Picture this. You’re waiting. For something, it doesn’t matter what. Maybe it’s at the doctor’s office, maybe you’re early for a meeting. What do you do in those spare minutes? If you’re like most people, you probably pull out your phone and play some mindless game, or check social media.
Now let me ask you a question. Are you really having fun? When you do those little things, play that mindless game, check that feed, does that count as entertainment in your mind? Does it feel like free time? Probably not, and here’s why.
There’s a practice designed to help people improve their eating habits, called “mindful eating”. It’s a very simple concept: while you’re eating, you should focus on that and nothing else. It helps people lose weight, eat more healthfully, and more. Because if you don’t focus on what you’re eating, you come out of a meal feeling like you haven’t really eaten. Here’s a good graphical explanation.
There’s a similar concept with free time. I don’t think anyone’s coined a term, so I’ll call it “mindful free time”. It works the same way: if you don’t focus on your free time, you go back to work feeling like you never really had a break. Minutes have passed, but you don’t feel relaxed or happy.
The difference between mindful free time and mindful eating is in the solutions. In the case of mindful eating, the solution is to pay attention to what you eat. But in the case of mindful free time, the solution is to stop trying to fit your free time into spare moments.
When you actually have free time, such as when you get home from work, focus on it. Do something you really enjoy: read a book, write a book, play a video game, code a video game, whatever floats your boat. But when you don’t really have meaningful free time (i.e., when you’re waiting for something), don’t bother with meaningless distractions that don’t really make you happy.
Instead, do work. In the same way that free time in spare moments doesn’t feel like free time, work in spare moments doesn’t feel like work. When I was in school, I would bring a textbook or some flashcards to a restaurant waiting area and study as I sat. I looked like an overachiever, but really, I just knew about mindful free time. All I ever wanted while waiting was to not be bored, and work occupied my mind just as much as any phone game, so it was good enough for me.
It’s still good enough for me. I bring my laptop and I work on a blog post, or I write a bit of code, or I read my fellow Praxis participants’ posts and give them feedback. Working in spare moments is not only the domain of overachievers and hyper-busy people: it’s the domain of all of us, if only we seize it. I invite you to do so: you won’t feel any busier, and you’ll get a lot more done.