If you’re feeling stressed and overwhelmed, you don’t need to set aside hours and hours of nothingness, which would be impractical. Do nothing for 15 minutes now and then, and you can seriously de-stress. [2] X Research source
You don’t have to be a monk sitting on top of a mountain in Japan to find peace. Hit up a quiet corner of the public park, or set out a deck chair in your backyard. Park your car in an empty lot and sit there.
It can be nice to set an alarm, if necessary, so you can remind yourself when your period of “nothing time” is over.
Draw a warm bath and wait until it gets as close as possible to your body temperature. Turn off all the lights, put some earmuffs on, and try to float in the tub for a while. Trippy stuff.
Doing nothing is sometimes a lot harder than doing something, and one of the central learnings of Zen is to “do” whatever it is you’re doing. When you’re eating lunch, eat lunch. When you’re sitting, sit. When you’re collating data at work, collate data at work.
Imagine that you’re pulling the camera back away from your thoughts, watching them from a distance. Who’s doing this watching? Keep pulling the camera back until you can’t. Look for stillness. Don’t be discouraged if you find your mind quite active in meditation. Buddhist monks dedicate their entire lives to freeing their minds. For now, shed your worries as much as you can and revel in feeling lighter and less encumbered.
Always keep moving around when you’re at work. If you’re sitting there doing nothing, someone will notice. But if you’re all over the place, nobody will think to question whether you’re doing something or just wandering around. If you’re working on a computer, tilt your screen so nobody can see it and type furiously. Listen to music or podcasts instead.
Alternatively, it may be better to never volunteer for anything. If you ever find yourself standing around on the clock, keep standing there. That’s good money.
Tell your boss it took you all day to drive around selling ads or that you’re running into all sorts of problems filling out that report, so you haven’t gotten it finished, and it’ll probably take a few more hours. If you’re already done, sit there doing nothing and making your money.
You don’t have to work in a factory to abide by this basic rule. If you’re ever working and something goes wrong or breaks, just kickback. Put on your confused “trying-to-figure-it-out” face and scrutinize things closely, doing absolutely nothing.
You can even help this process along. Learn to say, “I could do it, I guess, but that’s totally in Jim’s wheelhouse. He’ll knock that out of the park. " Of course, at some workplaces, your paycheck does depend on your productivity. You usually can’t let someone else do everything for you.
At most jobs, you’ll have to feel this out to see how far you can push it. If you’re on the clock from 8-3, you can always say that you’ve got to be somewhere else and you can’t stay when it’s time to leave. Ignore anyone who makes comments or tries to make you feel “lazy” for taking a decent break. Unless it affects your employment, it’s not your job to care.
If you’re a talkative, active presence, make that presence known at meetings and in group situations by talking a lot. Be the “idea” person in the room. You’ll seem like you’re busy and valuable, even if when you’re alone, you do basically nothing. If you’re a quiet but studious worker, get away with doing nothing by putting it off until later. Do nothing Monday through Wednesday, but slam yourself on Thursday and Friday to get all your work done for the week.
It’s important to look as if you came close but couldn’t get it done. Take a project in the completely wrong direction, but take some time to do it. It’s better to make good-natured mistakes.
Night security Ticket-taking House-sitting Writer of spa reviews Cute pet video aggregator Food testing Any telecommuting job
If somebody catches you doing nothing, or gets on your case about it, admit that you’re confused: “I wasn’t sure about that. You’re right, you’re right. Thanks for getting me on track!”
Be a minimalist. [18] X Research source Keep your relationships few and far between and your belongings cut to the absolute bare essentials.
Often, we define doing something and nothing in terms of whether or not we deem it “useful. " Your happiness? Yeah, that’s useful. That means taking some time, now and then, to do nothing. [19] X Research source
