{"id":1597,"date":"2024-06-16T15:33:21","date_gmt":"2024-06-16T11:33:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sureshdinakaran.com\/blog\/?p=1597"},"modified":"2024-06-17T08:34:29","modified_gmt":"2024-06-17T04:34:29","slug":"time-to-eulogise-slack-doing-nothing-is-something-to-think-about","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sureshdinakaran.com\/blog\/2024\/06\/16\/time-to-eulogise-slack-doing-nothing-is-something-to-think-about\/","title":{"rendered":"Time to eulogise &#8216;slack&#8217; ? Doing Nothing is Something to Think About!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>If some or many of you consider that I am going off my rocker given the caption above, I don&#8217;t blame you. After all, in a culture that literally worships the hustle, equates busy with productivity and the associated chaos around it, who on earth will be actually according &#8216;<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><em> slack<\/em><\/span> &#8216; a pride of place?<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>A study called \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.hbs.edu\/ris\/Publication%20Files\/16-106_782e5e6b-ef9c-4149-a48a-9778636a53bc.pdf\"><em>Slack Time and Innovation<\/em><\/a>\u201d shows that even companies like\u00a0<em>Google, 3M<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0<em>Wella<\/em>\u00a0encourage their workers to be innovative besides their strongly innovation-oriented work environments, by providing\u00a0<em><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">slack time<\/span>.\u00a0<\/em>As\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.paulgraham.com\/\"><em>Paul Graham<\/em><\/a>,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.ycombinator.com\/\"><em>Y-Combinator<\/em><\/a>\u00a0founder,\u00a0<em><a href=\"http:\/\/paulgraham.com\/startupideas.html\">wrote<\/a><\/em>: \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-in\/\"><em>Microsoft<\/em><\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/\"><em>Facebook<\/em><\/a>\u00a0both got started in January. At\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.harvard.edu\/\"><em>Harvard<\/em>\u00a0<\/a>that is (or was)\u00a0<em>Reading Period<\/em>, when students have no classes to attend because they\u2019re supposed to be studying for finals.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-1598\" src=\"https:\/\/www.sureshdinakaran.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/HURRY.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"2374\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>According to award-winning author and innovator\u00a0<em><a href=\"http:\/\/philmckinney.com\/why-is-slack-time-so-important-to-innovation\/\">Phil McKinney<\/a><\/em>,\u00a0<em>slack time<\/em>\u00a0allows the brain to roam freely, decreases stress, provides an opportunity to refresh, and, ultimately, creates \u00a0a better work environment, making people happier and more productive.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Even our rest times are \u2018\u00a0<em>active rest<\/em>\u00a0\u2018 at best. You stop work and your idea of rest is listening to a podcast or reading a book or playing the music of your choice, or watching a movie- all of which needs the mind to use its processing power. These are all fun diversions, a way to switch the mind\u2019s tracks without completely stopping its journey. We are never at complete rest-\u00a0<em>it is almost as if complete rest makes us restless<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Taking time to escape isn\u2019t just a luxury \u2013 it\u2019s essential.\u00a0<em>No need to fill in the blank<\/em>. Use that time(blank) to think, plan, dream.\u00a0<em>The Republic of Not Enough<\/em>\u00a0that we all are willing | unwilling citizens of, will never let you\u00a0<em>slack<\/em>. Because we are deeply buried most of the time in our\u00a0<em>ledger of lack<\/em>. It\u2019s ironical to know that our best creations and inventions come during periods of\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.sureshdinakaran.com\/blog\/2023\/07\/27\/breaking-the-myth-productivity-by-undoing\/\">slack<\/a>\u00a0not when the mind is furiously occupied(or pre occupied). So is it almost an aberration that there is a\u00a0<em>productivity tool<\/em>\u00a0used by many organisations around the world called\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/slack.com\/intl\/en-gb\/\"><em>Slack<\/em><\/a>?\u00a0 Probably not. Brilliantly counter intuitive\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.brandknewmag.com\/category\/branding\/\">branding<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Listen to the old bray of your heart. Not to the piercing shrill of your mind. \u201cSometimes sitting and doing nothing is the best thing you can do,\u201d\u00a0reminds\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.notsalmon.com\/notsalmon-story\/\"><em>Karen Salmansohn<\/em><\/a>, best selling author of\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Think-Happy-Instant-Peptalks-Positivity\/dp\/1607749629\"><em>THINK HAPPY<\/em><\/a>.<br \/>\nOnly by taking time to think, dream, and plan are we able to\u00a0<em>discern the essential few from the trivial many in our lives.\u00a0\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>As I conclude I am reminded of a brilliant campaign line of the chocolate brand\u00a0<em>5 Star<\/em>\u2013 \u201d\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/brandequity.economictimes.indiatimes.com\/news\/advertising\/cadbury-5-star-doubles-down-on-its-do-nothing-philosophy-with-a-new-commercial-titled-elevator\/106472395\"><em>Eat 5 Star, Do Nothing<\/em><\/a>\u00a0\u201c. Don\u2019t dismiss it as a\u00a0<em>Sweet Nothing<\/em>!<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>How about looking up from our <span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><em>ledger of lack<\/em> <\/span>and maintaining a\u00a0 <span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><em>ledger of slack<\/em> <\/span>\u00a0?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; If some or many of you consider that I am going off my rocker given the caption above, I don&#8217;t blame you. After all, in a culture that literally worships the hustle, equates busy with productivity and the associated chaos around it, who on earth will be actually according &#8216; slack &#8216; a pride &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sureshdinakaran.com\/blog\/2024\/06\/16\/time-to-eulogise-slack-doing-nothing-is-something-to-think-about\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Time to eulogise &#8216;slack&#8217; ? Doing Nothing is Something to Think About!&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1597","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sureshdinakaran.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1597","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sureshdinakaran.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sureshdinakaran.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sureshdinakaran.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sureshdinakaran.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1597"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.sureshdinakaran.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1597\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1599,"href":"https:\/\/www.sureshdinakaran.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1597\/revisions\/1599"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sureshdinakaran.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1597"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sureshdinakaran.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1597"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sureshdinakaran.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1597"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}