Have you ever spent the weekends doing nothing after telling yourself that you will be productive? After logging out of work on a Friday night, you wished to relax a little bit, so you indulged yourself and watched Netflix all night. You then woke up late the next day and decided to sleep in. You were then awakened by the upsetting feeling in your gut, and realized that you were hungry. You just spent more than twelves hours in bed, and that means twelve hours of fasting.
You got up to make yourself breakfast and realized it is already past three in the afternoon. Now you feel lazy, and you just want to sink in a massage chair that you ordered online to remove the soreness of your back. You feel frustrated, but you are too tired to fight it, so you just let things be, and then the next day, you found yourself functioning the way you want to.
You may be thinking that you wasted your Saturday, but you did not. Sometimes, doing nothing helps. Sometimes, it is what you need. If you related to this feeling, this guide will help you learn why doing nothing is what you need sometimes.
Table of Contents
Doing nothing means rest
It is about the perspective that your mind is enforcing on you. Let us say, you do not feel like getting up on weekends, but you know you need to get up and do the laundry. Well, first, your body is telling it does not have the energy to do it, and usually, there is a reason why. You might be overworked, and both your body and mind are tired. It is also possible that you are subconsciously refusing to get up because you are aware of how stubborn you could be.
It is the same reason why people who tend to bottle up feelings suffer from worse breakdowns than those who let it out from time to time. When your body refuses to function, there is usually a reason behind it. We are not making an excuse for sloth and laziness behavior, rather shedding light upon the importance of understanding and taking care of your mental health as well.
Doing nothing gives you time for clarity
Following that point, doing nothing can sometimes be better than acting out on petty impulses and intense emotions. Let us say, you have been dwelling on problems that need you to be decisive and firm. It can be because of your personal relationships or problems at work. Either one can make you upset, and both can make you snap. However, if you do that, you can end up making decisions that you’ll regret. It is important to process things and give yourself time to mope and do nothing.
It is one act of being kind to yourself. For example, if you are already struggling with work, maybe it is time to consider your options. Although it is still your responsibility to be professional, and still try to give it all your before quitting. Try to see how your other coworkers can bear it, give it your all, and if it still does not click, you can submit that sweet letter you have kept for months.
Doing nothing helps out with productivity.
Yes, how ironic. You may have heard of the concept of procrastination and how it affects productivity, but artistic people call that working on your element. It is akin to the first item in this list, only, in this case, these people who work on their elements are waiting for that divine push called their muses.
Just as people have timelines, employees have their own pace, especially artists. Right-brained workers tend to do nothing until they are hit by that burst of productivity when they tend to make up for the lost time and achieve even more sometimes. Remember that it is always better to work on your element and maximize that burst of energy than strain yourself forcing ideas out when your brain is uncooperative.
Doing nothing sounds bad, but sometimes it is what people need. Especially those who feel exhausted and drained without knowing why. Not feeling like it is your body telling you to take a rest, and most of the time, you should listen to it.
However, there is a fine line between doing nothing and being an escapist. Doing nothing to rest helps but doing nothing to escape is different because that is not doing something. That will not result in anything.
