Our tenth prompt comes from Odede. He says:
What to do when you have nothing to do
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Odede,
Wow, I’ve not felt this way in a long time. I’m assuming that when you say “nothing to do” you mean no obligation on your schedule. If so, I have some ideas.
- Read all the essays (or writings) in your open tabs and close them so that your computer stops slowing down. I usually have at least 20 tabs open on my browser, because of all the cool essays I start reading then abandon halfway for work or some other distraction. Nowadays, I make an effort to complete reading them and close those tabs!
- Answer all those emails that are neither here nor there, and have no clear action attached to them but somehow require a response. Email sucks, but what do we do, not everything can be put on Slack. So when I have some free time, I send all those “Hey Zoe! Thanks for sending this, lemme have a look!” or “Cheers!” type emails.
- Read a book. This year, I’m reading a book a week (I last did that in 2015, and it was mad fulfilling, so I decided to do it this year as well). I’m currently reading The ABCs of Socialism by the guys over at Jacobin Magazine. I usually try to dedicate an hour each day to reading, but many times I fail, so instead I read whenever I have some free time. So far, so good.
- This usually depends on how much time I have available. When it’s less than 15 minutes, I’ll do some breathing meditation, but when I have more time, I like to do guided meditations.
- Listen to podcasts/watch YouTube videos – unlike music, which can play in the background as you do whatever, watching videos actually requires a higher level of attention, so I like to do this when I’m sitting around with some free time. This is one of the ways I end up with many open tabs. As for podcasts (shameless plug: I have one, listen to it!), I listen to them when I’m driving, which for me falls under “nothing to do” since Kenyan traffic jams are one huge waste of time. Rather than fume/sigh/think about all the other things I’d rather be doing, I listen to my favourite shows, and this always puts me in a good mood!
- Recently, I’ve started doing 10 Sudoku puzzles a day. I had really good Sudoku times up until 2014, then I just stopped playing as much and now they’ve become abysmal. I do not like that at all, so I decided to give myself a month (it ends in May 2017) to get back to my previous times.
- I also do kawaida things like watch movies and TV series, but more and more, this is becoming difficult, with all the things I’ve decided to pack into my schedule alongside work. I try to make time once a week to catch up with my favourite series, but I fail most of the time.
What do you guys do when you have nothing to do? Sound off in the comments! 🙂
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This post is part of a daily writing experiment that I’m running for a year. I’d love it if you took part! ?