Strange but powerful productivity hack—do nothing

I was speaking at a company recently on the topic of productivity and productivity hacks in the midst of change. During a section of the seminar, I asked the audience to toss out their personal definition of productivity.

I had some interesting responses but the one that caught my attention was from a gentleman in the second row who, with a quiet, gentle and sagely demeanour, defined productivity as “the ratio of output to work.”

I think he was an engineer.

That definition hints at the idea behind this article’s productivity hack—sometimes, productivity is about reducing how much work you do as much as it is about increasing the output.

We often want to work harder and longer to be more productive. It is intuitive.

We feel more work = more productivity.

But as we have seen from our wise audience member, increasing work to get the same output is actually lowering our productivity.

I imagine he would express this way:

Output / Work done to achieve the results = Productivity

This article is about one powerful productivity hack you can apply to boost your productivity by doing, not more, but less work. By doing this, you will likely increase your results while, at the same time, lowering how much work you do.

Productivity hack: Meditation and “Thought Time”

A lot of us have heard about the health benefits of meditation. Indeed, many studies indicate that regular meditation aids with regulating blood pressure, managing stress among other benefits. But did you know that meditation can boost your productivity immensely?

Let me ask you—when was the last time you cleared your schedule so that you could think, just think?

That long huh?

You are not alone.

Too busy to think

Many people seem shocked at the prospect of setting aside time to do nothing. And even when they do decide to rest, they perform all kinds of activities to “relax”. They swim, they play soccer, they travel…

To be sure, these are all effective methods which I endorse. However, there is a great deal of power to be drawn from the practice of dropping all activity and simply meditating. And while there are many forms of meditation, they generally share the foundation of intentional mindfulness in the absence of physical activity.

Most forms involve doing nothing at all. Sitting still, standing still or lying still are staple postures for meditation. What matters though is what you are doing with your mind.

This is where the productivity boost of this hack comes from.

Using meditation as a productivity hack?

Meditating helps you become more mindful, more present, more conscious… more awake. As you meditate regularly, you develop acute awareness and mental regulation. You develop thoughtfulness—intentional thoughtfulness, not the random, rampant chattering of the monkey mind.

And depending on what kind of meditation you practice, you may even experience a sense of transcendence as your consciousness moves beyond the noise into a calmer place.

In a sense, I believe you cannot really use meditation. Instead, you benefit from meditating.

What does all this have to with productivity?

Well, this proverbial calm and quiet place you have developed in your mental world affords unrivaled perspective—of yourself in relation to yourself, your environment and others. You become very poised and can, in a sense, see things clearly having trained yourself to focus intently and eliminate the noise of your own mental chitter-chatter.

Your mental powers, much like muscles, can be trained to coordinate more smoothly and produce more output with less strain. And meditation helps you achieve this so that when your mind is called upon to solve a problem, there will be a lot of power brought to bear on it. When you face tough challenges, you will find it easier to focus on finding (or creating) a solution.

A common success denominator?

In his profile study of the most successful people across diverse endeavours, author of the book, Tools of Titans, Tim Ferris, says he has found the practice of mindfulness to be the trait most common to all.

He interviewed a truly diverse group—from hedge fund managers to championship athletes. In many areas they varied widely; they came from different backgrounds and possessed different sets of skills and talents. But in this one area, there seemed to be the most commonality—most of them practiced some form of mindfulness regularly. It is the hidden productivity hack of the world’s top performers.

This is one practice, which I think it is safe to say that if you incorporated it into your routine, the odds will be truly in your favour.

How do I start a meditation practice?

There are dozens of meditation methods out there. From simply sitting still and focusing on your breath, to repeating a set word of phrase (a mantra) out loud over and over, to quietly shifting your attention to different parts of the body.

These have their different benefits but regardless of which one you choose, there is an important tip I have to help you be successful with your mindfulness practice…Start small.

Tips to successfully build a mindfulness productivity hack into your routine

Don’t try to go from zero to meditating for an hour every day. It will be difficult and may end up in you giving up out of frustration of either time or ability.

Also, your bum may ache after sitting for that long.

I recommend starting small. How small? Ridiculously small. So small, you can’t fail. 7 minutes, 5 minutes, heck, even 3 minutes a day and then gradually build up every week. Trying to do too much too soon is a common mistake when developing your routines. See more common mistakes in this article.

When you meditate is also up to you.

Mornings and/or evenings work well for many people though I find that sneaking in a few minutes of quiet, deep breathing during the day in addition can be very relaxing and rejuvenating as well. Need some help getting started?

Well, thankfully there is an app for that.

And, well, there’s an app for that

Many apps, actually thousands. But the one I have personally used and recommend is Headspace.

I like how it guides you through the meditation with subtle prompts that, somehow, do not distract but enhance the session. It also helps you build up on how long you meditate for—a point that we have already seen is important to sustaining the practice.

Apps like Headspace take the pain out of building a meditation practice by eliminating the need to go study for half a century to become a guru first before you can meditate effectively. You can simply choose a meditation, put your headphones on and get on with it.

You can find Headspace by doing a search in your mobile phone app store. There is a free and a paid version. You can probably get by with the free version but if you want to really dial it up, check out the paid features.

Worth trying

So if you are convinced and would like to try out meditation, go for it! You can use an app or you can just start practicing sitting still for a few minutes a day, relaxing and breathing deeply. It may look to many that you are doing nothing, but trust me, you are doing plenty!

And when you are done, don’t be surprised at how much of a difference it makes in your personal and professional life.

Until the next article, be your best and do your best.