When was the last time you wasted some time?

I am just sitting here wasting some time. How evil! How unthinkable! How thoughtless of me! The idea of “wasting time” has a pejorative connotation. Of course, since time is one of the most precious commodities in society today, it has become almost criminal to waste time. (Refer to the reflection earlier where I spoke about the time police). However, what if we venerated and exalted people who really knew how to waste time? What if time wasters were the real heroes of our society? Can you imagine a group of people who have learned how to ignore time clocks and the other mandates of a culture driven and obsessed by time? What would these “time wasters” be like? Perhaps such time wasters might teach us how to be less driven, more relaxed and to take time less seriously. Why worry about tomorrow when it is hard enough to do anything about today?

All too many of us do not know how to relax. Check out the number of books on Time Management that are listed on Amazon.com. Thousands of books and we are more and more stressed out. Indeed, stress is one of the most common problems in our world. We see it reflected in alcoholism, road rage, domestic violence and heart attacks. If we were less obsessed with time, would we have all of these problems? What if we really learned to waste some time instead of always trying to cut corners and save time? Maybe the time wasters of today should be held up role models. I would like to see studies comparing people who were stressed versus people who were less stressed. I wonder which group would be healthier and happier. I would bet the less stressed out group would not be as concerned with time management or wasting time.

Do you ever allow yourself to waste some time? Can you relax if you waste some time or do you feel guilty about your extravagance? Do you try to work harder later to make up for your wasted time? When was the last time you patted yourself on the back for “wasting” some time? Take an hour and waste it today. Can you do that? Why not? What gets in the way of your just taking some time and doing nothing?