The Art of Doing Nothing: Empty Time in a Period of Busyness

Dec 17, 2024 | Mental health and well-being, Personal development, Thought leadership

“There is more to life than increasing its speed.” – Mahatma Gandhi

In our hyper-connected world, doing nothing has become a lost art. Modern society has developed an addiction to busyness: we check emails compulsively, fill every moment with activities, and wear our packed schedules like badges of honour. For some, constant busyness can also serve as a defence or coping mechanism, keeping us distracted from deeper thoughts and feelings. 

This constant activity isn’t just exhausting – it can also hamper our creative potential and problem-solving abilities. The holiday season and year-end often intensify our already busy lives with additional social obligations, shopping, travel, and year-end work deadlines. Yet empty time and periods of apparent inactivity are crucial for incubation (the unconscious processing of problems, set aside for a while, so that it may lead to insights) which precedes creativity, mental health, and meaningful productivity. 

Neuroscience helps explain why. When we are constantly busy, we operate primarily from our left brain – our logical, analytical side. But creativity and novel solutions often emerge from right-brain activity, which requires periods of unfocused thought and mental wandering. By never allowing ourselves to be bored or inactive, we’re keeping our right brain’s creative powers locked away. 

The solution isn’t complicated, but it requires effort in a culture that celebrates constant productivity. We can start with deliberately scheduling periods of doing nothing – time when we’re not working, not scrolling social media, not even actively thinking about problems. Doing so allows us to:

  • Reset mentally: Break the cycle of constant stimulation from devices and notifications, allow our overloaded minds to rest and reduce cognitive fatigue, and create space for unconscious problem-solving and insight generation.
  • Reduce stress: Reduce anxiety by breaking the “busyness as defence mechanism” pattern, allow natural processing of emotions rather than suppressing them through activity and help regulate stress hormones through periods of genuine rest.
  • Enhance decision-making: Improve clarity by stepping back from immediate pressure, enable better prioritisation by creating distance from urgent but unimportant tasks and allow deeper reflection on long-term goals instead of reactive choices.
  • Access creativity and innovation: Activate right-brain thinking through unfocused mental states, create incubation periods necessary for creative breakthroughs and enable novel connections between ideas through unconscious processing.
  • Deepen relationships: Create space for meaningful connections rather than superficial interactions, improve emotional availability and presence with others and reduce irritability and reactivity in relationships.

Practically, it could mean: Setting boundaries around constant accessibility, scheduling brief “nothing” periods between tasks, taking a quiet solitary walk without listening to anything, sitting in a café watching the world go by, or simply sitting still wherever you are and letting your mind wander. 

This approach helps transform the season from a stressful rush to a meaningful period of connection and reflection. It creates space to enjoy what makes the holidays special rather than just surviving them. 

Kets de Vries and Cheak (2014). To read the full article: The Art of Doing Nothing – The European Financial Review

Oriane Kets de Vries:

Oriane Kets de Vries is CEO and owner of the Kets de Vries Institute. She leads a global team of coaches, consultants and educators dedicated to developing reflective, emotionally intelligent leaders and cultivating workplaces where people can thrive. In her faculty role, she draws on extensive experience designing and directing leadership programmes for senior executives, contributing her expertise in psychodynamic coaching, organisational culture, and transformational leadership development.

Oriane has served as consultant, coach, and programme director for clients including Pictet, Deutsche Bank, Merck, UBS, Mishcon de Reya, and Engie, and she has taught on open-enrolment programmes with leading institutions such as Cambridge Judge Business School, Oxford Saïd, INSEAD, ESCP, ESMT and CEDEP. Her interests centre on the human side of leadership, particularly identity, creativity, entrepreneurship and gender dynamics. She holds an MBA and Executive MA in Coaching and Consulting for Change from INSEAD, has trained at the Harvard Kennedy School, and brings more than a decade of professional experience in creative and entrepreneurial industries into her work with leaders.

Manfred Kets de Vries:

Manfred Kets de Vries is a pioneering authority in leadership development, coaching, and organisational change. He is a founder and director of the Kets de Vries Institute (KDVI) and served as Distinguished Clinical Professor of Leadership Development and Organisational Change at INSEAD. With academic credentials in economics (University of Amsterdam), management (MBA and DBA, Harvard Business School), and psychoanalysis (trained in Canada), he brings a uniquely interdisciplinary perspective to leadership. His work bridges management theory and clinical insight, establishing him as a global thought leader in executive coaching and transformation. At INSEAD, he founded the Global Leadership Centre and led the flagship programme The Challenge of Leadership for 31 years. He also served as scientific director of Coaching and Consulting for Change, an 18-month Executive Master’s programme that has shaped over 3,000 senior leaders and executive coaches worldwide. He has advised and coached senior executives at global firms including Goldman Sachs, BP, Shell, Unilever, McKinsey, and Volvo. A prolific author of over 60 books and 400 articles, his work appears regularly in The Financial Times, The Economist, and Harvard Business Review. Recognised by Le Capital, Wirtschaftswoche, and The Financial Times as one of the world’s top 50 management thinkers, he is widely regarded for advancing more human-centred approaches to leadership.

Yulia Chupina:

Senior Adviser (Luminary) at Accenture and executive coach with over 12 years of board experience. Formerly a banker and McKinsey consultant, Yulia has led banking transformations in digital, agile, organisational change, and talent development. Her coaching spans the finance, tech, and consumer goods sectors, blending technological insight with emotional intelligence to guide leaders through transformation. Recently, she advised BBVA on agile methodologies and senior talent development. Influenced by thought leaders such as Manfred Kets de Vries and Gabor Maté, Yulia brings an analytical, reflective approach to leadership. She has lived and worked across the UK, Spain, the US, and Russia.

Elizabeth Florent:

Elizabeth has worked closely with Manfred Kets de Vries for many years and has served as a Senior Lecturer and Research Fellow at INSEAD. Her extensive background in leadership development spans organisational consulting, executive coaching, and academic research. She holds advanced degrees in Organisational Development and Clinical Organisational Psychology and is a certified Coaching Supervisor through the Tavistock Institute. Her doctoral research explored experiential domains in executive education, and she has authored or co-authored numerous academic articles, case studies, and books on leadership and organisational dynamics. Elizabeth led the development teams behind KDVI’s diagnostic instruments, including the GELM, OCA™, and ITI. Drawing on her diverse training and global experience, she brings deep cross-cultural insight to her work with leaders worldwide. Originally from California, Elizabeth has made France her home for over 30 years.