Idle Time

Hola and welcome to The Summit, my weekly newsletter where I share my unfiltered thoughts on navigating the peaks and valleys of adulthood. From health and relationships to productivity and purpose, consider this newsletter a collection of naive wisdom from a 20-something year old summiting the mountain of life.

Today: Idle Time

The least productive times in my life, are those awkward idle times between activities. Waiting for a meeting to start, waiting the bus for ten minutes, or even waiting for your girlfriend to get ready. Nine times out of ten, without even thinking, I find myself reaching for my phone, checking my messages of even worse, doom scrolling Tik Tok or Instagram.

On average, I’d estimate that there is at least 30 – 60 minutes of this 'idle time' EVERYDAY. As an example, this is what it looks like for me on an average Thursday: wait for the bus (5 minutes), ride the bus (30 minutes), walk to work (10 minutes), then the same thing in reverse in the afternoon – exhilarating day I know! Add the occasional 'bathroom break' (guilty) and that is already over an hour of idle time! It adds up quick, so quick.

Now think about how often you feel like you don’t have enough time to do the things you want to do, would an extra hour in the day help? I'm not suggesting it is that straightforward, because it’s not an hour of uninterrupted time where you could get a workout in or take notes on from your university lecture; but I do believe there are many practices we can implement to make far better use of our 'idle time'.

To avoid numb use of social media, some people like to set time limits to their usage and use screen time analytics, but I don’t think that is a total solution, at least not for me. It is all well and good to have a notification that comes up after an hour of Instagram usage, but unless I have something else planned to do, I’m probably just going to ignore it and keep scrolling.

Consequently, I dedicated some time to brainstorm and experiment with other productive uses of this wasted time. My findings:

• Call the people you’ve been meaning to call or could call, just to be nice. My grandma is my go-to. I know that a simple five-minute call will make her day and mine. So why not do that instead?

• Similarly, think about a friend or family member you haven’t reached out to in a while. Shoot them a text and ask them how they’re going.

• Get organised. Set up a notes system in your phone, whether you use the notes app, or one note (my preference) doesn’t matter. You can utilise this idle time to write down what’s on your mind, work on your 'to do list', or put together a 'to read list'. This is one my favourite ways to track and organise the millions of thoughts and ideas racing through my head.

• Pack pen and paper. Write, draw, take notes, or anything :).

• Get in a little mindfulness, however you see fit. Personally, I enjoy using breathing exercises to focus, clear my mind and get back to the present.

• Have a book handy. This is not always doable, like if you’re taking a bathroom break at work… But I do find when packing your bag for the day, throwing in a book is an easy value add.

• Listen to podcasts/audiobooks. I think this is pretty self-explanatory. I personally love to listen to podcasts and audiobooks when I don’t have a book handy.

• Do nothing. If you don’t feel like any of the above, just sit there with your thoughts. Even if you're bored, remember that boredom is the source of creativity.

Overall, what I’ve slowly been learning, is that there is no excuse for wasting my day doom scrolling social media. There are so many other easy, productive and for more positive uses of my time.

Give some of these try and let me know what works best for you🤓. PS. I dedicated all of my 'idle time’ today (about an hour) to writing this article.

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