Should you be doing nothing?

How often do you do nothing? Be honest now, did the title of this news item put you off…even a little? In this post-modern, i-gadget, multi-channelled, connected world you can always be doing something. In fact, according to a new study people will do almost anything provided they are doing something and don’t have to nothing. This is all a bit bizarre because the evidence is that doing nothing every now and then is actually what your mind wants.

The new research was actually a collection of many studies done by researchers at Harvard University which showed collectively that people don’t generally enjoy periods spent alone in a room with nothing to do…other than think. In fact, in some instances people even preferred to give themselves mild electric shocks than to spend time doing nothing and thinking.

In some experiments subjects were simply asked to sit, alone, in an unexciting room without smartphones, other devices, or even writing or reading materials. The people involved were just asked to sit and think for up to 15 minutes. Most reported they did not enjoy the experience and found it difficult to do. In other experiments people assigned to do things such as read or listen to music reported enjoying the experience much more than those asked to sit by themselves and think.

According to the researchers this is evidence that people generally prefer to do something than nothing, if nothing involves sitting alone with their thoughts.

It seems that people become uncomfortable when left with just their thoughts and seek distraction, yet other research from Harvard also reported in Science back in 2010, showed that a mind which is able to focus on the present moment is actually a “happy” mind. With all of the many “things” you can do at any time of day, it would appear that our minds are, collectively, becoming uncomfortable to sit in the moment. This is perhaps why there is such interest now in meditation because it is after all, heavily based around retraining your mind to become comfortable in the unadorned present moment.

So if you take anything away from this piece of research, let it be nothing that you take away.