Walk the Week - The Art of Doing Nothing

In today’s professional and business world driven by digital developments which immerse us in multiple means of communicating with each other we are constantly pressed to make decisions. Information comes at us thick and fast on different media and we are asked to respond, advise, attend a meeting or take some form of action as quickly as possible.

Time it seems is the enemy of the successful. Rapid fire choices and decisions are called for. We are pressured to respond instantly on everything – which tends to blur what matters from the mundane - meaning tasks which are unimportant in the grand scheme of things are given equal weight or even prioritised over key activities.

The lawman Wyatt Earp said Fast is fine, but accuracy is everything. In a gun fight... You need to take your time in a hurry.

I remember a partner in a law firm who when you asked him a complex question would randomly respond at first with some generalisation about the weather or something. I thought for a while he was mad, but then I realised that he was giving himself time to think. And sure enough he would suddenly come back on topic with an excellent response. A bit disconcerting but for him it worked. He had found a way of taking his time.

The American business historian Nancy Koehn said of Abraham Lincoln that When the stakes were really high and the emotions around an issue were charged, Lincoln often did nothing in the heat of the moment.

I read somewhere the when Winston Churchill was very angry or exercised about something or somebody he would dictate a very fierce emotional letter, but then wait until the next day before sending it, by which time he had calmed down and often would not send it at all.

Harder to do these days with an IM or an email, but on the other hand why not Pause before pressing send and go and have a coffee and then read your response again – often you can improve it or maybe find a better way of achieving what you want.

Of course there are times when speed of response is essential but that does not always mean rushing. I rather like this quote from G K Chesterton “One of the great disadvantages of hurry is that it takes such a long time.”