Sometimes doing nothing is the best way to boost your productivity. Ruminating isn’t the same as procrastinating. When you ruminate, you relax and allow the moment to carry you. Call it daydreaming, ruminating, musing… the words don’t matter. You’re not denying reality, you’re giving in to genuine reality and opening the lines of communication with your dragon.
You could take lessons from Sara. She’s about as relaxed as a kid could possibly be — just her Popsicle and her world. When you look at the image, you wonder if Sara is even aware of the Popsicle in her hand. This is one laid back kid.
Just as ruminating isn’t procrastinating, busy isn’t necessarily productive. Busy doing the “wrong” thing(s) is procrastination. You might have a deadline for an article. So you get busy doing something, anything to keep from starting your article because you don’t know how to begin. You might relax with a Popsicle, stare out the window at the clouds or another “non-action” instead. Your inner critic will go nuts because you aren’t doing anything. Oh, but yes you are. You are recharging. You are open to the whispers of your dragon and the currents of the universe.
Real writing happens when you aren’t trying too hard. I’ve written some of my best stuff in the shower. All action, in fact all things that “are,” begin in the mind with thought. When you feel ready to record what you’ve written in your ruminations, keep daydreaming, sneak over to your computer before your inner critic catches you and let the words flow. You can fix the grammar and punctuation later.
Let me heat up the image with a question: I find the greatest challenge is distinguishing between the “cooking” period, where you are simmering on ideas in your mind, and the actual cookin’ part – getting down to it and going.
Often I’ll be going for a while, and feel like I’ve lost my way. I don’t know if the new angle I’m approach, which veers from my outline, is fruitful or fruitless, and I have to cook it in my mind, cut it up and cook it til I decide.
That seems like a time waste in some ways, but I know it’s productive in other ways.
Any aware thoughts for me?
Babs
Two ways to cook your ideas come to mind:
1. Get a blank sheet of paper, circle the dominant idea and cluster until you “know” what to write.
2. Simply begin writing without censoring to see what bubbles to the surface.
Ruminating sounds much more productive than procrastinating.
Love that Popsicle photo too!
This article makes me feel better about earlier in the week when I felt I did nothing while I was ill.. I did plenty of thinking & problem solving for our family.
Thank you for validating my day
I wasn’t laying in bed.. Thanks to you – I was multitasking 