The "Do Nothing" Method of Productivity

[Kristin Wehner]

Squeezing Water from a Rock
Ask and ye shall receive. I wanted to work with the brightest, most engaged, forward-thinking and forward-acting entrepreneurs and business leaders out there…. and that’s exactly the clients I have in my practice. Hallelujah!

Turns out that my client niche has an unexpected hitch…. The best and brightest also tend to be the people who create more work than there are hours in the day, which means they have less time and energy to embrace the potential-increasing lifestyle changes they’ve hired me to support them in making.

Like squeezing water from a rock, the best and brightest often search for the organizational system, practice management method or refinement in daily scheduling that will help them efficiently condense their current work flow in hopes of fitting in one more item on their long list of things “to do.”

But what if “more” only means more overwhelm, more fatigue, and more angst, not more energy, productivity, and/or enjoyment?

Lessons from a Japanese Farmer
There is a farmer in Japan named Masanobu Fukuoka whose farm has some of the highest yields in the country, yet requires only minimal labor on his part. He has termed his method “do nothing” farming, a method that he has developed and refined by observing and mimicking nature’s own self-fertilizing and self-cultivating cycles (read more in his book, One Straw Revolution).

“‘It took me thirty years to develop such simplicity,’ says Fukuoka. Instead of working harder, he whittled away unnecessary agriculture practice one by one, asking what he could stop doing rather than what he could do. Forsaking reliance on human cleverness, he joined in alliance with nature’s wisdom.” 1 Mimic nature’s time-tested system for productivity and sustainability? Pure genius.

Start by observing your own work habits and beliefs. Maybe it’s time to stop trying to out-think yourself and instead to mimic nature’s own wisdom. Every place you observe wasted action, or systems consistently out of equilibrium, become aware — can you shift to a more value-producing action, habit or system? OR Eliminate that action, habit or system all together?

In your quest to find more time so that you can honor your health as the professional and personal asset that it is, what unnecessary habits and can you start to whittle away?

One Less Thing
Think through your day today. Has every single meeting/report/email/interaction produced value towards the success of your business, increased your engagement in the outcome, and your enjoyment of the process?

What would happen if you decided to eliminate one value-draining (and time robbing) action or engagement each day?

Value-producing action can’t exist simultaneously with waste-producing action. Imagine the time and energy you will free up as you whittle away habitual, but wasteful, projects/interactions/engagements/meetings and shift your focus to consciously cultivating only intentional and value-producing action.

Five minutes a day here, 10 minutes there… whoa! Looks like you just freed up an extra hour to repay that piggy-bank of potential you posses within you.



Citation: 1 Benyus, Janine M. Biomimicry (p. 37). New York, HaperCollins Publishing, 2002.

[Joseph Coplans]

i agree with Kristin. Managing your time is imperative.
On the other hand, it's so important to have time to explore. Dare I say waste. But is it waste? Right Brainers will rule the world sites Daniel Pink. But right brainers fly around—sometimes wonderfully—sometimes annoyingly—without focus. And if you're getting dragged into 'right brain' world against your will—you know what I mean.

I knew a famous artist. He knew Matisse. He said the whole time he observed Matisse he noticed he got all of his ideas from playing. Just playing with paper, shapes, stuff, shadows. Isn't that what blogging is or can be? Or this forum? A walk down to the River on the waterfront to reflect? (I think that's the Platte in this case...)

But how do people balance what Kristin is offering—the elimination of things in our daily schedule that detract from success—yet at the same time offer ourselves accidental discoveries that lead to breakthroughs?
I think we need focus at different times, but I think we put too much emphasis on 'getting things done'. Sometimes I think we purposely overwhelm ourselves—and get into situations where we're forced to work 90 hours a week because it's a distraction. So...ok I've swung the thought pendulum the other direction...that was easy to do...
But I thought I would offer a fantastic visual extravaganza and read. I've just realized that is has much to do with this schism—the love hate relationship schedules have on our lives...(after all, our schedules control us as much as we control it)
I want to recommend a book. A big picture book (that's a pun). It's a book on the economy of space and the quality of thinking that goes into what we do. Some of you already know it:
Presentation Zen by Garr Reynolds.

It's not a time management book. It's not a book on Buddhist thought, It's not a book on how to explore or distill ideas or create Powerpoint presentations, but it's [b]all those things.[b]
It's a really awesome, easy read that is a metaphor about the quality of mindful exploration and a way to economize how you think and produce streamlined, effective results. You'll get even more out of it if you view Powerpoint as a metaphor for how we arrange our ideas and how we act. It's almost as if you could put thought into your day and create an inspiring Powerpoint presentation based on what you want to accomplish then, as the book implores, get rid of the unnecessary bullet points that cloud up the vision.
Let's talk more. (when you have time. ha ha)

[Kristin Wehner]

Joseph... there must be something in the air this week--the concept of left-brain/right-brain balance (battle?) has come up in several conversations with both colleagues and coaching clients this week. I keep hearing a theme (and feeling it in myself) of wanting for "space" but instead continuing to fill up our schedules with "to do's" and action items. Lots of "moving".... but in what direction?

Spiritual contemplatives from various disciplines teach that it is not enough to spend one's life only in contemplation and not do work in the world, nor is it valuable to only do work and not have contemplated why we work.

Joseph, you recommend a book and describe it as exploring "economy of space and quality of thinking".... wow. Sounds like a perfect read for this exploration. Earlier this week I listened to your interview on Your Brand Radio (a VERY compelling interview--I got two pages of ideas/notes from it!) and one of your main points was how important it is to "unpack" a story and get to the gist of it.

It feels like the gist of this exploration is--what is the juicy nugget at the base of each of our heart's that fuels our actions and engages our powerful brains to make it happen? And how do we cultivate the time/space to continue to uncover/shine that juicy nugget? I guess that's for each of us to figure out what that means to us, but it sure feels like a valuable exploration.

Thanks for the book recommendation.