A Case For Doing Nothing At All

Monday mornings. Surely the most dreaded part of the week for anyone who has a regular 9-5, Mon-Fri job. The weekend just gone is a mere memory - a flash you’re not even sure happened - already fading into non-existence, leaving you feeling cheated of the promised rest and restoration. And it isn’t even worth thinking about the weekend ahead, a destination so impossibly far into the future you can barely comprehend how you’ll manage to make it there in one piece. 

It’s natural to want to fill our weekends with activity, diversions from the mundane drudgery of work; catch ups with friends who are guaranteed to put a smile on our faces, quality time with beloved family whom we otherwise don’t get to see, and even dreaded chores that we don’t have the energy to face at the end of a full day’s work but must be done. The problem with doing all these things, however, is that they make the weekend pass by in the blink of an eye, and before we know it we’re drearily pulling on our work shirt and shoes, and joining the hoard of commuters who, like us, are bemoaning their lost weekend.

But, what if I were to tell you that there was a way to make your weekend feel like it stretches for days? That you could make it to Monday morning actually begging to get stuck into work? 

Well, I think I have found the way, and it’s free!

The secret is to do absolutely nothing at all. Don’t make plans, don’t see people, don’t do chores, and maybe even skip your sports activities. Just stay home and do sweet eff-all – heck, don’t even cook! Just eat cheese on toast for dinner.

Oooohhhhh, I can hear you all scoffing! Sure, Maria, do nothing! Yea, ahuh, easy for you to say, you childless, single person living in a tiny apartment. Yes, I grant you, I don’t have the responsibilities that many people have but hear me out. I would bet that, with some prior planning and a mental commitment to LET GO, everyone could arrange a weekend where they and their brood did nothing at all. 

A while ago I discovered that breaking the weekend down into multiple activities makes time go faster - just like breaking down an onerous task into manageable pieces helps you complete that task with ease, so too do activities turn the weekend into crumbs of time that you churn through without realising.

However, when you’re whiling away the hours (defined by The Cambridge Dictionary as, “to spend time in a relaxed way because you have nothing to do or you are waiting for something else to happen”) time appears to slow down.

Now, doing nothing is relative and everyone will know what doing nothing will mean for them. And, as I’ve mentioned, it may take some planning, for example, you might need to stick a load of washing into the machine on Friday night instead of Saturday morning, or you might need to do some groceries after work on Monday (when there are less people about, I might add). It’s true, you might create a little extra work for yourself the following weekend, and you will definitely need to make a deal with your kids so that they are on board. But I guarantee that if you can wrangle yourself a weekend where you all do nothing, where you aren’t rushing to go from here to there, juggling multiple commitments, planning every minute of the day, meeting various groups of people, and coordinating the lives of all those around you, you will feel refreshed both physically and mentally come Sunday evening. You may even feel a little bored, ready to get your grey matter back into gear.

I challenge you to ask yourself this: what would really happen if I did nothing this weekend? Would I/we starve? Fall ill? Get fat? Would the house crumble under the sheer volume of neglected chores? Would I lose the love of my family or friends? 

The world will not come to an end if for one weekend you stayed in your pyjamas, drank tea and watched movies for two days straight. You, as a person, will not be dull or lazy. You will not be any less important than you already are. Trust me, you have nothing to lose. I know, because I’ve done it, and the world didn’t skip a beat. I just felt rested.