The Art of Doing Nothing: Reframing Procrastination as an Intentional and Purposeful Pause

How epic is this new tune? I love it. I love it. If I was a melody, I'd be this melody. Woo! Welcome back. Oh my gosh. Thank you for joining today. And shout out to my good friend Jay, aka Smoothie. I'm linking your Spotify at the end of this. How did you love that new intro? This is the first time ever that I have had a melody created just for me. And I gotta say, seriously, if I was a melody, I would be that melody. So I'm so grateful to get to share some great music with you all because music is the only thing in the

universe that makes sense, which is something else that Smoothie said years ago that I always come back to. And today, masterful listeners, we're diving into a conversation about procrastination. Oh my gosh, I feel like this has been the bane of my existence my whole life. And recently I've really understood more about why I have always procrastinated. Because this has caused me a lot of stress. How about you? You know, some of us work really well under pressure, and I am one of those people like humans, and yet sometimes procrastinating and waiting till the last minute. Oh my gosh, it's been so stressful, so disappointing. So I

finally really took a deep look and I masterfully listened to myself and I asked myself, why are you doing this? Why do you keep doing this thing that, like, yeah, it works? Like, I get it done, whatever it is, but why do I wait so long that then I'm stressed? You know what I mean? Like, it's it's important to ask ourselves why sometimes. If you've been listening to the show, by the way, thank you. And if you're new to this, then you might have not heard me say this yet. But getting too stuck in the why, why do we do things can be dangerous. But sometimes

you really do gotta pause and go, wait a minute, I've been doing this thing. I've had this habit of procrastination for uh, you know, 20 years or whatever. So there's some reason I'm doing it. It's like when we are sabotaging ourselves, there's literally a reason we're doing it. It's usually subconscious. So today we're gonna talk about the art of doing nothing. And when I say that, the art of doing nothing, what I mean is you're doing nothing related to the thing you gotta be doing. And yet it is an art because how good are you at a doing nothing? And we'll talk about what that means,

but also um enjoying the doing of the nothing. Because let me tell you, if I'm sitting around and I'm not doing anything related to a project and I'm like relaxed and I'm mindful and I'm enjoying that time, that's awesome actually. Cause that could actually fuel me to do the thing. But if I'm sitting around as I've done for an entire day thinking and overthinking the thing I have to do, but why am I not doing the thing I have to do? Oh my gosh, when am I gonna do it? And then I'm mad at myself for not doing it, right? That's that shit spiral that I've

talked about previously. There's an episode this season called uh how to go from you know shit spiral to love loop. And that's part of this as well. That's part of this conversation. I've talked about peaceful productivity, how good it feels when we're productive in our doing, but we're being peaceful. That's tied to this idea of the art of doing nothing. Most people do not know how to do nothing. Like they can't just chill out because they're so used to being in a rush and stressing. You know, that's the world that we live in. And yet I think practicing doing nothing, honestly, is what's allowed me to

do all kinds of things really, really, really well. Okay. So my experience with procrastination has been vast. I would say I've been a fantastic procrastinator, you know, my whole life. And the thing is, why do we procrastinate? You know, typically, uh, we're procrastinating because I've actually heard recently it's a sort of trauma response. We're afraid to fail. Uh, we are also often perfectionists or like me, recovering perfectionists. So it's like, I can't do it until I could do it perfectly, you know, or I or I don't want to do it. Like, have you ever needed to call customer service? Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah, I've needed to call

Amazon for six months. Swear to God. Like I'm so late on that. And I'm still thinking, why haven't I done it? Cool. Why is great, and yet why does not work nearly as efficiently as what? What is happening here in this experience that is preventing me from doing the thing that I gotta do, that I wanna do, right? Sometimes we have things we must do. If it's a work project, if it's an assignment, if it's the dishes. Oh, yeah, yeah. If you have seen how often my dishes have gotten piled up, uh, it's often, and also what's funny is that once I actually start doing them,

I kind of like it. I like the warm water, I like that I'm doing something good, and yet still I've waited and waited and waited and thought about it. And so that's really what I want to focus on today is a, have you ever even considered the fact that not doing, non-doing, is the ultimate doing? Because it's you being mindful of the fact that you know what, I'm not gonna work on this right now. And yet, could there be a benefit? In fact, is that a tool in itself that's super useful? Yeah, for me it is. So I want to have this conversation and share a

really short, simple story that really helped me realize oh, procrastination's actually a tool. Sometimes the reason we put things off is uh, what am I gonna say? Yeah, unintentionally intentional, meaning you're not aware that you're doing it on purpose, but you actually are. And that's cool. So maybe if I share this and bring this into your awareness, you could start being a little more fiercely critical of yourself, but like in a compassionate way. Let's say fiercely compassionate with your own experience of procrastination. Because I meet very few people who are like, man, I've been procrastinating all day, and that feels great. And yet, hmm, I often

now know when I'm putting things off, there might be a reason. It's just knowing that you're doing something intentionally or you're not. You're in a habit of I just procrastinate, this is what I do, and oh, I know how to do things last minute and quickly. Yeah, so do I. But it doesn't always feel good to have to sprint towards the finish line. Although if it helps you and you really work under pressure well and you're already mindful around your procrastination, cool, maybe this isn't an episode you need to listen to. Because remember, remember the first step. Remember, remember the first step to masterful listening is

making sure you want to listen. So something brought you here today. You know, this topic of the art of doing nothing or procrastination caught your interest. Hopefully, when we started the show with that awesome rad tune that got you engaged. But again, how big is this procrastination habit in your life? How often are you waiting till the last minute? Or frankly, maybe you've been procrastinating on something for years because you just kind of you're afraid. What if I don't do it well? Well, you know what? What if you do? What if you do? And what if all those days, hours, weeks, years of procrastination have actually

been teaching you a lesson that you've been missing because instead of enjoying the art of doing nothing towards that task, what if that's useful? And what if it can become useful starting now? All right. So I'm gonna share a story. This is such a simple story, a simple moment that I experienced probably a decade or more ago when I was a creative recruiter. And I'll share that in a moment. This really helped me see oh, there's a value in taking the time before you jump into what you are paid to do, what you want to do, a goal, a task, anything. And this really, this whole

episode, this story, these insights are really coming from years of reflecting on this, right? And actually sometimes ruminating on this. So that is a big distinction I'm gonna talk about. And here's how I invite you to listen today, because of course we're at the masterful listening school, the world's first super rad listening school podcast, that you actually really want to listen to. And the lens I want you to put on today, in addition to how we always practice masterful listening, which is you're listening to my words, what's between the words, my energy, my tone. You're not distracted. And if you get distracted thinking about all the

things you've been procrastinating about, bring yourself back. Practice, practice. This is a mindfulness practice in itself. I feel like this school, this podcast is a mindfulness practice because it takes a lot of mindfulness to actually catch yourself distracted and come back, come back. Remember, it's really connected to this idea of being where you are and doing the thing you're doing, whether it's listening or whether it's doing nothing, meaning sitting and breathing. Because by the way, doing nothing is doing something. That's pretty wild, right? Doing nothing is a thing in itself. It's a very powerful way to be. Being a certain way will help you do everything

more efficiently, peacefully. I want that for all of you. I want that for me, right? What if those tasks that haven't felt fun or engaging can become that way? You know, I've actually truly learned to love doing the dishes. Uh, I just kind of forget that and I get stuck in that habit of, ah, but I'll just let them pile up. I'll just let them pile up. And recently I got very upset with myself uh because I let it pile up. I mean, to a big, big, big degree. And it really felt bad because I was disappointed in myself. Like I've been exploring this for years.

Why do I still let this happen? And so that's another quick thing. I want you to listen today with fierce compassion. Right. I want you to bring to mind a quick thing, something you've been procrastinating in your life. And I pretty much guarantee there's something. It could be a big thing, it could be a small thing, but bring it back to life right now as I play some beautiful background music for you. So don't pause, just leave this on and see how a little auditory inspiration helps you bring to mind what have you been procrastinating on.

Hopefully, you enjoyed the little interlude. You know, I really do believe that we sabotage ourselves sometimes for some good reason too. And I think that procrastination is a sort of sabotage. And what if we consider there's some perceived goodness in that? So I'm inviting you to listen from the perspective of what if you've actually been doing something positive that because you haven't been aware of, because again, everything starts with awareness, hasn't been helping you have the experience of achieving your tasks or your goals. That's been great. It's maybe been stressful instead. Ah man, imagine if we could shift all of our experiences of stress to like,

you know, a awareness, understanding, inspiration, growth, reframing. Hell yeah, to that. It's normal to be afraid. It's normal not to want to do something. And guess what? I've been saying this in the last few episodes. Doing the hard thing is actually super good for us. It grows our brain, it builds our confidence. Okay. And when you start to reframe, not even the fact that you procrastinate, but why you do it and the benefit sometimes, maybe, of doing it. I think it's gonna change your life. Okay, so here's my very short story. This might be one of the shortest ones I've told, but it's super powerful. Small

little moments can have such a profound, meaning, deep, meaningful, rare impact. So I used to be a creative recruiter. I was a technical creative recruiter, and I was in charge of recruiting super high-level positions within the creative tech space, meaning I was working with advertising agencies and I was helping them find art directors, creative directors, producers, designers. I really did enjoy that work. I'm a creative myself and I'm sort of a business-minded creative. So it was super cool for me first to see, you know, the work that these advertising agencies were doing. And then some of these people, these creative directors, oh my gosh, I mean,

they were brilliant. They made a lot of money. And so when they worked through my agency, they would basically, you know, we would pay them and the client would pay us. So they submitted their hours. You know, I worked 30 hours last week, and then we submitted those hours to the client. The client then, of course, paid us and we paid them. And there was one client I had, a creative director, who submitted their timesheet for like 40 hours. I don't remember the exact number, but that doesn't matter. And my boss comes to me one day and she goes, Hey, Svet, I think you're gonna appreciate

this. Because she knew me. She knew that as a creative and artistic person, I had my own process for how I even, you know, achieve my business goals. And she said, So the client is pissed because this creative director charged for 40 hours, but 20 of them were just thinking time. So they weren't doing anything, they weren't designing, they weren't like creating, they were just thinking. And they're like, what the hell? Like, I'm paying them to think. I'm basically paying them to do nothing. And she's like, I bet you understand that I'm like, oh, I do. Because guess what? For me, part of my creative process,

like if I have to, even for this podcast, or if I have to write an article, usually I'm just like thinking about it for quite a while. And that's the reflection part. Reflection is intentional thought. It's imagining, it's dreaming. Sometimes that includes me taking notes, but honestly, often it doesn't. Then once I've done enough of that reflection, which is not rumination, rumination is where you're like spinning out about, oh my God, I have to do this thing and how am I going to do this thing? One is peaceful and life affirming, that's the reflection. And one is really not peaceful. It's usually anxious and it's life

diminishing, right? So once I've done the reflection, then I usually start taking notes, designing the doing, what most people consider the doing. But the truth is, if I haven't taken the time to kind of quote, do nothing and just think and feel and imagine, my work is never as good. Then when I do start the work, I end up having to redo it. It's not what I want, right? So that is exactly where I saw, wow, even a super high-level creative director is charging for 20 hours of non-doing, of nothing. They're not producing, but because they did that, just like for me, when I take that

time, when I start doing, I am so on it. Oh my God. So that's it. That was the moment that I realized it is completely appropriate to charge for nothing because that nothing is everything, right? That nothing isn't me distracting myself from my work, it's deepening my connection to my creativity that's gonna enhance my work. And it's really important to learn how to just be in a space of reflection, breathing. Have you ever had a meditation where you were really breathing and not doing much thinking? And then suddenly this idea pops into your head and you're like, whoa, where did that come from? It came from

the space you gave yourself to stop ruminating about the thing. I really want to inspire everyone to do a little more of nothing. Because I do a lot of nothing. And in fact, you know what? I always say, I'm super drawn to people who are like really productive and get a lot of shit done, but I also need them to know how to do nothing. Because when you're around a person who can't chill the fuck out, uh I can feel that anxiety as an empath. And I don't like that because then I'm feeling some of that anxiety, and then it's harder for me to enjoy the

being, the nothing, that reflective time before the doing. I always say there's a time to chill and chill hard. And there's a time to move and go and run, right? Like for me, I really don't like running, but if I do, I always build up to it. I walk, then I jog, and then once I'm in that flow, I can sprint, but I don't actually want to sprint too long all the time because that's not honestly the way that I've sustained any sort of uh exercise regimen or anything in my life that I've been wanting to sustain. Even this podcast, I got myself in a flow

where for the first few. Look at the dates of the first, I don't know, half of the first season. I was posting episodes maybe once every three weeks. Now I'm in a flow where I'm basically doing three a week, but it's slow. I do nothing, I get the idea, then I take some notes, and then my doing becomes a little faster, a little faster. I notice that part that's sometimes like, oh, I'll just put it off. And I go, okay, how do I masterfully listen to this part that wants to put it off? And I want you to start thinking about that. Why am I doing

this? What am I getting from doing this? So every time you get lost in the why do I keep catch that and go, what am I getting here? Are you getting a moment to practice the art of doing nothing? To practice mindfulness, peace. I want to practice peace all the time. You know what I mean? Truly, you will be more creative if you create the space and quiet for that. It's, you know, it's the it's the second between the the musical, um, not the tones, but it's the space between the conversations that we have that helps us process them. It's the spaciousness between the words, the

pauses that somehow and sometimes make them land better, right? Like imagine if someone just speaks in a certain way and they don't take any pauses and they just keep going, um, I am gonna turn that off. That's why I honestly don't listen to a ton of podcasts. So I want you to first just start noticing. When are you really trying to distract yourself or put it off because you're afraid? That's okay. Be kind. You can see that and go, hmm, what's that giving me? Is that giving you something good? Because if not, what can I do differently? What can I undo? What does doing nothing look

like? Doesn't mean you got to sit around for a week and do nothing, but it could. You might need 20 hours to just calm your system, slow your mind, and then it'll come to you. And that is why I wanted to introduce my new melody with this episode because Justin and I, Smoothie and I, I call him Justin because when I met Justin or Jay, he wasn't smoothie yet. His music has evolved and grown so beautifully through the years. But I asked him about um, I don't know, a month and a half ago if he would make a melody for this next season. And he was

super excited about it. And I was really excited about it, and I had this like sense of urgency. I was like, I want you to really do it. And he's like, Cool, I'm gonna, I'm gonna work on it. And, you know, a week, two passed, and I kind of checked in and he's like, Yeah, I've been, I've been in my process, and I'm like, okay, cool. And I reminded myself of this idea of like Jay Smoothie is a pro. He's a genius. What he does and what he did here, I sent him like five different songs, and I'm like, you know, I love me, like I

love the reggae, but I also love the like instrumental thing and I want it to be slow, but then I want it to change tempo. I sent him so many various styles that I was like, how is he gonna put this all together? And then yesterday I got a message from him with a file and he said, I made it. I was so excited and I put it on, and I really wish I could have recorded this moment because my whole being when the song turned on, I was like, Oh my God, I love it. Like I genuinely loved it. It wasn't like I was trying

to like it because I knew my friend made it. No, I loved it. And so I called him and I was like, oh my God, I love it. How did you do this? How did you combine all these elements? And he's like, well, honestly, at first I just like really had to feel into it and think about it and think about it. And then it was like, it just came and I started and I built it and I built it. And I'm like, yes, that's almost like exactly that idea of the art of doing quote, nothing. And some would call it procrastinating. I mean, he didn't

sit down and start making the song that day. It took him a few weeks, but when he did it, I mean, it was perfect. I had not a single note to make it better. I loved it. So, yes. Here's a radical idea, because you know I like the word rad. Rad stands for really awesome detour. Here's a radical, really awesome detour from how we've been thinking. What if doing nothing was actually the most productive thing you could do? It's not about what you're doing. It's about what are you experiencing as you're doing the thing is the question I always ask. I don't say what do you

want to do? I say, what do you care to experience as you're achieving whatever goal, whatever dream you have? Because I'm a big fan of goals and dreams. You know that. You've heard it. I'm a coach. I'm all about it. But I am not about helping someone achieve their goals and ruining their health in the process, which most people do. That's why I'm a mental wealth advocate. I'm not interested in helping you achieve some massive goal. If through that you're so freaking stressed and you can't sleep and your life is suffering. No, no, thank you. And if you are interested in being that way and working

that way, probably what I'm putting on in the world isn't resonating with you. So you're probably not even listening anymore. So if you're still here, I really want you to do this homework. Okay. I asked you earlier to think about what you have been procrastinating on. And I want you to just consider and play with this idea of the art of doing nothing. So the next time you find yourself procrastinating, maybe it's that same issue, maybe it's a new one. I want you to just notice that. Like, oh, I'm putting it off again. Take a breath. Ask yourself, what can you not do? Literally, don't do

it. I do not say put your butt in the chair. That is ultimately the way to start. So, first though, I want you to do nothing. I want you to ask yourself, what is the most peaceful non-doing that I could do now? And by the way, non-doing can be you're sitting and breathing and meditating. Non-doing can be you're eating a meal, but you're not doing a million other things. You're just focusing on tasting the food. Non-doing could be listening to music or watching a show, but you're doing it intentionally, not as a distraction, but as a way to clear the space in your brilliant mind because

you are capable. You are talented. You are someone who works on yourself. You know how I know that, because it's been almost 30 minutes of you listening to a podcast that is a school about procrastination. That's probably not the most fun thing you chose to do, although it is fun, right? I mean, I'm it's fun. It's fun to grow, it's fun to learn. You know what's also super fun is reframing something that's been a pain in the butt into something that's like, whoa, this is actually such a cool way that I've been doing something that's been uh not working for me to then move that into

doing something that is gonna work. I guarantee that if you start doing more of nothing, you're gonna get so many something's done. You're gonna be more productive, you're gonna just, you're gonna live your life more in a fulfilled way. I want that for you. I want peaceful productivity for you. I want you to achieve, achieve. I want you to achieve and chew all your food with joy, you know? And also keep practicing. Like I still have a load of dishes to do. So I'ma practice it too. Practice, practice, practice. It's like building those muscles. You gotta keep lifting the weights, but you can learn to enjoy

them just like you enjoy the breathing and the break between the sets of lifting, right? And that gives you more energy to then come back and do it hard. Yeah. All right, remember, sometimes non-doing really is the ultimate doing. Enjoy the music on the way out, and I'll see you next time.

And it just hasn't been the right time, it's like, when? When is now? Thank you seriously though for all your support for listening till this point, and that would be super rad. Write a review, share your experience, send it to a friend, someone you care about, someone who procrastinates. You know what I mean? Yeah. Alright, that's it, I'm done. I promise. Okay.