In the United States, half of workers are dissatisfied with their jobs. People who, for various obvious reasons, should be considered productive, happy and successful are instead dissatisfied, exhausted from too much work and depressed. Because? Because work doesn't make you happy. Success does not make you. If you feel like being idle, you can consider yourself healthy. You can learn to indulge in idleness, start doing less work and be more idle.
Steps
Method 1 of 3: Indulge in Idleness
Step 1. Prioritize the quieter things in your life
Taking the kids to soccer practice, walking the dog, and taking on extra projects at work are not activities for a lazy person. Observe the clouds? Meditate? Drinking some tea? Now we think. Identify the things you enjoy doing, regardless of whether they are considered "productive."
- What would you do if there was no money problem? Imagine the perfect version of your day. When would you wake up? What would you do first? What would you do before lunch? List the top priorities in your life.
- What could you do now, today, to accomplish these things more easily? If you wanted to sit and drink coffee while reading the newspaper undisturbed, could you do it? What is holding you back from taking the idle time you want?
Step 2. Stop coming forward for overtime
Helping your friend move, staying late in the office, taking the time to help the neighbor paint the house? Holy activity, no doubt, but this kind of thing seriously cuts down on the idle time you desperately need. Do what you need to do and continue to be available for necessary chores and responsibilities, but stop coming forward for extraordinary activities.
More and more, especially with the updates of new social networks and instant gratification media, we like to see business as a culture. There is nothing wrong with taking the time to save time by doing nothing. You don't need to have reasons to sit down, have a glass of wine, and stare into space. Here's how to stay healthy
Step 3. Throw your planning away
For some people, perfectly structured planning is an essential part of productivity that makes you feel a sense of accomplishment in the day. For others it is like a lead weight that hangs around the neck. Who says you have to have lunch at 12.15 and that you have to take exactly 30 minutes, and that you have to be at work at 12.45? Eat when you are hungry. Throw your programming in the trash.
- Stop wearing your watch if it serves to stress you out more than to help you be on time. Be productive with your personal workflow, not with the ticking of the clock.
- In some languages, the conception of how time works is very different. A programming made in hours, from "lunch" to "coffee break", can be done according to our language. It is artificial. The Tuvans, for example, conceive the future behind us, because we cannot see it and we are walking back towards it. It is also okay to think about the "value" of time in a different way.
Step 4. Let go of the fear of missing something
Cell phones, social media and high-speed internet seriously cut down on idle time. Try to withdraw from social media for a while and learn to disconnect. The "fear of missing something" is a serious and growing phenomenon. If you once could sit deep in thought and idle on your way home from work, now you have the whole world at your fingertips, from Kardashians to Klingons, right on your phone. Your high school friend's wedding photos. Fifty business emails. Are they all important parts of your day right now? Make yourself less available and more idle.
In many ways, technology helps us use time wisely. Get in the habit of replying to emails immediately, so you don't have to worry about replying later, taking away time from your idleness. If you miss a message, be patient. People shouldn't expect you to answer 24/7
Step 5. Be ambitious with happiness and idleness
Ambition gets in the way. The desire for money, a "successful" career and things like notoriety and recognition often make us unhappy and disappointed, and make us addicted to brainless work. Stop feeding your self and start feeding your idleness. Make happiness and idleness your biggest goals and let everything else go.
Some psychologists refer to a "position of control." Some have an external focus, in the sense that they seek the approval of others, while others have an internal focus, in the sense that they seek only the approval of themselves. Be happy by making yourself happy, not working to gain recognition from others. If what you want to do is have a beer and watch the sunset, you have a responsibility to have a beer and watch the sunset. Just do it
Method 2 of 3: Work Less
Step 1. Do more in less time
Bob Dylan claims to have written in five minutes "Blowin 'in the Wind," a song that represents an entire decade and a cultural movement in most historical documentaries. Even if he hadn't been doing anything else for the rest of his life other than having lunch, drinking wine, and watching monster movies, this was going to be a productive day. As the French say: "" Travailler moins, produire plus. " Translation: The less you work, the more you produce.
- While it may sound strange to you, being super productive for short periods of time will leave you more time to be idle. Steal time by packing a very meticulous and difficult job into half a day, then relax and work the rest of the time.
- Learn to focus on one thing at a time. Don't try to distribute your talent and effort all at once. Put all of yourself into one thing and get it over with, then put it away and forget it. You will be more productive with the time you have.
Step 2. Have someone else do it for you
A good idler knows that the best person for a certain job is probably someone else. When the teacher asks if there are volunteers, he looks at the desk. When the project manager needs a young talent to launch the new project, keep your hands in your pockets. There is no reason to let contrived ideas about ambition and success get in the way of your important idle time. If idleness is important to you, control your self and let others take the reward.
The difference between idleness and laziness is that the idle person can take care of himself, while the lazy person requires the assistance of others. To be truly indolent, you have to control your life, be able to do things, but choose not to do them. In other words, if you are 32 and live in your dad's basement watching cartoons and eating cereal all day long, you can't consider it lazy. This is being lazy. Take care of yourself, work for your happiness and stop being a burden to others
Step 3. Start meditating
Meditation can help calm stress, center you, and refocus your energy on your mind. Any good idler spends most of their time daydreaming, so meditation should come naturally. You don't need to be a samurai or a monk type to meditate. It is not complicated.
- Find a comfortable sitting position. A straight-backed chair is fine or on the floor in the lotus position, there is no better way to meditate, despite what they say. Sit with your back straight, keep your hands on your lap and remain seated. That's all. Focus on your breath, observing thoughts that come and go like fish in a pond. Don't be your thoughts, watch them. Let them go.
- Zazen, the main practice of Zen meditation, literally means "just sitting." There is no secret or mystical component to sitting and meditating. You just have to sit down. If this isn't idle behavior, nothing else is.
Step 4. Sleep late as often as possible
John Keats, one of the most famous poets who ever lived, once said that a poet has a responsibility to sleep until 10 every day. Waking up at dawn is the behavior of an ambitious person, not an idler. There is no need to grab the day by the horns from dawn. Start the day gradually by sleeping late and getting up when you are ready for it.
Go to sleep when you feel like it. Take a nap when you feel like it. There's no reason to plan, remember?
Method 3 of 3: Be an Idle Professional
Step 1. Abandon the concept of career
A career is like a stack of imaginary dominoes watched by an invisible guardian. If you throw one down, you might throw down the others too, which will end up giving you a lot of money, a sexy bride, and a very fast car. Yes, of course. Don't worry about the idea of a career, if you work now maybe it will pay off for the next ten years. Focus on the day. Focus on this minute. Focus on this moment.
Step 2. Stop obsessing about money
Money distracts you from what you want. It is an excuse. Every failed musician who has ever lived looked at expensive equipment and said, "Oh, if only I had that equipment, I would have been the musician I wanted to be." If you had that vacation home that your boss has or the trust fund that your college mate has or the resume that your friend has, then you would be successful. Nothing prevents you from having what you want, just yourself.
Step 3. Reduce your working hours as much as possible
Know your basic costs and how much you can do to earn what you need, working to get no more than you need. Don't spend money on stupid material goods or status-defining branded items. Spend only on essentials.
- Realize the essentials and try to live a more Spartan existence. Leonard Cohen, the famous singer, spent a few months in Canada writing stories for magazines before he became famous, spending time on the sofa, saving the money he earned to live on a budget in Greece for the rest of the year, with idleness. Sounds like a great deal.
- A good budget helps to have an idle life. Learn to spend less on extra things and save money to maintain a comfortable life without having to work too hard.
Step 4. Do work that is not “work
“Depending on your talent and skills, there are a number of different jobs available. No one can stand by all day, but being able to get a job doing a fun thing and working as little as possible will help you feel idle all the time.
- When deciding how to spend your ideal day, what do you do? If you'd like to read, consider developing your skills as an editor, writer, or content creator. If you'd like to drink coffee all day, do a job as a barista. If you'd like to walk in the woods, work in wildlife management. Spend your time doing what you love so it won't be a job.
- Leave work to work. When you are at home, you are at home. When you are at work, you are at work. Don't waste time that might be idle thinking about work, talking about work, or not doing any work.
Step 5. Take as many vacation days as possible
It is estimated that around 400 million vacation days are usually left unused each year. That's 400 million days that could have been used to rest, recover and focus on oneself and instead became work for someone else. If you have a day off, take it.
Don't glorify the business. If you have a week off, who says you have to plan a stressful trip to the other side of the world? If it doesn't feel like a vacation, spend it at home, sleeping late, drinking coffee and doing what you like. Take it easy. Be idle
Step 6. Move to a place that celebrates recreation
It is true that some places consider the concept of idleness differently and are much more inclined to spend long lunches in restaurants, taking afternoon naps on the beach or cutting back on work to do other things in the day. If you're serious about being idle, consider relocating or at least learning about other cultures that take idleness seriously.
