bythemethod.com blog

It’s important for everyone to take a break from time to time. If you want to be successful and achieve great things then it is much better to take a break. It is in the moments of rest that we do our most profound thinking.

In this post we explore why we should take and break and how to do it.

Life is busier now than it has ever been before

I’m just old enough to remember a time when everyone believed that computers and technology were going to make life easier.

In some ways they have of course. Washing machines speed up washing. Microwaves speed up cooking. I even have a cooker  that cleans itself (well it’s supposed to anyway).

But the time I save doing these things is often spent on work. Mobile phones makes us more accessible. Computers help us to communicate through email and the Internet. When once there were secretaries to write letters there are now computers that fill this role. In my first job everyone had access to the secretary who would type some standards letters for us when needed. Now this is done on computer. It all takes time.

Of course we do benefit from more holidays and leisure time than our parents did. Yet much of this so called leisure time is taken up with technology or for some with work (now they can work at home).

But when do we get the time to think?

We all need the time to think. Those people who are on the go all the time often find that they cannot innovate. Research shows that those businesses where stress is high (often due to demands on time) are also those businesses who fail to be creative and who resist change. Often such businesses fail.

Some businesses try to get around this problem using techniques like brainstorming or perhaps the management has a day at a hotel to spend time thinking together. Yet all of these techniques are still activity. There comes a time when the activity must stop.

There is a story told about the desert fathers where three friends take different paths in their spiritual lives. Two of them choose activity while the other one chooses a contemplative life. Soon the two who commit to activity are having a breakdown and they seek the wisdom of the one who chose contemplation. He fills a container with muddy water (I guess all water was muddy back then) and gets them to look. Of course they notice that the water is full of muck and looks very unpleasant. Then they leave it to sit for a while and when they return to it the water is clear. The point being that sometimes you need a period of stillness to clear your head.

Now I’m not saying everyone needs to give up life to meditate but simply that periods of silence and doing nothing are important.

Silence is not self-indulgence

Silence can feel like self-indulgence. Taking some time to be on your own and relax without thinking about the 1001 things you have to accomplish can feel like being lazy but it isn’t.

You are just letting your brain have some time to sort out all those things that you are filling it with. It just needs some quietness so it can be creative with some solutions.

Silence at the beginning and at the end of the day

I recommend finding 5 minutes of silence for the beginning and end of every day. Parents might find this difficult but its worth working hard to find the time from somewhere.

Don’t fill that time up with self talk or noise but just let your mind relax and be quiet. Thoughts will come up as you start but don’t panic – just let those thoughts come and then do your best to let them go and be quiet.

If you are a busy person these times of silence are more important than anything else you might have to do in a day. Give this a try for two weeks and see the difference it can make.