APPLETON, Wis. — Madeleine Meade was familiar with the condition. She knew what it was and how miserable it made her feel.

But finding a remedy? There wasn’t a pharmacy in the world that carried the cure she needed.

“We have this term at Lawrence,” said Constance Kassor, an associate professor or religious studies at Lawrence University. “We call it the ‘Lawrence Busy.’"

“I hear this from students year after year. That on the weekends, or in the evenings, if they’re not doing homework, if they’re not participating in clubs, if they’re not doing their job, if they’re not doing something that’s gonna go on their resume to help them get a job after they graduate; they feel like they’re not being productive. They feel like they’re wasting their time. And so, there’s this pressure that they have to always be on.”

Kassor and some of her colleagues noticed the stress their students were under seemed to get worse every year. So, they came up with an idea. They would offer a new class this term — “Doing Nothing.”

“I kind of thought of this class as a way to confront the ‘Lawrence Busy’ and try to have good self-care for my senior year and embrace doing nothing,” said Meade, a senior psychology major.

“And it’s a lot harder than I thought it was gonna be. Because we always have to be productive. So I was like, if I could take a class on learning how to do that, great. I’d love to make that an easier process for me.”

When the registrar’s office sent out the class attendance for the first trimester, Kassor took note her “Doing Nothing” class had the second-highest attendance of any class on campus. So she tweeted that out.

Lawrence University professor Constance Kassor (Spectrum News 1/Mike Woods)

And she gained first-hand knowledge of what it meant to have something go viral.

Time magazine, CNBC, NPR and Fox News have all reported on the class.

Most of the feedback was positive, Kassor said. Colleges, K-12 schools, hospitals and businesses all reached out.

“I think this tells us there’s a real hunger for what we’re trying to do,” Kassor said.

“I’ve gotten contact from a lot of people who are like, ‘This is important. And this is something we need to kind of intentionally cultivate and intentionally do.’”

There was some blowback as well.

“I’ve also gotten some feedback from people who didn’t bother to read past the ‘Doing Nothing’ title of the course,” she said.

Naming the course “Doing Nothing” was certainly an attention grabber. But it’s far from what transpires in the classroom.

“This is actually a skills class,” Kassor said.

“The point behind this course, I mean, we’ve seen this. We have data to back this up. We know that getting enough sleep, even just getting up from your desk and moving around, or meditating or doing these sorts of practices. These are proven to be beneficial for your health. They’re proven to be beneficial for stress and anxiety. We’ve seen studies that have proven that these make you more effective at your jobs. If you can take some time to intentionally kind of do nothing and relax.”

The course meets just once a week for an hour for 10 weeks. A team of professors volunteer their time to teach the students various ways to improve their mental health and school performance.

“The first week of class, we had a psychologist come in and she showed us data about the correlations between getting enough sleep and a higher GPA,” Kassor said. “And then she walked them through and gave them a worksheet. ‘OK, here’s how you plan to get enough sleep every night.

“There is no homework. There’s nothing to do except show up, participate and leave your phone outside of the room.”

The course is worth one-sixth of a normal class and does not replace any curriculum or cost any additional tuition. It appears on their transcript to ensure accountability.

Meade recalls telling her friends about signing up for the class.

“At first they’re like, ‘Doing Nothing,’ that’s ridiculous,” she said.

So she explained.

“After I started talking to my friends about the class,” said Meade, “They’re like, ‘Wait. These are actually really good skills that we can take after college and throughout our life afterward.”

Meade said she’s already experiencing the benefits of doing nothing.

“I’ve learned throughout college that mental health is so important,” she said, adding it’s a subject commonly discussed among students at Lawrence.

“If my mental health isn’t good, I’m not going to perform well in my classes. And so what this class has really taught me is mental health and my well-being is the first and most important thing. And if I have that covered, my academics are going to be doing well as well.”

 

Story idea? You can reach Mike Woods at: 920-246-6321 or at: michael.t.woods1@charter.com