photo credit: fdecomite

For some, having free time is little more than a traded commodity. For the truly unfortunate, free time is like a holy grail, an escape from a hellish life of self inflicted drudgery and poor circumstance.

Every one of us takes it for granted that our lives are primarily time driven. We live and die by the clock, defining our lives by the hours that are given away. It’s one of the defining features of our society.

Smarter types consistently try to cheat time, in order to get more out of it. No doubt you probably do this every other moment of the day without even realising it. We are after all a nation of multitaskers!

How often do you work, read, or use a computer while the television is on? Do you do something else in the 90 seconds it takes to heat something in the microwave?

Productivity is now part of our rising corporate world culture. Learn life hacks here and there, take shortcuts to skip the more mundane tasks that we all hate – You only have to take a quick look on Amazon to see how many books there are offering to teach you in this field.

Are you a productivity devotee? Is it working well for you? Has productivity freed up your time, or has it led to you taking on more work?

Forward, and as fast as possible

In terms of productivity, speed means faster output and in turn quicker results. What a great idea! Learn to be more productive and then use the time you have ’saved’ to enjoy yourself.

Except, who follows this advice?

We are the productivity junkies, filling our day with yet more of the same. We walk gleefully into the idea that the more you get done now, the less you have to do later. While in theory this is a great philosophy, the practicality of the modern world makes later closer to never.

Free time and getting things done are not mutually exclusive by default.

For those of you who think that accelerating your productivity levels is the best thing since sliced bread, allow me to challenge you with another way to tackle embrace your time.

Learn the art of Wu Wei

In English, Wu Wei translates as “Action without action”.

Wu-Wei is about employing a different, and yet still practical perspective on how to get things done.

Imagine for a moment that you are the CEO of a huge company. You have a never ending pile of paperwork, bills to pay and a board of directors that want to know your future plans for progression.

How do you handle such a mammoth workload?

Answer = You delegate. You give your work to someone else, so that you can focus on what matters the most to you. Without this indirect action, no business could ever be successful.

Wu Wei works in a similar fashion, only the work that you delegate is not given to any one person or necessarily any one thing. Wu Wei is about taking the perspective that the world can take care of things for you, or to put it another way – You do not have to control every little aspect of you.

To take this blog as an example. When writing it the words came naturally to me, flowing from mind to page. As any great artist or writer will attest, to force work only meets with frustration. Good ideas come when I am thinking freely and naturally, observing the world go by as it naturally does. When I blog, it’s as if the world around me is giving me the ideas and I am merely capturing them in written format.

You’d be surprised how much the world is willing to do this kind of thing for you, and its not limited to only creative pursuits either.

I’m sure at this point your probably thinking that you can’t just delegate everything and hope that it works out for the best. Yes, this would be silly!

Again, to take my example of writing. While the words flow naturally, there is still work involved to finely hone the resulting product.

Wu Wei is about focusing on what matters, and forgetting what does not.

There is a lot of talk on doing what you love, and thats because Wu Wei is not an all encompassing answer, but it is the fundamental concept that carries you consistently to that often dreamed of outcome.

Some level of inner character is required to fully utilise Wu Wei.

Whatever it is that your dealing with in any given moment, it’s probably not life or death. A struggle to finish can only bring you further struggle. Use Wu Wei though, and you will finish without really doing anything.

Experiment

You can make use of Wu Wei right now. That thing that is on your mind, that is bugging you. Delegate it. Leave it for the world to handle.

The moment you are in now will never come again, so why waste it on something that can most likely be forgotten?

Take a look at nature to see Wu Wei in action everywhere.

Does a cloud look for a place to rain? Or does it move through the sky until the inevitable happens?

Be like the cloud and make your goal inevitable. Know where you want to be, and then use Wu Wei to delegate the work to the world. The opportunities will come, the work will take care of itself. The desired outcome will arise.

Of course, this is only a brief introduction to Wu Wei. And so I would recommend further research on the concept.

Below are some links to start.

Tim

Further reading on Wu Wei:

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wu_wei
• http://c0c0c0.net/node/706
• http://www.brucealderman.info/blog/2005/10/wei-wu-wei.html