Don’t just do something – sit there!
Step back, stop, and be still before diving into action
“Sometimes I like to sit around, I'm just contemplating sitting round, I could lay in bed like my momma said: Don't just do something, sit around instead.” — Spiritualized 1
I recently participated in an online dialogue in which one of the topics that emerged was the importance of spending time in silence. 2
It reminded me of a scene back in the 1980's when a visiting client asked about the caption “Don’t just do something — sit there” on a cartoon in one of the meeting rooms at Cambridge Consultants, the open innovation lab where I worked at the time.
One of my senior colleagues explained that, contrary to popular stereotypes, creative insights emerge more frequently when the mind is calm and still, not when it's overactive.
Vietnamese monk Thich Nhat Hanh expanded on the same theme in his book Being Peace: 3
“We do so much, we run so quickly, the situation is difficult, and many people say, ‘Don't just sit there, do something.’
But doing more things may make the situation worse. So, you should say, ‘Don't just do something, sit there’.
Sit there, stop, be yourself first, and begin from there”.
This may feel counterintuitive in our action-oriented world.
But the best thing to do when faced with a challenge usually isn’t to jump straight into problem solving mode — but to take a step back, stop, and sit with yourself before acting.
Graham Wallas, co-founder of the London School of Economics, described the vital role of mental stillness in his seminal 1926 book The Art of Thinking.
Wallas identified four phases in the creative thinking process:
Preparation or Immersion — in which you investigate and familiarise yourself with the topic, problem, or issue from various angles.
Incubation — during which you avoid further conscious thought on the matter. T.S. Eliot called this idea-incubation, Alexander Graham Bell unconscious cerebration and Lewis Carroll mental mastication. 4
Illumination — where new insights emerge gradually and/or in “aha!” moments.
Verification or Implementation – where you test out those new insights in the world.
We may not have paid it much attention but many of us have experienced this process in action when an illuminating insight about a work-related matter popped into our head on the second week of a vacation.
The immersion phase had been taking place in the weeks and months before the vacation.
The incubation phase happened during the first week of the vacation as conscious thinking about work wound down in the absence of repeated stimulation.
The illumination that occurred may even have been so inspiring that you couldn't wait to get back to work to try it out...
Many years ago after arriving for a series of meetings in the US, I realised I’d failed to write something I’d promised a client by the following day.
My initial thoughts were about how I could explain or excuse why I hadn’t delivered by the deadline.
But I caught this thought pattern and decided to stop thinking about it, still my mind, and sleep on it instead.
I woke very early the next day due to jet lag, and into my head popped a clear image of the structure and main content of the thing I needed to write.
So I got out my laptop and within a couple of hours I’d completed the task and emailed it to the client.
He was delighted with the result, which had flowed so easily it really didn’t feel like I’d worked to produce it.
It was a powerful experience that gave me an enduring appreciation for the Wallas four phase model.
It's worth recalling the four phases when you next face a creative challenge — to remind you that after immersing yourself in the context, allowing time and space for mental incubation is likely to produce richer results.
A meditation teacher I met in India expressed a similar insight much more poetically: “Silence is the mother of Science”.
Questions for reflection
Are you aware of experiencing the Immersion, Incubation and Illumination phases?
Do you consciously exploit them when tackling creative tasks?
Would interspersing your busy day with periods of silence potentially pay off?
Track written by Jason Pierce and performed by Spiritualized on their 2001 album Let it come down.
Drinking Dialogues or Dialogic Drinks, hosted by EQ Lab.
Being Peace on Goodreads.
According to this article by Maria Popova.