Please Don't Fill Every Gap in Your Schedule

Is this you? You finish something early and immediately think: "Great! On to the next thing!"

You've got eight minutes before your next meeting. Twelve minutes before you need to pick up your kid. Five minutes before your next commitment.

So you check your phone. Scan through emails. Send a quick text. Scroll social media. Jump to the next item on your to-do list.

You're being productive!

Here's what I'm discovering about those in-between moments

We've been trained to fill every gap. Every unstructured minute feels like wasted time, so we immediately find something to do with it.

In my own life and in my work with clients I've found our brains may need those gaps. Not to be productive. Not to meditate or read or go for a walk or do a chore.

Just to... rest.

Here's what different brains need in those moments

Maybe you have the kind of brain that's constantly bouncing - idea, idea, thing to do, thing to do - just ricocheting all over the place.

Maybe you have a brain that's been hyper-focused for hours and is now coming out of it, kind of drained and fuzzy.

Maybe you have the kind of brain where it's hard to switch between tasks. You just finished one thing and you've got a little time before the next thing starts, but you can't quite shift gears yet.

Whatever your brain does, it needs rest. Real rest. Not "productive rest."

So here's your challenge for this week...

Next time you finish something early or have a few extra minutes between tasks, don't automatically move to the next thing.

Take that time to celebrate the fact that you got the thing done. Then just... sit.

Do nothing.

Not reading. Not meditating. Not walking. Not doing a chore. Not making a phone call. Not checking your phone.

Just sit and let your brain drift for a few minutes.

This may feel almost impossible and a bit uncomfortable. We like to move on to the next thing.

Here's what happens when you do nothing

I started doing this whenever I have those 5-8 minute gaps. I'm done with one thing, ready for the next, and I could pick up my phone... or I could just sit.

It feels really good. Everything kind of settles in your brain.

And in those little short periods of doing nothing, I often get bursts of inspiration. Things I hadn't thought of before. Things I almost forgot about. Solutions to problems I've been wrestling with.

They come up when I'm just still.

Productivity culture has convinced us that every minute should be optimized. That rest is only valuable if it's "productive rest" - meditation, exercise, reading something educational.

But sometimes the most productive thing you can do is nothing at all.

Give your brain permission to drift. To settle. To just exist for a few minutes without a task or goal.

Not everything has to be productive. Including your breaks.

Try it this week and let me know what happens.

PS. The photo is exactly what NOT to do. I would encourage her to close her computer for just a couple of minutes and enjoy the taste and feel of her warm drink.

Surprise! It's incredibly hard to find a photo of someone taking a break in a work environment. Much easier to find pics of people stressed at work. Plenty of those...

Want to learn more about my work?

Website: https://neuroautonomy.com/

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