Is "doing nothing" a good use of your time?

Every time I end up on social media, I always see some absurdly productive high school freshman giving advice on how to manage time. They all say the same thing. Focus on what's important. Get rid of distractions. Allocate your free time to doing something important. I used to watch them over and over again, and then save them for future use. But of course, they were all eventually forgotten, buried in hundreds of more videos that had the same prospect of revisitation.

I could never figure out why I didn't have that same motivation to do more, and I still don’t know. Probably something to do with my laziness. While others were doing something productive, I would always end up goofing off with friends after school or doing some random activity. I hated the fact that I was wasting my time with these random things and not focusing on something more important to my life.

But over time, I started to notice something strange. Those little moments of “doing nothing” stuck with me. They had weight. I remembered the time I spent lying on the grass with a friend, looking up at the sky and debating whether clouds looked more like mashed potatoes or whipped cream. Or the Saturday I spent in a Discord call playing video games for hours: laughing, losing, winning, getting frustrated, and then laughing again. None of that was “productive.” None of it was going on a résumé. But I always felt more myself in those moments than I ever did watching a video on “5 Time Management Habits That Changed My Life.”

Of course, there are still days where I look back and wonder: Should I have done more? Could I have read more books? Build more skills? Learned to code or start a YouTube channel or write a blog or whatever else high-achieving teens are supposed to be doing now? The guilt creeps in, whispering that I’m falling behind. But then I think about how I actually feel when I’m doing those so-called “wastes of time.” I feel alive. I feel connected. I feel like I’m actually living my life instead of just building a LinkedIn profile before I’m even old enough to drive.

There’s something kind of radical about allowing yourself to do nothing, especially in a world that glorifies hustle and output. “Nothing” doesn’t always mean literal inactivity. For me, “nothing” is often just the stuff that doesn’t have an obvious benefit. Like talking to a friend for an hour about absolutely nothing important, just because we can. Or wandering around the neighborhood with no real destination. Or sitting in a room with someone in comfortable silence, playing separate games but still together.

Some of my best memories come from those unstructured, spontaneous moments. They weren’t planned. They weren’t productive. But they were real. And isn’t that kind of the point?

I’m not saying I’ve completely given up on being productive. I still have goals. I still want to accomplish things. I still save those motivational videos sometimes (old habits die hard). But I no longer believe that every second needs to be optimized. Resting is useful. Laughing is useful. Hanging out with people you care about is extremely useful, even if you’re just doing absolutely nothing.

I guess I’ve started to think of time less like a currency and more like a canvas. Sometimes you’re painting bold, purposeful strokes. Other times, you’re just letting the brush sit there while you take in the scene. Both are part of the picture.

So yeah, maybe I’m not the most productive person. Maybe I’ll never write a bestselling book by 17 or wake up at 5 AM to journal and cold plunge. But I’ll have stories. I’ll have people. I’ll have moments that felt good and genuine and whole.

And honestly, I think that’s a pretty good use of my time.