When your best work comes after deliberately doing nothing for a while.
The Uncomfortable Truth About Productivity
Here is something you will not hear on most productivity podcasts: my most creative, productive weeks almost always follow a suspicious amount of what looks like loafing. Not the elegant, journal-while-sipping-coffee kind. I mean actual TV binges, deep-cleaning the kitchen like it holds the secrets of the universe, and long walks where I think about whether this is finally the year I launch that side project.
For someone who color-codes calendars and schedules life in microscopic blocks, I made peace long ago with a counterintuitive reality: my best work comes when I deliberately slow down first.
I do not mean I spend days on the couch. I move. I hit the gym or go cycling two or three times a week. I carve out three to four months a year to travel, sometimes in the jungle, sometimes people-watching in a Vietnamese café, wondering what my business would look like if I ran it from there.
These things are not distractions. They are fuel.
I started thinking about this again after rewatching this TED Talk, which frames the whole phenomenon beautifully.
The Myth of Constant Motion
We have been sold this idea that if you are not moving forward at all times, you are failing. If you are not waking up at 5am to conquer something, you are losing ground.
But here is what I have noticed: my creative sprints, the ones where I knock out a week’s worth of work in a single afternoon, only happen because I slow down first.
That week I spent rewatching The Bear instead of writing proposals? I was not avoiding work. I was letting it simmer in the background. The mind keeps processing even when the hands stop typing.
How Productive Wandering Actually Works
Over time, I have noticed a few patterns in how this plays out.
Keep several projects in motion. I always have multiple things going. Some I am actively working on, some are just there, waiting, brewing. When I get stuck on one, I wander over to another. It is not quitting. It is rotating crops. Keeps the soil fertile.
Use pressure strategically. Deadlines create energy. Got something due Friday? That pressure suddenly makes you feel very motivated to organize your photo archive or sketch out that idea that has been sitting in your head for months. The urgency on one thing unlocks movement on something else.
Trust the tornado. After a few days, sometimes weeks, of what looks like nothing, something clicks. Suddenly I am a productivity tornado, writing, building, creating, barely stopping to eat. It looks dramatic. It feels like momentum finally arrived. But it only works because I gave myself permission to not be a machine the rest of the time.
Letting the Pause Work For You
If this sounds familiar, consider leaning into it instead of fighting it.
Got a task that feels impossible right now? Drop it. Let it breathe. Doing something mildly useful but not on your to-do list? Go for it. That is future-you’s warm-up lap. Feeling guilty about not being productive? Know that your brain is playing a longer game than your calendar shows.
I stopped tracking this in fancy dashboards. I learned to trust the rhythm: go hard, rest harder, then explode into action when the energy returns.
Part of that rhythm includes showing up at the gym a few times a week even just to clear my head, taking long walks with no destination, and getting lost somewhere new for weeks or months every year where the only deadline is when the last bus leaves the village.
These are not indulgences. They are part of the engine.
Why This Beats Constant Hustle
Life is not a straight line. Some days you sprint. Some days you stroll. Some days you just stand still and look at clouds. All of it counts, especially when you stop beating yourself up for not always being “on.”
Procrastination is not failure. It is the breath before the breakthrough.
The Real Lesson
Next time you find yourself deep in a distraction session, remember this: you are not lazy. You are loading. That gym session, that beach hike, that long bike ride with no signal? It is part of the work. Rest is strategy, when done with intention.
So yes, I might be watching a show this afternoon instead of working. But I am not stuck.
I am winding the spring.