Effortless Thursdays #6: Do nothing (Yes, really, nothing!)

The lazy way to creativity and productivity

"Stop drafting that agreement, and do nothing!"

Never have those words been uttered by any of my bosses or colleagues when I was sitting in my office as a junior lawyer amending a 200-page joint venture agreement!

As a lawyer, impossible deadlines were - and are - everywhere. 

"The client needs it by 2pm!". 

You don't even have time to debate why it's an impossible deadline. So you tend to plough on.

Yet doing nothing Is productive.

Why?

Because it's a key ingredient in creativity, and to overcoming the obstacles that get in the way of output that demands It.

Now you might be scratching your temples wondering how the words “lawyer” and “creativity” ever get to be bedfellows. Or how doing nothing helps with deadlines. 

I'll come back to this, but let's first look at the science for doing nothing.

Muhammad Ali and “Aha” moments

Earlier this week I joined two of my entrepreneur friends, Melissa Menke and Charlotte Crowther to listen to Professor Vincent Walsh discussing how humans create and become creative. 

There were some juicy questions, like:

• Was Muhammad Ali simply gifted, or did he train himself to beat George Foreman in 1974? 

• What happens in our brains in a creative moment, like when we solve a problem and say "aha"?

So what is Creativity?

It's the combination of skills and concepts in a new and useful way.

As I write this newsletter, I'm bringing together my skills (like noticing, musicality, judgment) and concepts (like optimal health, mindful awareness, effortless leadership) to come up with ideas and insights that I think will help you achieve success that speaks to your heart without the cost to your health or relationships.

Sometimes being creative is hard. The writer, for example, staring at a blank page and getting writer’s block.

Which is why it was useful to be reminded by Professor Walsh that to be creative we - specfically our brains - need to do nothing.

Incubation -> oscillating neurons -> Eureka!

In order to have our “aha” moments, we not only need to prepare, but we also need to let things stew. After all, we wouldn't put ingredients into a casserole and expect it to reach that full umami richness after only 5 minutes.

Stewing - the scientific term is “incubation” - is the second stage of the four-stage model of creativity that Graham Wallas proposed in 1926 in his book, The Art of Thought.

When we are learning and combining skills and concepts in new ways, the neurons in our brain reach out to other neurons to create new connections. Normally they're "speaking" to the ones right next door to them. But when we learn or create something new, our neurons reach out to faraway parts of the brain.

Our brains oscillate.

Instead of you chatting to your next door neighbour in London, it’s like you're calling someone randomly in New York and striking up a conversation. A new connection is created, and from that comes our learning - and our Eureka moments.

The thing is that our brains only get into these oscillatory states when we experience "downtime".

Do nothing

So how do you get downtime?

• Sleep

• Rest

• Being bored

Downtime is when you step away from the thing we're learning or creating and doing something else. This stepping away is what allows your brain to oscillate, and create new connections over the Atlantic.

Our best ideas don't come from a blank sheet of paper and a pen. They come from:

• having a shower

• going for a walk outside

• when you're chatting to friends and family. 

Downtime can be as little as a 5 minute break: going outside for a quick walk, or stretching.

In my case, I've been interspersing writing this essay with sleep, the gym, getting up for a coffee, walking outside.

Every time I hit a roadblock and I felt my "creative juices" dry up, I switched to something else.

And here, my friend, is the result!

Enhancing cognitive performance for creativity

Professor Walsh spoke about the research about what happens in our brain when we are creative.

What about the things we can do to enhance our brains so they are in an optimal state for cognitive performance?

That’s where the foundational pillars for health come in:

• eating real food

• sleeping well

• managing stress

• moving a lot and weight bearing activity

• connecting with others with play

• minimising your exposure to toxins in the environment: lead, mould, BPA, endocrine / hormone disruptors commonly found in skincare products and cleaning products

The creative lawyer

So let’s go back to our lawyer drafting the 200-page agreement? Do they need downtime, too?

Absolutely!

When I worked on mergers and acquisitions, clients asked me for my judgment. 

• What are the ways we can run a successful business in Mongolia given the uncertain legal and regulatory environment?

• How do we ensure our supply chains are free of slavery?

Most of the time we know the answer straight away: we’ve spent years building deep experience and expertise.

But if it's something new or difficult - like what happens next if a joint venture's profits fall significantly because of a major climate change event - then doing nothing (once in a while) might give you the answer - in the shower, on your walk into work, or chatting to your colleague. 

Sometimes, we must get the agreement out by 2pm, and doing nothing is not an option.

But for everything else, doing nothing rewards you with more.

Muhammad Ali, the creative

And what if you’re a boxer? There’s creativity here too.

Ali noticed the venue was particularly humid and the ropes of the boxing ring were moist.

His “aha” moment to win the fight was to allow Foreman to bring his punches, round after round. And as he did, Ali would fall back against the boxing ring ropes which, because of the humidity, stretched more than usual and took much of the sting out of Foreman’s punches.

Ali’s team thought he was surely going to be knocked out with Foreman’s punches raining down. But after seven rounds in the ring and goading Foreman with “is that all you got?”, Ali knocked Foreman out in the eighth round.

Even a boxer’s brain can oscillate and be inspired.

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That’s it for this week!

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PPS: If Effortless Thursdays resonated with you, I'd be grateful if you told just one friend to subscribe. They and you can always unsubscribe using the link below.