last fall the president of our College
challenged each of the faculty and staff
to take on a personal challenge a hard
thing I always love a challenge so even
though it had lots of balls in the air I
signed up I was going to write my
grandparents immigration story four
months later though I had nothing to
show for it I was tired and looking
forward to catching up over Thanksgiving
break
when I met my guru in the parking lot
there she was leaning against her car
looking cool and I told her my plans and
she nodded and said to me doing nothing
that’s the hard thing and I knew she was
right I knew that
putting myself in the position to get
the writing done that was my hard thing
not the writing task itself and I knew
the research I knew that chick set me
high said if we have a clear goal and a
challenging task it can lead to a sense
of flow I knew Erikson’s research on
deliberate practice and he said we can
usually just engage in that kind of
intense focus for about an hour at a
time and I knew NASA’s research and he
said that if we multitask it breaks our
concentration but knowing and doing are
not the same thing and that is why I’m
here today to talk to you about how to
do nothing in order to do something how
do you do nothing in order to do
something first you have to focus deeply
excuse me first you have to take time
off then you have to focus deeply first
take time off do nothing it sounds easy
but it’s not
Americans pride themselves and always
working always being connected when I
was living in Denmark though I
experienced a different cultural value
someone asked me how many hours a week
do you work I was working at home at the
time and I had really no idea give a
guest she said I didn’t know I could
interrupt my day and take a break I
could go back to work in the evening I
really haven’t
no idea I said she now had her eyes and
looked at me and she said you’re always
working aren’t you and she was right I
never left the office implicit in that
accusation was something decidedly unday
nish I had no separation between my work
time and my leisure time and yet
research shows that if we take time off
and disengage it increases both
productivity and creativity so I knew I
needed to do something about it so
following the Jewish Sabbath I committed
to taking time off from Friday night
until Saturday night doing no academic
work at all and well that’s not doing
nothing it’s doing nothing that has
anything to do with work now taking time
off is only part of it equally important
is engaging with other people we know
that humans thrive on strong positive
relationships in fact when people engage
with others in meaningful ways their
sense of well-being increases and when
people engage in social media their
rating of their own life satisfaction
decreases so it turns out how and when
we engage is also important we should
engage with people in real life and not
when we’re meant to be doing other
things so I experienced this directly
when my house was destroyed by hurricane
Harvey although I missed my material
possessions more than that the hardest
part was being disconnected from my
community now when I take time off I
spend that time on Friday night and
Saturday engaged with my community and
my friends once you’ve learned how to
take time off and do nothing the next
thing you need to do is do a little bit
of nothing each day meditate when I
first learned to meditate I went exactly
where you might expect rural northeast
Scotland learning to sit still was hard
quieting the voices in my head was even
harder but for me the task that seemed
almost impossible was finding time every
day to do absolute
nothing and I learned both from taking
time off and during the week and taking
a little time off each day that I had to
schedule and plan in order to be able to
do nothing so now on my multicolored
very full Google Calendar I also
now that you know how to do nothing
the next thing you need to do is take a
deep dive into doing something the
challenge is to do only one thing work
intensely without interruption when I
first started to do this what I did was
I followed Cal Newports idea of deep
work combined with the Pomodoro
Technique so I set my computer on do not
disturb I turned off all the alerts I
set my phone on do not disturb and I
closed all the windows that had nothing
to do with my writing tasks I said a 25
minute timer and I sat down and I did
nothing but the work in front of me if
it was going well I took a five minute
break and did it again being able to
focus deeply increases our concentration
so that 25 minutes was deep
concentration the next thing you need to
do is make it a habit we know that when
people make something a habit when it
becomes part of your routine you
anticipate the reward afterwards and I
know this from swimming when I set my
alarm for my early-morning swims I wake
up before my 4:40 a.m. alarm in
anticipation of the exhilaration that I
feel after the swim so I knew if I made
writing part of my routine I would also
crave the reward the sense of
accomplishment that came with writing so
I set a schedule of writing that I knew
I could keep so that it became part of
my routine this combination of taking
time off
and creating a routine was so important
to me that I knew I had to share it with
my students but I also knew that
students learn best when they can
experience something they’re better able
to apply and integrate the material when
they learn it through experience so I
couldn’t just tell my students they
needed to focus I needed to let them
experience it so this semester in my
general psychology class once a week all
of my students deposit their cellphones
in a basket in the front of the room
they’re required to turn off all the
alerts on their computers and then we
start class with a quiet breathing
exercise for one minute after that for
the next 25 minutes they engage in a
directed writing activity in complete
silence and do you know what they say
they really appreciate the time to focus
doing only one thing now I know it
sounds hard but if I can get twenty
college students to put aside their cell
phones week after week you can too so
take time off and make it a habit I know
it sounds hard but you can do nothing –
how do you do nothing first take time
off truly do nothing make a clear
separation between work time and leisure
time engage with other people in real
life and then learn to meditate next you
have to do something in this case work
deeply and then make it a habit for me
working intensely has become like
swimming after a recent neck surgery I
asked the surgeon if I could go back to
lap swimming and he told me no but I
could go into the pool and cool off if I
wanted to what was the point I said
for me I crave both the exercise of the
swim and the exhilaration
I knew that standing in the pool to cool
off would no more give me the benefit of
swimming then multitasking would give me
the benefit of writing you can’t
multitask when you swim you dive in and
just swim in that same way working
intensely allows me to do nothing but
the work in front of me now my
grandparents knew this idea and that’s
why I’m telling their story my
grandmother honed her focus through
deliberate practice as a musician it was
through her that I learned the value of
community my grandfather my oppa was a
scholar he would be pleased to know that
I finally learned how to sit quietly and
once I learned how to do nothing I
started writing their story thank you [Applause]
challenged each of the faculty and staff
to take on a personal challenge a hard
thing I always love a challenge so even
though it had lots of balls in the air I
signed up I was going to write my
grandparents immigration story four
months later though I had nothing to
show for it I was tired and looking
forward to catching up over Thanksgiving
break
when I met my guru in the parking lot
there she was leaning against her car
looking cool and I told her my plans and
she nodded and said to me doing nothing
that’s the hard thing and I knew she was
right I knew that
putting myself in the position to get
the writing done that was my hard thing
not the writing task itself and I knew
the research I knew that chick set me
high said if we have a clear goal and a
challenging task it can lead to a sense
of flow I knew Erikson’s research on
deliberate practice and he said we can
usually just engage in that kind of
intense focus for about an hour at a
time and I knew NASA’s research and he
said that if we multitask it breaks our
concentration but knowing and doing are
not the same thing and that is why I’m
here today to talk to you about how to
do nothing in order to do something how
do you do nothing in order to do
something first you have to focus deeply
excuse me first you have to take time
off then you have to focus deeply first
take time off do nothing it sounds easy
but it’s not
Americans pride themselves and always
working always being connected when I
was living in Denmark though I
experienced a different cultural value
someone asked me how many hours a week
do you work I was working at home at the
time and I had really no idea give a
guest she said I didn’t know I could
interrupt my day and take a break I
could go back to work in the evening I
really haven’t
no idea I said she now had her eyes and
looked at me and she said you’re always
working aren’t you and she was right I
never left the office implicit in that
accusation was something decidedly unday
nish I had no separation between my work
time and my leisure time and yet
research shows that if we take time off
and disengage it increases both
productivity and creativity so I knew I
needed to do something about it so
following the Jewish Sabbath I committed
to taking time off from Friday night
until Saturday night doing no academic
work at all and well that’s not doing
nothing it’s doing nothing that has
anything to do with work now taking time
off is only part of it equally important
is engaging with other people we know
that humans thrive on strong positive
relationships in fact when people engage
with others in meaningful ways their
sense of well-being increases and when
people engage in social media their
rating of their own life satisfaction
decreases so it turns out how and when
we engage is also important we should
engage with people in real life and not
when we’re meant to be doing other
things so I experienced this directly
when my house was destroyed by hurricane
Harvey although I missed my material
possessions more than that the hardest
part was being disconnected from my
community now when I take time off I
spend that time on Friday night and
Saturday engaged with my community and
my friends once you’ve learned how to
take time off and do nothing the next
thing you need to do is do a little bit
of nothing each day meditate when I
first learned to meditate I went exactly
where you might expect rural northeast
Scotland learning to sit still was hard
quieting the voices in my head was even
harder but for me the task that seemed
almost impossible was finding time every
day to do absolute
nothing and I learned both from taking
time off and during the week and taking
a little time off each day that I had to
schedule and plan in order to be able to
do nothing so now on my multicolored
very full Google Calendar I also
now that you know how to do nothing
the next thing you need to do is take a
deep dive into doing something the
challenge is to do only one thing work
intensely without interruption when I
first started to do this what I did was
I followed Cal Newports idea of deep
work combined with the Pomodoro
Technique so I set my computer on do not
disturb I turned off all the alerts I
set my phone on do not disturb and I
closed all the windows that had nothing
to do with my writing tasks I said a 25
minute timer and I sat down and I did
nothing but the work in front of me if
it was going well I took a five minute
break and did it again being able to
focus deeply increases our concentration
so that 25 minutes was deep
concentration the next thing you need to
do is make it a habit we know that when
people make something a habit when it
becomes part of your routine you
anticipate the reward afterwards and I
know this from swimming when I set my
alarm for my early-morning swims I wake
up before my 4:40 a.m. alarm in
anticipation of the exhilaration that I
feel after the swim so I knew if I made
writing part of my routine I would also
crave the reward the sense of
accomplishment that came with writing so
I set a schedule of writing that I knew
I could keep so that it became part of
my routine this combination of taking
time off
and creating a routine was so important
to me that I knew I had to share it with
my students but I also knew that
students learn best when they can
experience something they’re better able
to apply and integrate the material when
they learn it through experience so I
couldn’t just tell my students they
needed to focus I needed to let them
experience it so this semester in my
general psychology class once a week all
of my students deposit their cellphones
in a basket in the front of the room
they’re required to turn off all the
alerts on their computers and then we
start class with a quiet breathing
exercise for one minute after that for
the next 25 minutes they engage in a
directed writing activity in complete
silence and do you know what they say
they really appreciate the time to focus
doing only one thing now I know it
sounds hard but if I can get twenty
college students to put aside their cell
phones week after week you can too so
take time off and make it a habit I know
it sounds hard but you can do nothing –
how do you do nothing first take time
off truly do nothing make a clear
separation between work time and leisure
time engage with other people in real
life and then learn to meditate next you
have to do something in this case work
deeply and then make it a habit for me
working intensely has become like
swimming after a recent neck surgery I
asked the surgeon if I could go back to
lap swimming and he told me no but I
could go into the pool and cool off if I
wanted to what was the point I said
for me I crave both the exercise of the
swim and the exhilaration
I knew that standing in the pool to cool
off would no more give me the benefit of
swimming then multitasking would give me
the benefit of writing you can’t
multitask when you swim you dive in and
just swim in that same way working
intensely allows me to do nothing but
the work in front of me now my
grandparents knew this idea and that’s
why I’m telling their story my
grandmother honed her focus through
deliberate practice as a musician it was
through her that I learned the value of
community my grandfather my oppa was a
scholar he would be pleased to know that
I finally learned how to sit quietly and
once I learned how to do nothing I
started writing their story thank you [Applause]
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