Do Nothing is a technique described by Brian Clegg in his book Crash Course in Creativity.
- How often have you been in a meeting where a problem is being discussed and you think it’s not really that important?
- How often do we spend working on something and afterward feel like we could have spent this time more efficiently?
- How often has someone rushed into your office with an urgent ‘needs to be done immediately or else…’ issue?
We often assume that something needs to be done about a problem.
What would happen if we did NOTHING?
Think about it for a while.
What would have happened to the issue listed in number 1?
What could we have achieved if we had spent our time more efficiently?
What would have happened had you done absolutely nothing?
Doing nothing usually leads to one of three possible outcomes:
- The problem doesn’t need to be solved
- You will have a better idea of the benefits of solving the problem
- You will have generated some alternative problems to solve
So next time, stop and imagine what would happen if you did nothing. Isn’t that a nice feeling for a change?