Americans don’t do nothing well
Bertrand Russell said that organized people are just too lazy to look for things. Some people are fanatical about David Allen and his getting things done (GTD) promise. But what happens when you have got all those things done? If the goal is to do nothing, then I can appreciate that. But getting things done in order to do more things seems slightly bonkers to me. Is life just about cramming more things in?
We are not machines. Machines are efficient. People are proficient. There is a difference.
Thinking of ourselves as ‘productive’ is a kind of violence. Many of us have jobs in which we are treated like machines. We are measured by output. But this mechanistic approach doesn’t need to seep into how we see ourselves. All of us have private lives. More than that, each of us is a singularity. Each of us is unique. We inhabit our own territory. It’s easier to find that territory when we slow down.
Doing nothing is at best suspect and at worst subversive. If we slow down enough maybe—just maybe—we will discover our own thinking; our own unique perspectives; our own way of being in the world.
We live in a culture obsessed with hard work. I would never say anything bad about hard work. Hard work is necessary—sometimes. But hard work isn’t an end in itself. Some of us have forgotten how to slow down— how to enjoy. Americans don’t do nothing well.
We take frenetic vacations. We try to impress our peers by where we have been. Vacations are a status symbol. But what is enjoyment? There is that word joy in there. Are we capable of joy by going somewhere else? Isn’t joy a spontaneous experience? Sometimes we are miserable. Sometimes we are happy. None of this lasts. I don’t think we can buy joy. But we can have a relationship with ourselves. And that takes time and, for me at least, solitude.
Anthony Storr, in his book Solitude, understands solitude as a virtue, a pleasure, and the ground of creativity. Our fast-paced lives are designed to keep us from this experience.
I learned to slow down in school. Right after lunch we had a nap on a blanket. I admit that this was a long time ago, and I was only about three or four. But this wise practice should be reinstated. I respond well to rest and renewal. I am useless when exhausted.
We need a slow school. We need get industry on board. We need a nap room. Why work hard if there is no reward? My quality of life is better when I’m rested.
As current thinking goes, we work hard now for a better future. I am all for it. But we shouldn’t mortgage the present for an imagined future. Slow is a moderate approach. Our present is revealed to us the more we slow down.
Efficiency has its place, but let’s not over do it. No matter how much of an organized system I could put in place, I would spend more time trying to maintain it. I may spend time looking for that missing sock, or try to find my keys, but a certain amount of mess is fine with me. I am not too lazy to look for things. And when puttering about I sometimes make remarkable discoveries.
Not all of us can slow down, but it is a worthy goal.
I fully agree. Slowing down, some rest and some chosen solitude are the best ingredients for creativity and open mind. One remark about David Allen’s getting things done system : it is not much about doing things but much more about freeing your mind from “stuff” in order to get freedom to decide what to do (or not to do).
Thanks
Jean-Christophe,
Thanks for the insight and the comment.
Great article! I write about life improvements including productivity, but I also write “slow down” pieces too, encouraging people, for instance, to play hooky from work occasionally.
We do move too fast.
Today I was discussing with my sister taking my 4 yr old son to mini golf and she started poo-poo’ing it saying that he might take too long and that the lines would get too long and that people would get aggravated and annoyed. Well this really annoyed me. Why would anyone go to play mini-golf with the idea of going fast?
I love my sis. But I told her that I refuse to let the fear of others’ annoyance keep me from doing something fun like this. I would certainly be considerate of others, but I think it’s wrong to rush through mini-golf….or any other leisure activity.
Yes, we are going way to fast here in USA!
Great blog you have!
Agent Sully, thank you for your slow comment.
Mini-golfers, small though they may be, should not try to compensate by speeding up.
Maxi-golf and mini-golf are games to be played slowly. I know. Both parents were golf addicts. I am just finishing off a memoir segment that is going on SlowDownNow.org that mentions the dark underbelly of golf. Beware! My father was driven to madness by the game. I hope to have that on the site tomorrow and I’ll be sending a notification to the slow story reminder list. I’ll take a look at your site.
Thank you for continuing to keep slow in the cultural moment with another great post. I would add to Jean-Christophe’s defence of David Allen that GTD is also about getting things out of your head and onto paper, so that they don’t weigh so heavily on your mind that they restrict the flow of creativity. For procrastinators like me who, sadly, still have an occasional deadline to meet, the GTD system provides a fun way to push progress along by breaking projects into tiny actions. Some people are good at doing this in their heads; the rest of us need prodding.
Phil,
Thank you. My wife is a fan and she has lambasted me for even suggesting that David Allen’s method could be anything but helpful.
You are right about breaking things into small segments. In fact, that may be one of the secrets of life.
However, moderation in all things. I prefer to be slightly organized. It’s about the best I can manage.
What I really need is a secretary, a flunky, and a butler. I am not quite sure why I don’t have them. It might be lack of money.
As a business owner, Agent Sully I am often forced to move fast when an employee is on a hooky day. I’m betting most business owners with employee’s might not take to well to your ideas. And Christopher, when you are paying that secretary, flunky and butler I bet you won’t be allowing any afternoon siestas for them.
Attitude is almost always a function of position and circumstance.
On the other hand, take as long as you like with you son at mini golf. I will enjoy watching him play and I hope I am the one right behind you. Nothing better than watching kids have fun to improve ones mood.
I see your point, Lois, and I can’t speak for your particular circumstances, but isn’t it this pervasive guilt, behind the myth that “someone will always have to take up the slack,” that prevents people and the organisations they work for from enjoying the benefits of slowing down in the workplace? Firstly, Agent Sully speaks of encouraging people to play hooky from work *occasionally* - I presume this doesn’t mean taking every other day off! The importance of this sort of thing is in enabling employees to feel like they have more control over their time - that they are not totally beholden to their employees and have to beg and grovel for the odd afternoon or day off (I’m not saying you treat your employees this way, Lois, but there certainly seems to be a substantial amount of begging/grovelling, or at least guilt-inducement, involved in many companies/organisations, in relation to taking time off). I would say that, on the whole, the amount of “hooky-playing” that needs to occur for one to feel personally empowered, has little more than symbolic value, in terms of the time involved, which is highly unlikely to have any significant impact upon the “productivity” etc of a company.
Secondly… I believe that having employees “occasionally playing hooky,” as well as the obvious personal benefits to the individuals involved, and as well as the fact that having happy and empowered employees has got to be a good thing, is actually good for the company/organisation as a whole! Or should be, if treated in the right way. I would even say that companies should encourage bouts of empowering slackery on the part of their employees! My reasoning is thus… In these times of pressure (when one or more employees are “Out of the Office” or “having a slack afternoon” or whatever), a company, organisation of department is *forced* to think about how to get the required amount of work done in the required time with fewer people. What should *not* be done under such circumstances (or at least every effort should be made to avoid it) is that the remaining employees (including supervisors and managers) should just be forced to work doubly hard to “take up the slack.” The people involved should be forced to think, “How much of what I am doing actually needs to be done?” There is so much wastage in the workplace (or at least in offices, which I personally have a great deal of experience in), that such thinking has got to be useful. So many useless tasks are performed, and there is also so much wastage of talents. A small injection of pressure (caused by e.g. three members of staff being “off sick” at the same time, or allowing half the employees to play Twister for the afternoon) can encourage more focused thinking, and then when things return to normal, what was learnt during the time of pressure can be maintained, and everyone can generally slow down a little… and slowing down is always a good thing!
To bring this rather epic “comment” to a conclusion, it does sadly seem that when companies do decide to focus their thinking, cut out wastage, etc, it is generally in the name of creating greater efficiency and enabling employees to do more and more… No, no and thrice no!! Encourage slackery! All will benefit from the cultivation of SLOW…
Dan,
Thank you for the ‘epic’ comment. You have a way with words. I like your ‘empowering slackery.’ It’s a better term than rest and rejuvenation. There is much wisdom in taking a step backward in order to better mover forward.
Why thank you, my good man!
Of course, sometimes there is wisdom in taking a step backward, taking another step backward, then falling over and going to sleep………
I am an American and I do nothing extremely well. I’m also a woman and I never ever multitask.
Vera,
Congratulations. You are a model citizen. I suspect you may be a member of the IINDM.
Thank you. Actually, I’m not a member, but if I’m ever into an active mode again, I shall put the effort into looking into it.