Claiming the Empty Spaces: The Importance of Idle Time in a Fast-Forward World

Posted on August 15, 2016 by Ken Abrams, One of Thousands of Executive Coaches on Noomii.

You’re just about to leave for a dentist appointment you’d scheduled time off work for, when you receive a phone call saying the dentist has been called out on emergency and will have to reschedule your appointment.
Congratulations! You are the winner of one unexpected free hour!

What will you do with your winnings?
Return to the project you were working on before you had to leave?
Answer your email? Return phone calls? Run errands? Ever consider doing nothing?

If you’re like many of us today, the thought of doing absolutely nothing for an entire hour seems as wasteful as throwing a week’s worth of groceries out with the garbage. Indeed, free time with nothing to do can generate near panic among some of us who are overloaded and time-starved.

A Culture of Busyness We seem to have a complex about busyness in our culture, most of us do have time in our days that we could devote to simple relaxation, but we convince ourselves that we don’t. Each of us needs some time that is strictly and entirely our own, and we should experience it daily. The importance of this downtime cannot be overstated. We see more clearly, we hear more keenly, we’re more inspired, we discover what makes us feel alive.

Protecting Our Idle Time
On some level, we know this already. But claiming time to ourselves—time that is often labeled “unproductive”—and sticking to it can be difficult. We need to establish formal boundaries around our idle time to ensure that others—and we, ourselves—honor this time.

Some ways to do this are:
• Make a date with yourself. Get to know someone who deserves your attention—you.
• Stand firm. Learn how to say “no” to co-workers, children, a spouse or a friend. In just a short while, you can say “yes,” but now is your time.
• Be clear about your needs. It’s not, “I need more time to myself.” It’s more like, “I’d like to spend 20 minutes by myself in the morning before
everyone gets up.”
• Be on the lookout for stolen moments. Use the canceled dental appointment to sit on a park bench watching pigeons.
• Practice doing nothing. “Doing nothing” is an art, and like all art you need to practice it to reach your highest potential.

Our idle time should be like a beautiful flower: it has no purpose. It’s just there. And yet, it refreshes us and reminds us of nature’s glory.

Do something that has no purpose other than joy. Take a half-hour a day to surprise and delight yourself.
Keep it simple, and keep it consistent. If your idle time becomes a “program,” or becomes progress toward some productive goal, begin again.

It’s stunning, how simple it really is…..