Amazing benefits of doing nothing





This principle is as old as the Buddha, or Marcus Aurelius: sometimes we need to step back and look at your life from the outside, to see it in its true light

Article Highlights:
• In this age of constant movement and ubiquitous communications, perhaps a bit of silence - this is what we lack.
• Recent studies have shown that Americans are working fewer hours than in the 1960s, but they feel that they have less time.
• The writer Pico Iyer says that when we feel overwhelmed, we usually know how to handle this situation.
• Maybe we just need to do nothing or go "nowhere", even if just for five minutes?! I>

And now - the word of the author. I have a friend, the eminent astrophysicist who puts an alarm clock, so he rang every 15 minutes, when he was at work. As soon as he hears the bell, he closes his eyes, takes a deep breath and leads to a state of self-discipline.

Taken together, pause are only 1% of his working time - 9 out of every 900 seconds, and yet these reminders to help him avoid "overheating" and look at their work, as part of something bigger.
This man - not a slacker, not eccentric and not a follower of New Age, 33 years old, he worked at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, Einstein old shelter. I first met him at the World Economic Forum in Davos.

He - an experienced scientist who knows of empirical studies that often the best way to accomplish the task - is to pull away from her. No coincidence that the pause in a piece of music helps to see its beauty.
In the words of John Pierpont Morgan about his habit of doing a two-month break from business every year:

In 10 months I can do as much as I would never have done in 12. blockquote>
 This principle is as old as the Buddha, or Marcus Aurelius: sometimes we need to step back and look at your life from the outside, to see it in its true light. Especially if we want to be productive (reflections on the theme of, как strategy to build the life of Oliver Emberton - here).
Not by chance the word «holiday» (holiday) comes from the phrase holy day (holy day), and the longest book of the Torah speaks of Holy Saturday. If you want to advance in any field, the best way to do it - temporarily retreat.



Was there a need for breaks ever so relevant as it is now? B>

Sociologists studying work schedules Americans, found that on average, those working fewer hours per week at home and in the office than in the 1960s, but they feel more engaged.

It seems that the more time-saving techniques we appear, the less time we have.
As the researchers found, 25 minutes spent on it to move away from a phone call or e-mail, with the average person has to deal with such distractions every 11 minutes. It means - we will never catch up with the goal, we are always out of breath, we are always lagging behind (perhaps because так and did not find his calling ?!).

Many people know that Google regularly gives its employees an additional 20% of the time on their paid leave to their brain might reboot installs programs for meditation and trampolines to allow the mind to the field for the imagination.
Intel has experimented, providing its 300 employees from among the managers and engineers are four "quiet hours" every Thursday morning. They were asked in this period of time did not respond to calls, e-mails and do not engage in idle chatter. And the results were so encouraging that the program was proposed to extend.

One-third of US companies now provide programs to reduce stress, because stress staff costs them $ 300 trillion per year, and the World Health Organization called the stress epidemic of the 21st century.
But what about those of us who do not work in such an enlightened companies where employees are released in psychological health club as often as to the fitness club?

Well, you can always lend a helping hand himself. Today, many go for a jog every day, practice yoga or cook after work, taking deliberate steps to take a break from technology and return to ordinary human affairs.

A friend from Google reminds me that you can always just walk into a room for conferences, close the door and close your eyes.
When I worked on the very hard work on the 25th floor office in Midtown Manhattan, at noon, I loved to do a long break for tea and drank several cups of tea. And - amazed at how much better and more focused I was working then.
All of us might feel scattered and confused when we try to keep up with the accelerating world. But almost all of us have a solution to this problem - in our hands just do nothing for a while, or go for a walk somewhere without any purpose.

Once I was on the plane, which was supposed to do a 12-hour route from Frankfurt to Los Angeles, and next to me sat a young attractive German.
It came in a friendly and very lively conversation on 30 minutes, and then politely turned away and sat in his place. She never included any video or get a book. She does not even slept. She just sat motionless for the next 12:00.
When we were preparing to board, I asked her about it and she explained that she, as a social worker, was very exhausting work. At that time, she went to Hawaii, where she was to spend five weeks of vacation, and she wanted to use the flight time to get rid of stress.

In my next flight I tried to do the same - no movies, no work-related reading. Just being able to give my mind to go for a walk or to allow him to do nothing at all.

When I woke up the next morning, I felt able to change the world (and perhaps, наконец-то follow your dreams ?).

Source: geektimes.ru/company/witget/blog/243201/

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