The benefits of doing nothing ⏲️ 6 Minute English — Transcript

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1. 0:09Hello. This is 6 Minute English from
2. 0:11BBC Learning English. I’m Beth.
3. 0:13And I’m Neil. Phew! I've  spent all day in meetings,
4. 0:17then shopping, then collecting  the kids from school - I'm
5. 0:21exhausted, Beth! What have  you been doing today?
6. 0:23Oh, not much, just sitting around doing
7. 0:26nothing… relaxing and kicking back! Lucky you! Don’t you have work to do?
8. 0:31It may not look it, Neil, but I’m actually as
9. 0:34busy as a bee! If you’ve seen nature documentaries
10. 0:37about worker bees flying from flower to flower,
11. 0:40you probably think animals are always on the move.
12. 0:44But the surprising truth  is, away from the cameras,
13. 0:47most animals spend most of the time  doing absolutely nothing at all.
14. 0:52In the natural world where  finding food and shelter
15. 0:55is hard work, why have some  animals evolved to do nothing?
16. 0:59And if it’s good enough for  animals, would being lazy work
17. 1:03for humans too? That’s what  we will be discussing in this
18. 1:07programme, and as usual, we’ll be learning some
19. 1:10useful new vocabulary as well. But first, let me work up the energy to ask you
20. 1:16a question, Neil. Of course, some animals have
21. 1:19a reputation for lounging  about – lions, for example,
22. 1:23can sleep up to twenty  hours a day! But what is the
23. 1:27slowest moving animal on Earth? Is it: a) the giant tortoise
24. 1:33b) the three-toed sloth or c) the koala?
25. 1:38Well, I think it’s the three-toed sloth.
26. 1:41OK, Neil. I’ll reveal the  correct answer at the end
27. 1:45of the programme. Now it’s  no surprise that lazy lions
28. 1:50love relaxing, but even  animals with reputations for
29. 1:54being busy spend time doing  nothing. Look carefully
30. 1:58into an ant's nest and you’ll see around half
31. 2:01of them just sitting there motionless.
32. 2:04Here’s Professor Dan  Charbonneau, an expert in insect
33. 2:07behaviour, discussing the lazy  rock ant with Emily Knight,
34. 2:11presenter of BBC Radio 4 programme, Naturebang.
35. 2:18Dan’s research has focused  on ant colonies, a species
36. 2:22called temnothorax rugatulus or the rock ant.
37. 2:24I think ants are a symbol of  industriousness, you know,
38. 2:27they have this whole tiny  little society going on that's
39. 2:30kind of similar to ours…  some idealised version what
40. 2:33humans might be if we could  only pull it together and
41. 2:35all work together we could be as industrious as
42. 2:37the ants, but then when you  look at it, roughly about
43. 2:40half the colony is inactive at any given time.
44. 2:46We think ants are industrious, or hard-working.
45. 2:49Groups of ants, called colonies, seem tiny,
46. 2:52perfect societies where everyone works
47. 2:55hard for the good of the group. Then why are so many of them inactive?
48. 2:59One possible answer is that they’re reserve ants,
49. 3:03ready to step in if disease or disaster strike.
50. 3:07But could it simply be that they don’t work
51. 3:10because they don’t need to. Would you get out
52. 3:13of bed on Monday morning if you didn’t have to? Maybe the ants can teach us a thing or
53. 3:18two about relaxing. But wouldn't it get
54. 3:21boring just sitting around all day? Not according to psychologist, Dr Sandi Mann.
55. 3:26She thinks being productive – working to produce
56. 3:30a lot for the amount of resources we use,
57. 3:32is overrated. Boredom has its benefits too,
58. 3:36as she explains to BBC Radio  4 programme, Naturebang.
59. 3:42Would humans have invented bread or beer or fire,
60. 3:46you know, if we hadn't been  bored and were wondering,
61. 3:49‘what on earth would happen  if we mix this with this?’,
62. 3:51you know. Are all these sorts of
63. 3:53inventions the mother of boredom? But in this world of constant stimulation
64. 3:58switching off is harder than it's ever been. That's why we're constantly swiping and scrolling
65. 4:04and looking for the next big thing, and the
66. 4:05new thing and we bored of things very quickly… so
67. 4:08it's a kind of paradox to  get rid of this unpleasant
68. 4:11state of boredom is actually to
69. 4:12allow more boredom into your life. Dr Mann doubts humans would have invented
70. 4:18things without the curiosity that comes from being
71. 4:21bored. Boredom is the mother of invention,
72. 4:24an idea based on the famous proverb, necessity is
73. 4:28the mother of invention, an idiom meaning that if
74. 4:32you really need to do something,
75. 4:33you will think of a way of doing it. Instead of fearing boredom we can open up to its
76. 4:39benefits by switching off - stopping worrying or
77. 4:43thinking about something  and relaxing. Slowing down
78. 4:46helps too - something we can definitely
79. 4:49learn from our animal cousins. I think now’s a good time to reveal the answer to
80. 4:54my question, since we have nothing else to do.
81. 4:56You asked me to name the  world’s slowest animal and
82. 4:59I guessed it was the three-toed  sloth. Was I right?
83. 5:02That was the correct answer! With a top speed
84. 5:06of 30 centimetres per minute,  three-toed sloths move
85. 5:12so slowly that algae grow on their coats!
86. 5:16OK, let's recap the vocabulary that we've learned
87. 5:19from this programme starting with the
88. 5:21phrase kicking back – stop doing things
89. 5:23and relax completely.
90. 5:26The adjective industrious means hard-working. A colony is the name given to a group of certain
91. 5:33animals including ants and some seabirds. Someone who is productive is able to produce
92. 5:39a lot for the amount of resources they use. The proverb necessity is the mother of invention,
93. 5:46means that if you really need to do something,
94. 5:48you will think of a way of doing it. And finally, to switch off means to stop worrying
95. 5:53or thinking about something and relax. Once again,
96. 5:58our six minutes are up – it  must be time to sit down,
97. 6:01close your eyes, and just do  nothing! Goodbye for now!
98. 6:04Bye!