Don’t underestimate how productive quiet time can be

A new study finds that part of the reason our life is a frenzy is that we underestimate how enjoyable and productive it can be to just sit and think.

The study involved six experiments, one in which participants were told they could choose between a lottery where they had a 70-per-cent chance of being in a situation where they could only sit alone and think and another lottery with a 70-per-cent chance of being able to browse news sites online. More chose the lottery with the news site option, but participants in the “thinking only” condition enjoyed it more than they expected.

“These results suggest an inherent difficulty in accurately appreciating how engaging just thinking can be, and could explain why people prefer keeping themselves busy, rather than taking a moment for reflection and imagination in our daily life,” the researchers, from Germany’s University of Tubingen, write in the Journal of Experimental Psychology.

In his book Digital Minimalism, Georgetown University professor Cal Newport identified an emerging condition he called solitude deprivation: “At the slightest hint of boredom, you can now surreptitiously glance at any number of apps or mobile-adapted websites that have been optimized to provide you an immediate and satisfying dose of input from other minds. It’s now possible to completely banish solitude from your life.”

He argued that humans evolved to experience significant amounts of time alone with our own thoughts. “Remove this solitude from our lives and we’re not only bound to get twitchy and anxious, but we miss out on much of the subtle but deep value generated by a wandering mind,” he notes on his blog.

In Golden: The Power of Silence in a World of Noise, consultants Justin Zorn and Leigh Marz urge you to notice noise and tune into silence:

• Pay attention to the diverse forms of auditory, informational and internal interference that arise in your life. Study how to navigate them. This expands distraction from the menace of smartphones to three realms worth repeating: auditory, informational and internal.
• Perceive the small pockets of peace that live amid all the sounds and stimuli. Seek and savour these spaces. “Go as deeply into the silence as you possibly can, even when it’s only present for a few seconds,” they advise.
• Cultivate spaces of profound, even rapturous, silence from time to time.

They call deep silence “the pulse of life,” a lovely concept because it contrasts with our sense that things are only pulsating when we are busy. They stress that silence is always available.

The Greek philosopher Pythagoras would only take students into his inner circle if they went through a five-year period of not talking. He wrote:

Go deep into the silence

Absorb it

Let it scare you

Let it shape you and expand your awareness.

Mr. Zorn and Ms. Marx urge you to remake the smoke break. Call it quiet time, in which you do some deep breathing or focused reading or just thinking. They note that vipassana meditation teacher Phillip Moffitt has found in the chief executive officers he coaches a tendency to mistake stress for aliveness. Or consider preserving time in the early morning or late at night as a sanctuary for silence – and thought. Consultant Sheila Kappeler-Finn recommends mini-retreats that range from eight hours to less than a week – an apartment swap with a friend or a day at the public library – where you can go deeper and ward off the frenzy.

Don’t underestimate the value of time to be alone and think.