The test: do you become more productive from 3 times a quarter of an hour of doing nothing per day?

In the car, I quickly call that one friend, while walking I listen to podcasts, and when meditating, I even put on a calming jingle. Not a good idea, if you ask neuropsychologist Mark Tichelaar. In his podcast with Charlotte van ’t Wout for Business Insider, I heard that you should actually do nothing much more often during the day. It restores your mind.

Walking seems to be the best way to regain focus. Cycling is, as far as I'm concerned, very similar to walking, and coincidentally, I have a spinning bike upstairs. Life is full of coincidences. The plan: several times a day, spend fifteen minutes on the bike without listening to or watching anything else. My phone is forbidden, I can't listen to music, and I can't talk to anyone. Plus: for this experiment, I can legally work in sports pants all day, because I need to hop on the bike in between.

Day 1
I started Wednesday afternoon just before lunch. To ensure that I would really be without stimuli, I put on my noise-canceling headphones so I wouldn't hear my boyfriend's work calls in the background. Quite nice, doing nothing for a bit. Small fail: I forgot to turn off the push notification from RTL, so after eleven minutes, I received a news alert. Other than that, it was nice to stare outside into my garden for fifteen minutes. The result so far? I then wrote 250 really fun words in just ten minutes. A neat score. This afternoon, just another quarter of an hour. A nice bonus: I immediately get my daily exercise. Or shouldn't such a thing be allowed in a stimulus-free quarter?

The strange thing is that I feel a bit dizzy right after the short breaks, but after an hour, I notice that I am ticking off a lot of extras. For example: on Tuesday, I was still bleary-eyed from work at half past five, but on Wednesday, I started a new task after five, even though I had just slept a bit too little. Remarkable.

Day 2
I now call my fifteen-minute ride a snack on Strava. Some take coffee breaks, I hop on my bike. I'm starting to get a bit fed up with hanging around in sportswear all day, which makes me feel less productive. Not that I'm less productive, because I've already checked off a lot today. I was just as productive after my break as before doing nothing.

Around lunch, I take a quarter of an hour in the garden instead of hopping on the bike. Outside with a cup of tea and just staring ahead. I leave my phone inside so I don't get tempted to scroll or call. Result: I come up with a really nice idea for a column, an idea I wouldn't have gotten while working or calling. So that's a win.

My third quarter of an hour in the day didn't happen, it suddenly became half past five and I had to leave for an appointment. But all in all, I'm not dissatisfied with my doing-nothing quarters. They've even yielded me more.

Day 3
Friday is my busiest day of the week (I don't allow myself to say that I'm busy anymore). Doing nothing for a quarter of an hour is a challenge today, but it seems to be especially useful. To make sure I get my minutes, I made a schedule last night where I already filled them in. At 10:30 AM, 1:00 PM, and 3:30 PM, I must do nothing.

Twelve minutes later, my alarm goes off, I walk towards the kitchen for a cup of tea without looking at the screen. I notice that my head comes out of a kind of jittery state every time I've done nothing for a bit.

After my second stimulus-free ten minutes (I'm secretly cutting it short, as you can see), I suddenly realize that I almost never stare anymore. Just staring ahead for a bit, zoning out, and then feeling that nice relaxed feeling that comes with it. I had that now, and it was wonderful.

Result
I have the feeling that it works. After a short break, I can work again with focus without getting distracted. Normally, I'm a bit worn out by the end of a workday, but now I still have concentration left to learn Greek in the evening (just mentioning something). And not unimportantly: during the time I work, I get more done. Will you try it next week? Three times a day, ten minutes to a quarter of an hour of doing nothing. Make some time for it, it will yield you more.