Why time wasted is a precious thing
A recent campaign by a watch brand — ‘Waste Time: Because You’ll Never Be Young Again’ — talks about youngsters who live in the present moment and believe in living every moment to the fullest. The focus is on the never-ending ‘timelessness’ and how the entire world tells the youth to do something and stop wasting time. It asks viewers to defy tradition and go ahead and waste time, because only the young have the luxury of having time on their side, and this time will never come back.
While many don’t completely agree with the concept, they do believe that sometimes it’s important to do nothing to declutter the mind. In present times, everyone is scrambling to grab a share from the limited resources. We are pushed to invest every bit of available time in activities that will yield all sorts of gains in the long term.
But what has come out of this strategy, asks content writer Ankush Thakore. He says, “Despite the obvious gains, the downside is an increasing turmoil in our emotional lives. Talk to any young person today and the conversation quickly steers to topics like futility, confusion and boredom. Sabbaticals and breaks are becoming more important than amassing money or power. So it makes sense that students are taking longer to decide on a career. I personally found myself burned out after four years of corporate life, and took a break recently to slow down and reevaluate my core priorities in life. Among my family and the society, it was of course seen as a ‘waste of time’, but what’s wrong with stopping now and embark on a long journey later?”
While it’s okay to do nothing, as leisure is as important as working hard, it becomes important to know how to make the best of doing nothing. “Doing nothing is an art and if you cultivate it, you have the most amazing conversations. It doesn’t matter then if nothing is getting done. Having said that, doing nothing has value only if we are intelligent enough to strike a balance between work and leisure,” says philosophy student Shamik Chakraborty.
Leisure is important and doing nothing even more so but people need to realise that breaks don’t just mean time off from work, says finance executive Shilpi Sharma and adds, “A lot of people think that going home just means rest, watching a sitcom and having a drink to wind off. For most of us, leisure has value only in relation to work when leisure should actually be a way to escape a mechanical existence, to let go and feel free.”
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