empathy were heightened after such breaks. On memory tests the athletes and musicians scored in the 80th percentiles. The office workers did not fair so well across the board, their memory retention averaging about half that of the athletes and musicians.

Dating back as far as 1929 scientists and researchers have known that the brain gobbles up as much as 20% of the energy our body uses in a day. Daydreaming, scientifically known as DMN (default mode network) exists in 5 resting state networks- vision, hearing, movement, attention and memory. Just like every other network we are familiar with in our world, if you overuse it, it will break. This is the mental exhaustion that hits around mid-afternoon on Monday and seems to haunt us the rest of the week.

More recently research on the DMN conducted at the University of Southern California found that the resting brain is anything but idle, and downtime is essential to smooth conduct of the mental processes that affirm our identities, solidify our ethics and develop our understanding of human behaviour. When we wear this out we become less empathetic to those around us and much, much harder on ourselves. Our judgments become clouded and rushed or decisions we wouldn't normally make plague us.

A 2006 study in Amsterdam showed that daydreaming allows us clearer retrospect from which to learn from going forward, epiphanies strike, problems become solved, and we do not second guess our decisions.

Study after study proves that we require downtime, so why are people so reticent to take it? Because we are told we need a magazine ready home, kids have to be engaged every moment, errands can never wait, and we, as an industrialized society, live to work instead of the reverse because keeping up with the neighbors is somehow important.

How do we stop this draining and potentially damaging behavior?  Prioritize.
Is answering the calls from your boss at 7pm really more important than having dinner with loved ones?
Is running your kids everywhere for an array of activities really more important than taking a "discovery walk" with them at a park?
Is hitting the gym putting the weekly report on the bookstand while you run really better than taking a hike?
The house doesn't need to be immaculate, it needs to be lived in and enjoyed.
What is genuinely important to your heart, happiness and life?

Still feel the need to be "productive"? Put in a movie, sit down in front of it and read. Or make a list. Or doodle, even if you can't draw. Play a game. Several of my creative ideas are born from those moments. Take a nature walk with a bird book, or a plant book. You'll breathe and you'll learn.
Quiet times, peaceful moments are some of the most productive you will have.
So slow down.
It's okay. In fact, it seems it's required for good mental health.