Zone’s Experience Lead, Mel Williams, discusses the importance of cultivating space and stillness for boosting productivity and creativity and how the workplace can embrace these concepts for employee engagement and satisfaction.
The problem with free time
As I sit here, with bug bite cream dotted all over my body, a low-level tan, and a mojito-fuelled hangover, I contemplate my recent holiday and how my concept of ‘free time’ has evolved.
According to an article by the BBC, ‘The way we view free time is making us less happy’; our concept of free time has dramatically changed over the years. In ancient Egyptian times, leisure (a Latin word meaning ‘to be free’) was “An active state of mind. Good leisure meant playing sports, learning music theory, debating qualified peers and doing philosophy.” This concept further evolved in Roman times as free time began to be “a way of recuperating in preparation of more work, a transition that accelerated significantly during the Industrial Revolution.”
A recent study done by the Fisher College of Business at The Ohio State University claims that we have forgotten how to enjoy free time. The study shows that some people feel enormous pressure to maximise their downtime. Some even see leisure time as lacking value with about 30% of the population claiming that ‘leisure is wasteful.’ The article goes on to say that “Some try to ‘hack’ leisure by applying productivity techniques… like listening to a podcast while jogging or watching Netflix shows at twice the regular speed. Others may not truly take time off at all.” A separate study conducted by the career website Glassdoor shows that the average employee only takes 62% of their holiday allowance.
Anat Keinan, Associate Professor of Marketing at Boston University’s Questrom School of Business, has conducted research studies on the symbolic value of time. In her 2011 research paper, Keinan writes that “a lack of leisure time now operates as a powerful status symbol.” She continues, “For some people, leisure has come to represent collectible experiences that convey status, often on social media.”
My own recent trip to Miami — the city seemingly created by and for Instagram — really drove this concept home for me. Observing the ocean, the architecture, and the food without a phone between the viewer and the object of interest was a rare site. The documentation of the experience being much more valuable than the experience itself.
Recently, a friend of mine took an unscientific poll asking his nephews (who were between the ages of 20–24):
“What’s better — photographing as a 6 but being an 8 in real life, or photographing as an 8 and being a 6 in real life?”
They answered unanimously — “Photographing as an 8, obviously.”
When my friend asked them to explain their answers one replied:
“It doesn’t matter if you can’t show it on social media.”
Space and stillness
So, free time has evolved from being a time for rest and recuperation to being devalued all together as a concept or at best used to collect a set of ‘experiences’ for social media. The practice of stillness and space have become more and more rarefied. And yet, we know that this is the place where creativity, innovation, and problem solving are at their best.
We’ve all had the experience of having a great idea right before we drift off to sleep. That happens because we have not had long enough pauses in our day to allow space for a new idea to develop.
This article is an argument for the value of space and stillness as a tool to drive productivity, quality of work, and happier employees.
What do we mean by space and stillness? For the purposes of this article, space and stillness refers to both an internal and an external way of being.
Our external world has become noisy and cramped — with notifications sounding off every few minutes and a lifestyle packed closer and closer together. According to research conducted by The University of California, Irvine it takes the average office worker 25 minutes to return to a task but is interrupted every 11 minutes. So, in our physical world it’s a challenge to find true stillness and space around you.
Our internal world has followed suit, with some studies reporting that we have between 6,200–80,000 thoughts per day. If we close our eyes and sit quietly and ask ourselves “what’s the next thought I’m going to have?” you will notice that for most of us, our thoughts come in quick succession and that the vast majority of those thoughts are not productive or helpful. Slowing them down takes practice, but if you can, even for a moment, you will notice something — space and stillness.
The combination of the external and internal space and stillness are what I’ll be referring to in this article.
The dimension of true creativity
After a bus accident where Frida Kahlo was impaled by a metal rod, she spent the next several months recovering in bed and mostly alone. It was during those quiet solitary months that she created some of her most influential paintings. She later referred to this time as when she “gave birth to herself.”
In 2007, the singer-song writer for the indie-folk band Bon Iver, Justin Vernon, after falling ill and having no commercial success with his music, retreated to a remote cabin in Wisconsin which is where he wrote the album For Emma, Forever Ago. The album went on to gross wide commercial success, platinum sales, and several awards.
Countless studies have shown a corelation between meditation and productivity. This is no secret in the pro-athlete arena. According to an article by 3BC Performance:
“Los Angeles superstar Lebron James credits a key part of his overall success and sustained longevity to the work he puts in on his mental fitness and health. A big part of that — which he’s mentioned multiple times — is the use of meditation.”
Some tech companies understand the power of stillness and space as a means of fostering productivity and innovation.
Companies like Google, Netflix, LinkedIn, Evernote, MyPlanet, Roku, 3M, BBC, Patagonia, and Apple have introduced policies that offer more time and space in a variety of ways. Some have introduced a percentage of the week (between 5–20%) being dedicated to space and time to think about their work from a new perspective, research related topic, or just use the free time to recuperate.
Other companies have offered things like unlimited holidays. Patagonia, whose headquarters are right next to the beach, famously allow employees the “freedom to surf” any time the waves are good.
In 2015, co-founder and CEO of Milanote claimed that his company was 23% more productive after they introduced periods of quiet to the workplace.
In general, the companies who have introduced these policies credit them to greater employee satisfaction, higher productivity rates, and the output of products like Gmail, AdSense, and Askaway (a remote work tool that collects questions during meetings to make sure in-person attendees don’t always get first dibs).
This concept of ‘free time’ has also extended to education. An article by builtin.com talks about how “teachers are adapting their curriculum to include 20 percent time, also known as Genius Hour.”
The author and spiritual teacher Eckhart Tolle talks about the place of ‘true creativity’ only being accessible through presence — when the ‘self’ drops away.
“One could say you disappear as a person but you are instead a presence which cannot be explained — you can then access this dimension of pure intelligence and creativity…anything created arises from that place.”
How to cultivate stillness and space
I hear the sceptical comments some say that stillness and space are elitist concepts — a luxury available only to the privileged among us. A single parent of four who’s holding down three jobs and struggling to survive would be valid in scoffing at the notion that she can just create more space in her life — that it’s somehow up to her to cultivate stillness on top of everything else. She needs to be constantly thinking. She has a lot to do and a lot to think about.
To that, I would say, absolutely. If we think of it as another task on a long list of tasks, it does seem impossible and counterproductive. What I and countless researchers, authors, specialists, Buddhists, spiritual teachers, tech giants, and scientists would tell you is that even a moment of stillness introduced throughout the day can be transformative.
Some practical tips for cultivating stillness and space
Internal World
- Take conscious breaths throughout the day. All that means is just noticing your breath for a moment. Watching the rise and fall of your abdomen. Feeling how the air enters your nostrils a little bit cold and exits a little warmer.
- Notice your thoughts. Ask yourself the question “what will my next thought be?” and see how long you can go without another thought rushing in.
- Whatever it is you are doing, right now, can you bring all your senses to it? If you are riding a train, can you stop and listen to the sound it’s making? Really pay attention. If you’re at work, can you take just a second to look around you and really notice what you see? If you’re eating, can you be present and notice the smell, the crunch, the taste of salt or acidity?
External World
- Can you work with your teams to identify longer periods of time where you close down your emails and messages and just dedicate your energy to a single task?
- Can you turn off notifications on your laptops and phones?
- Can you champion ‘no-meeting Fridays’?
- Can you use 10 min of your lunch break to walk outside and not bring your phone?
Stillness and space have been proven over and over again to be subtle yet powerful tools to improving the overall health and wellbeing of the individual as well as the companies they support, ultimately effecting the bottom line. I will leave you with this last quote from Harvard Business Review:
“Taking time for silence restores the nervous system, helps sustain energy, and conditions our minds to be more adaptive and responsive… silence is associated with the development of new cells in the hippocampus, the key brain region associated with learning and memory… Real sustained silence, the kind that facilitates clear and creative thinking, and quiets inner chatter as well as outer. Try going on a media fast, sitting silently for 2 minutes during the middle of your workday, or taking a long walk in the woods — with no phone. The world is getting louder, but silence is still accessible.”
