# Doing nothing?



## k3vin (Feb 13, 2012)

Do you guys find it difficult to take a respite from all activity?

I always have to be reading/watching something (informational) or thinking about/researching a particular phenomena I'm be interested in. 
If I'm not doing something intellectually stimulating, I become frustrated/anxiety prone.
I feel like I'm wasting my time by not becoming more knowledgeable.

Thoughts?


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## nujabes (May 18, 2012)

Well my mind never stop working, which you'd notice because I always have some kind of manual toy flipping around my fingers (pen, screwdriver, phone, etc).

The only time I'm actually doing nothing is right before I fall asleep/right after I wake up. I'm just basking in that half-asleep glow.


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## Nimbus (Apr 28, 2012)

Yes, I'm the same. If I'm not on the computer, reading or watching TV, you can be pretty sure that I'm either washing or sleeping. Even then, I get annoyed that washing is actually necessary when it interrupts something that I was doing and I tend to have extremely bad sleeping habits. I put sleep off in order to compulsively pursue every avenue of knowledge on a specific topic that I can find online. 

And if there's nothing to do, I will find or make up something to do.

But once upon the path of doing nothing...man, it's hard to get out of.


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## Ngg (Jul 22, 2010)

I find a total lack of mental stimulation very hard to handle as well. I tend to fill my days with educational or thoughtful activities. However lack of activity does not equate lack of intellectual stimulation in my mind. I can be sitting with my girlfriend in perfect silence, staring at the trees and feel stimulated by the thoughts trotting through my head.

*On the other hand *there are situations where I find it difficult to exercise any mental activity, and in these situations I tend to get very antsy and annoyed after prolonged exposure:
- When I am forced to spend large amounts of time with shallow, unintelligent people, and I am expected to participate in their meaningless conversations. 
- Sometimes concurrently, in a loud 'ESxP' atmosphere like a club where the physical discomfort (chatter, excessively loud music, sweatiness) prevents me from thinking about anything else but my desire to leave. To be fair I can enjoy myself provided I really like the music.

Like all ADD-ish ENTPs, I do also get bored after sitting still for a while, but I've gotten better about that as I got older. I guess you get better at keeping myself busy or focused on something not immediately in front of you. 

I've noticed INTJs are great at keeping their minds busy even with a total lack of outside stimulation, probably a consequence of the whole Ni vs. Ne thing. My INTJ friend says a solo 2 hour drive can fly by if he's lost in Ni-Land.


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## Damien (May 25, 2012)

what's frustrating is i'll do all it takes to avoid doing things i should be doing. i'll find myself gazing at irrelevant intellectual bullshit or deciding to have a coffee and maybe a snack to go with it - all an excuse to not do something i'm supposed to do.

but that's a simple dilemma from one of the worst procrastinators ever. (me.)

my job is rather physically draining, so often i'll come back home completely exhausted, probably end up going to bed early - head's buzzing, can't sleep. lack of mental stimulation mixed with physical exhaustion is the worst combination. oh, and god forbid i drank a coffee or an energy drink at some point during the day, it only makes it worse.


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## Mr Canis (Mar 3, 2012)

"Doing nothing" is one of my favorite activities. I am a fan of Shikantaza/Zazen meditation and I find that it helps calm me, helps me find and stay centered and leaves me relaxed, refreshed and better able to concentrate.

I am normally very active both physically and mentally, but I find that contrast really helps boost my productivity level. I am more "on" when I am thinking something through and solutions come easier than they did when I didn't take the down time seriously. The gains in efficiency feel like they are much greater than the cost of the down time, so there must be something to it, at least for me.


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## k3vin (Feb 13, 2012)

JJ Yossarian said:


> "Doing nothing" is one of my favorite activities. I am a fan of Shikantaza/Zazen meditation and I find that it helps calm me, helps me find and stay centered and leaves me relaxed, refreshed and better able to concentrate.
> 
> I am normally very active both physically and mentally, but I find that contrast really helps boost my productivity level. I am more "on" when I am thinking something through and solutions come easier than they did when I didn't take the down time seriously. The gains in efficiency feel like they are much greater than the cost of the down time, so there must be something to it, at least for me.


Hmm.. i should look into that type of stuff ..
For me though, mostly, if I'm not trying something/learning something new i feel like I'm stagnating.


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## Kelvin (May 30, 2012)

My mind is always active and it stimulates itself, even when I'm "bored", I would be thinking, thinking and thinking.


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## k3vin (Feb 13, 2012)

Kelvin said:


> My mind is always active and it stimulates itself, even when I'm "bored", I would be thinking, thinking and thinking.


It can't be helped :tongue:


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## devoid (Jan 3, 2011)

I literally cannot do nothing. If I'm expected to wait quietly for an interview, I'll find myself tapping my feet, moving around in my chair, playing with stands of hair, making calculated observations about the people around me, or scoping out all the little objects in the room.

I saw a study the other day that said the internet can dull people's brains. I thought, "That can't be right, I usually feel stimulated when I go online." Then I realized that most people my age probably don't go online to read scholarly articles, watch documentaries, participate in debates, and play brain-training games.


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## Entropic (Jun 15, 2012)

If I don't intellectually stimulate myself somehow I become bored very easily.


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## CaptainWayward (Jun 8, 2012)

Sometimes when I sit around and do nothing, actually manage to do nothing, I get this eerie surreal feeling. It's like recognizing the world exists knocks me down from detached POV and I suddenly become a functioning object in my environment.


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## The Nth Doctor (May 18, 2012)

CaptainWayward said:


> Sometimes when I sit around and do nothing, actually manage to do nothing, I get this eerie surreal feeling. It's like recognizing the world exists knocks me down from detached POV and I suddenly become a functioning object in my environment.


I think I know that feeling. But it happens to me when I'm talking to someone of doing something manual after being alone for a long time or something. It's like I sometimes have to be kicked into action by my brain to acknowledge that what I'm doing actually matters.

I really need some kind of stimulation most of the time. Even if I'm really tired, I still want to read articles or comics or something. I stop taking in information to think about it fairly often, but that's on my own terms, so it's better than if there's just nothing. Even when I'm doing physical things I'm usually thinking, either about the activity or something else.


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## CaptainWayward (Jun 8, 2012)

Prof. Song said:


> I think I know that feeling. But it happens to me when I'm talking to someone of doing something manual after being alone for a long time or something. It's like I sometimes have to be kicked into action by my brain to acknowledge that what I'm doing actually matters.


Yeah, I think I know that feeling. It's like one way of thinking gains momentum and you need to put energy into moving into another. When I'm doing something physical, it always seems like I analyze the crap out of it and conclude the best way of doing it, which usually concludes with not thinking about it. Although, it has resulted in some odd theories that I'm still not certain work or not. 




Prof. Song said:


> I really need some kind of stimulation most of the time. Even if I'm really tired, I still want to read articles or comics or something. I stop taking in information to think about it fairly often, but that's on my own terms, so it's better than if there's just nothing. Even when I'm doing physical things I'm usually thinking, either about the activity or something else.


Yup! It was kind of surprising to hear that some people fall asleep by getting lost in the sensations of their body as compared to getting lost in thought. 

Are you more of a visual thinker, do you think in words...?


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## The Nth Doctor (May 18, 2012)

CaptainWayward said:


> Yeah, I think I know that feeling. It's like one way of thinking gains momentum and you need to put energy into moving into another. When I'm doing something physical, it always seems like I analyze the crap out of it and conclude the best way of doing it, which usually concludes with not thinking about it. Although, it has resulted in some odd theories that I'm still not certain work or not.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Definitely words. I like to sort out ideas in my head by composing an imaginary letter or writing a forum post, and all of my usual thinking about stuff is in words - I talk to myself a lot. It's actually difficult for me to visualize things, so I tend to have issues with math problems that require more than just straightforward logicing stuff.


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