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Sitzfleisch, the antidote to procrastination

Reading time: 5 minutes 

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German has some unforgettable words. My favourites include wanderlust (a desire to travel), schadenfreude (feeling pleasure at someone else’s pain; antonym: freudenfreude), doppelgänger (look-alike), weltanschauung (worldview), schmetterling (butterfly) and the visceral scheiße (excrement). Another is sitzfleisch, which has also been widely appropriated in Yiddish. Dating back to before 1930, it consists of the verb sitzen or the noun der Sitz + das Fleisch. It’s a great example of how a compound word can have additional meaning through juxtaposition.

Sitzfleisch has two meanings, one literal and the other more figurative. First, it refers to the meat of our butt/ass/derrière. Thus, according to Constanze, a conversation may go:
“Do you need a cushion?”
“No thanks, I’ve got plenty of sitzfleisch.”

The other meaning is patience/endurance/staying power, even reliability. It’s apparently often used in chess, which requires both physical and figurative senses. Sitzfleisch is “a fancy term for… chair glue: the ability to sit still and get through the task at hand. It’s often the difference between, for example, an aspiring writer and a writer” (Garg). A recent article about a Star Wars film notes that, at 152 minutes, it “strains the sitzfleisch of the average movie-goer” (cited in Schultheis). When someone says we have sitzfleisch, it’s usually a professional compliment. Conversely, if one is thought to lack it, this suggests that one is flighty or unable to concentrate on one thing at a time.

Sitzfleisch demands that we decide to not half-ass our way through anything. According to Schwartz, there’s an upside to putting our derrière in a chair: “Comfort of chair comes from fact that i[t] gives to accommodate the sitter”.

Elizabeth Gilbert referred to the word on stage, in conversation with Wally Lamb. She considers sitzfleisch “a fabulous word, and everyone out there who is living a creative life needs to know about it”. It’s “sort of the opposite of Ants In Your Pants”. How much sitzfleisch one has “will directly influence how much work you can produce. How long can you stand it, to sit there and push through? Inspiration is beautiful, imagination divine, and we all love soaring dreams. But sitzfleisch?… THAT’S how you write your novel. That’s how you compose your symphony. That’s how you paint your masterpiece.”

According to Van Schneider, “In the tech world today, sitzfleisch is scarce… Job hopping is the norm in this industry”. Further: “Our phones, our Apple watches, news headlines, social feeds. All of it amounts to distracted workers. Millennials have also been called ‘the multi-tasking generation,’ but in reality it’s everyone… Our world today does not seem conducive to sitzfleisch. Perhaps we are missing out on opportunities and growth that come with commitment and endurance. Maybe what separates the greats from the rest of us is more subtle than talent, more nuanced than skill.”

Whether we’re seeking to complete a project, write a book, lead a team, or improve our skills, the underlying process is “always the same – commit time, and energy to a single purpose long enough and you will get the results you seek. Don’t let distraction get in the way of what must be done. Work on one thing at a time… Lean into the discomfort of getting things done” (Oppong).

This requires that we recognise the need to build endurance and have the desire to improve. We could also optimise our work environment, taking care of the noise, digital and social media, and small talk. If we feel threatened by a situation, we’ll feel stressed. But we can have sitzfleisch wherever we work if we instead view such a situation as an opportunity to overcome adversity, thereby transforming stress into energy.

Sitzfleisch has even been taken to mean the ability to ignore a problem long enough in the hope it will go away, of not being very active in trying to solve a problem, but waiting and hoping that it solves itself. Yet this is not a primary meaning.
Schwartz wrote about sitzfleisch during the pandemic, titling her piece Now is the time to cultivate the art of sitzfleisch: “I get it. It’s hard to be inside when spring is springing, but it’s necessary – hell, it’s a matter of life and death. I suggest that, in addition to doing calisthenics and learning a new language and writing a novel and anything else you might be doing under these strange, disturbing circumstances, this is a time to cultivate the art of Sitzfleisch.”

Developing sitzfleisch takes practice. According to Gilbert, most of us “must build up that boredom-enduring flesh over time”. Schwartz: “Some people are natural sitters. They take to meditation like a fish to water. Me, not so much. I’m more like Grace Paley, whose father warned her, ‘You will never write because you have no Sitzfleisch.’… While working, I like to get up, bounce around, do a stretch, have a putter, make up a little dance, clip my toenails.”

Schwartz’s suggestions for developing sitzfleisch go something like this:

You may walk to the window.
You may drink tea, as many cups as you like. (Caffeine-free, otherwise your sitting will be shot.)
You may eat a piece of chocolate.
You may dust relevant working surfaces but not so that you get distracted by cleaning.
You may heat up soup, but not cook an ambitious meal.
You may not check Twitter.
Stay strong, and sit long.

Gilbert’s advice is simpler: “Sit. Stay. Work. (And every once in a while, stretch.) Repeat.”

Guten Tag!

Sources

Alexandra Schwartz: Now is the time to cultivate the art of sitzfleisch. 23 March 2020.
Elizabeth Gilbert: Word of the day: sitzfleisch. 4 June 2013.
Constanze: The German word ‘sitzfleisch’. 31 October 2018.
In Different Languages: Ass in different languages. Learn how to say and translate.
Thomas Oppong: How the German concept of ‘Sitzfleisch’ can help you achieve greater efficiency.
 9 December 2019.
Tobias van Schneider: Sitzfleisch. 24 April 2019.
Anu Garg: Sitzfleisch.
Emily Schultheis: Sitzfleisch: The German concept to get more work done.
 4 September 2018.