Pacita’s comment to the post below reminded me of something I’ve been thinking about lately: sometimes the only way to do really good work is to stop “working”, and to stop thinking about whatever it is you call work. Of course, this isn’t as easy as it sounds. Most of us were raised to believe that merely doing things—any things–is a way towards progress. And we’ve attached our perception of ourselves, our self-worth, to how much we get done. So that if we’re spending some time not doing, we begin to feel useless, and less worthy. We start to berate ourselves for wasting time. Which—while it may work as a tool for self-motivation—can really fuck up your relationship with your work. Because the more guilt you put on yourself, the more you tell yourself you’re no good unless, the more your work–whatever it may be—becomes something you have to do, instead of something you want to do. And there’s no question about which of way of working produces better stuff.

The truth is, setting some time aside to drift in whatever direction chance takes you is a kick-ass way to get real work done. At Language in Common, we’ve designated every Wednesday an activity day. So sometimes, we’ll set off in a direction and go walking through the city, or we’ll go surfing, or to the climbing gym. And often, when we’re back in the studio, we’ll find that we did some fantastic work that day. You get the idea: when your mind is unbound by whatever work constraints you’ve put on it, it works better.

Still, it’s really fucking hard to do nothing and feel productive about it. Sometimes we’ll be so paralyzed by having to figure out what to do with our activity day, that we simply go to the park, or a coffee shop and work from there. Just to get out of the studio.

So here’s the question: How do you do nothing? And how do you do it, so that it feels good and without pressure, while still making a regular practice of it?