The Productivity Advantages of Dilly-Dallying
On the atomic art of doing nothing.
We don’t dilly-dally to get more done later. Pausing in your day is not the same as swimming the English Channel—each head-up-breath gets you closer to Cap Gris-Nez. A head-up-breath in your day, a string of dilly-dally moments, is itself the point.
We are so addicted to our left-brained world that we actually believe resting is part of productivity. Imagine what that perspective does to the world. It makes stopping to smell real roses a productivity hack. It makes a dusk walk on the greenway one of your atomic habits. We rush about to slow down so we can rush some more.
Possessing a breathless soul is not a status symbol. Rushing to produce is the easy path. The real hack of the human soul is not free swimming the English Channel. It’s participating fully in the intellectual rigor of observing a flash rainbow hover in and out of reality in a lawn sprinkler.
Wondering how rainbows float in sprinkler cascades is like reckoning the wonder of a pelican squadron wave-slope soaring. The squadron positions itself inches from the wave, which acts like a rolling hill, pushing the air above it upward. This “upwind” is what those pelicans master. By gliding on the upwind side of the wave, they surf updrafts—those invisible cushions of air for incredible distances. Pelicans surf the upwind to eliminate drag. The result? Just inner-pelican-peace. They can go for miles—effortless in flight, stoked in their bird-ness.
Life is an aesthetic endeavor.
The dilly-dally of a sprinkler rainbow gives you a bit of magic. It’s not you receiving a marvel as an object to your eye; it’s you participating in light, air, body angle, and water. The rainbow might be visible to you and not your best friend sitting beside you on that chunky old rocking chair. Your body position and sight mingle with the clarity of the air, as the bending light moves through the thousands of water droplets, presenting you with a hovering rainbow. The rainbow remains stationary while the water moves. And it vanishes when you move back and forth from your sightline.
Participating with pelicans and reveling in rainbows isn’t a detour from productivity. It’s not a waste of time. It’s saving your “self.” J.I. Packer once said we were meant to run on soulish things. Our fuel as humans comes from intentional times of dilly-dallying. But dilly-dallying is more than fuel. It’s the point.
The world we live in every day is not a greenscreen for the film of You. It’s a gift too beautiful to rush through. God didn’t create the Pileated Woodpecker so we could slip it on stamps and lick it off in the mail to a friend. He created it for you to ponder how, in heaven’s name, it evolved from a non-pecking bird to one with a specially encased brain, uniquely designed to withstand intense pounding per second without its head exploding. The joy of such knowledge isn’t only too wonderful for us, it’s the actual architecture of meaning itself. Life is an aesthetic endeavor.
These are the things that pepper my mornings with delight. Like how the berries we eat begin as flowers that magically fill up with uniquely sugared water for the sole purpose of being spread on ice cream and spreading a smile on our faces.
Like anything atomic, dilly-dallying is cumulative. Daily blossom-berries, upwinds, and hovering rainbows don’t help you get something done. It gets done inside of you.
The Soul Planner
A few weeks ago, my wife and I were talking about spiritual formation practices. I shared with her how I care for my soul. I went on and on. Are you surprised? Not in a woo-woo way, but a way that involves a few real questions I ask myself, a way that includes how I view the month ahead, and what I’m purposefully a part of or doing with my time and energy.
She encouraged me to take the questions I rattled off and turn them into something she could use in her morning quiet time. So, I did. And here it is for you, too. This dilly-dally reflection was part of my processing. All of it brought me joy to write and create.
I hope it brings you joy, too. It’s not necessarily my “anti-productivity” tool, but it’s my answer to all the productivity hacks and habit trackers roaming around the ether.
So, I give you: The Soul Planner. Just a few honest questions to sit with on the deck while the coffee cools and the world hasn’t started yet.
If that sounds like your kind of morning, you can explore more about The Soul Planner here.
Or, if you want to add it to your Q2 routine, just jump to the purchase-and-download-immediately page, go here.
Love this! God has been nudging me to rest more…rest is best and leads to depth. I don’t want to miss the moments dilly dallying may awaken me to! Love the concept of true soul rest!
Everyone should slow down at times, relax and dilly-dally! It's great for the body. mind and soul! Thanks for reminding us!