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The art of doing nothing
Nov. 22nd, 2019 12:37 amFirst off, I'm a major procrastinator. I struggle a lot with discipline, motivation, and in general just sitting down and doing one thing (particularly work-related) for a long period of time. I'm the kind of person who got through high school by writing every single essay the night before (or in the break before the class I had to hand it in), and in university, this translated mostly into me being pretty much unable to open the book for any course until a week before my exams.
Last few years, it's somehow gotten even worse -- stuff like sitting down and watching a movie or, you know, writing, has become increasingly harder for me, as I have a lot of trouble just... focusing on one thing, or sitting down and doing that one thing. I guess I'm not completely lost once I've gotten into the proper mindset, but getting started is incredibly hard to me, and I don't remember the last time I watched a movie or an episode of a tv-show or something without sitting and doing a sudoku or playing solitaire on my phone at the same time. When I visited a friend, she would constantly comment on the fact that I am literally not able to sit still for more than a few seconds.
This entry was inspired by many things. Like I mentioned in my last entry, I want to start journaling again, as I believe it's not only a good way of organising (whether that's your thoughts, by planning out your day, or something else) and a good destresser. Like meditating. Journaling forces you to sit down and do one thing for a while, and while it keeps both your mind and hands busy, it's not a super daunting or demanding task either. One of the main reasons I wanted to start journaling was because I wanted to have a time and space in my life where I just had to sit down and do nothing. Journaling can be a form of nothing -- doodling, thinking about your day, or something completely different.
A problem I've recently run into is the fact that I spend a lot of time not doing anything, but I'm also not really doing nothing. I get increasingly restless, start scrolling my twitter feed without being able to make out the meaning of the words before me, I want to play a game but I don't know which one, I want to start a show but the idea of watching 12 episodes just seems like too much. A lot of the time I end up lying in bed filling out a sudoku or sitting on my computer, scrolling through different feeds of social media.
By setting time aside for journaling, I hope to spend this time completely engaged in one particular thing, but a thing that doesn't really demand anything more of me than what I have to give at the time.
The thing that really made me decide to dedicate an entire post about this thought was this article, in which the author explains a piece of advice we've all probably heard before in different versions. That sometimes, the best thing we can do for our writing is to not write, but instead just let ourselves... not write. Instead, we should soak in life, watch movies, read other stories, experience whatever is going on in our lives fully and embrace all the things we were too busy to face while we were writing. Because these things will make us better writers in the end.
Last few years, it's somehow gotten even worse -- stuff like sitting down and watching a movie or, you know, writing, has become increasingly harder for me, as I have a lot of trouble just... focusing on one thing, or sitting down and doing that one thing. I guess I'm not completely lost once I've gotten into the proper mindset, but getting started is incredibly hard to me, and I don't remember the last time I watched a movie or an episode of a tv-show or something without sitting and doing a sudoku or playing solitaire on my phone at the same time. When I visited a friend, she would constantly comment on the fact that I am literally not able to sit still for more than a few seconds.
This entry was inspired by many things. Like I mentioned in my last entry, I want to start journaling again, as I believe it's not only a good way of organising (whether that's your thoughts, by planning out your day, or something else) and a good destresser. Like meditating. Journaling forces you to sit down and do one thing for a while, and while it keeps both your mind and hands busy, it's not a super daunting or demanding task either. One of the main reasons I wanted to start journaling was because I wanted to have a time and space in my life where I just had to sit down and do nothing. Journaling can be a form of nothing -- doodling, thinking about your day, or something completely different.
A problem I've recently run into is the fact that I spend a lot of time not doing anything, but I'm also not really doing nothing. I get increasingly restless, start scrolling my twitter feed without being able to make out the meaning of the words before me, I want to play a game but I don't know which one, I want to start a show but the idea of watching 12 episodes just seems like too much. A lot of the time I end up lying in bed filling out a sudoku or sitting on my computer, scrolling through different feeds of social media.
By setting time aside for journaling, I hope to spend this time completely engaged in one particular thing, but a thing that doesn't really demand anything more of me than what I have to give at the time.
The thing that really made me decide to dedicate an entire post about this thought was this article, in which the author explains a piece of advice we've all probably heard before in different versions. That sometimes, the best thing we can do for our writing is to not write, but instead just let ourselves... not write. Instead, we should soak in life, watch movies, read other stories, experience whatever is going on in our lives fully and embrace all the things we were too busy to face while we were writing. Because these things will make us better writers in the end.