There’s never enough time to do all the nothing you want.
Bill Watterson
Learning to stay busy
My ‘50’s mother never sat still and had little patience for people who did. Until very late in life, she was blessed with boundless energy. Adept at using every mother’s favorite tool, she guilted her children to live the midwestern Protestant work ethic.
Wasting time
I have become proficient at wasting time during this past year of pandemic isolation. Thank you, Netflix and Amazon Prime, for the marvelous array of programming with HGTV as a backup. Where would I be without Kindle? One can’t ignore social media for good or ill. I can always find time for boredom eating and drinking. And, of course, sleeping.
The Best
My favorite use of time: niksen.
I am happy to have an excuse for daydreaming. Niksen is my time to observe and process Life, cultivating material to feed my creativity. My best writing and musical edits come when I stare into space. The challenge is to remember the genius thoughts long enough to transcribe them onto paper.
Niksening (my word) settles my mind as I contemplate the spiritual, prioritizing my activities to maintain balance. It often resembles yoga savasana as I let God/Creator/Universe/? renew me.
Busy or productive?
My occasional Busy Bee preoccupation with trivial tasks may mimic productivity but is often only a distraction from troublesome matters I would like to avoid. Need to make a call to arrange an appointment? First, let me organize my jewelry, which I never wear.
The most annoying loss of time is when it is outside my control. Sitting at red lights when there is no traffic must rank high for many of us.
I just spent five minutes navigating a phone maze for a simple yes/no question. Never connecting with a live voice, I now need to drive over to the store to get an answer.
Be forewarned: A business optimizing personnel by refusing phone calls wastes my time and disinclines me toward doing business with them.
My way
Yes, I waste time. But I want to do it my way.