I’m embarrassed to be caught doing nothing. For a long time, if my husband found me sitting in the dark staring off into space, I’d feel compelled to list off everything that I’d done prior to doing nothing. He couldn’t have cared less.

Over time, I’ve come to accept and finally embrace the fact that the most important part of writing is not writing.

The most important part of writing (and most other creative pursuits) is doing nothing.

It’s sitting in a hot bathtub with your favorite album pulsing through your headphones or lying on a sofa in the dark in silence. It’s staring at the ceiling vacantly.

Because your brain is a busy place with hundreds of thousands of neurons sending and receiving thousands of messages at any given moment. Imagine the traffic jam.

If you don’t force yourself to occasionally (and unrepentantly) don the mantle of the slacker, there’s never going to be a quiet moment for imaginary places and people to populate it.

 

Your Mission


Doing nothing isn’t just good for writers. It’s good for everybody. We live in a society that prioritizes busy-ness, but being busy isn’t the same as being productive. Just because you’re plunging headlong into the next scheduled activity doesn’t mean you’re accomplishing what you’d hoped to achieve. Often, being perpetually busy prevents us from thinking too much about what we really want to spend our time doing.

This week, set aside some time to do nothing. Put away from phone. Turn off your TV. Those mind-numbing pursuits count as something, too. Instead of attempting to fill your time with activity and distractions, let the humble but well-rested sloth be your mentor in better living through, well, sloth.

If you’re so inclined, share photographic proof of your deep dive into the life of a beatnik bum! Tag @perilous.and.sparks and use the hashtag #PSmission.