What do you do when you've got nothing to do?

But you are thin and elegant!
do a crossword, improve the old grey matter, or read a couple of chapters of a gripping book.

Busy people find it hard to let go and simply relax, it takes practise ( I have had lots of practise.)

We do crosswords at lunchtime - we photocopy 2 from the Times and have a competition to see who finishes first while we eat our sandwiches and then finish them (the crosswords!) off in the evening while watching TV.

I never have nothing to do! My ongoing list of things to do has a life of its own and as soon as I cross one thing off another 3 appear

I have hours and hours of 'nothing to do' even though I know there is plenty I could get on with. I am very much an 11th hour person and can only get things done under pressure. I spend FAR TOO MUCH TIME on the laptop

I'm exactly the same, Marmight...

Me too, Jane, which is why I was flummoxed! I'm sure there was stuff to do but nothing immediate and I was stumped!!

I could have cleaned the silver (mostly tea spoons and other tiny fiddly bits!) or done some of DH's filing but neither were urgent or appealing.

Marmight and ana, you will realise the GN constitutes work and distracts me form the other things on my list!

Why do you have to do anything? Why not just sit and do nothing?

Marmight me too I am sitting here now, 'fiddling while Rome burns' when I ought to be tackling the sorting and packing up of my house. When moving day rolls around in February, I can see myself still sitting here feeling totally unmotivated to get on with it.

Because I can't djen!

I'm a bit like Marmite,far better under pressure. But I try to fill time by doing crosswords, playing scrabble and other games on my Nintendo DS,
reading, computer of course, etc... and adult colouring, recently.
But when real boredom sets in, it's so hard to find the motivation to do anything, and that's a slippery slope to feeling depressed....
I hate winter.

Kitty, I used to tell kids to do nothing in class sometimes. When one said he ( it was usually a he) did not want to do something I'd asked them to do, I'd ask them what they wanted to do instead and the answer was often nothing.
So I'd say right, that's what we'd do, we'd all do nothing. The slightest twitch was stopped, no talking to neighbours, no doodling, etc. They soon found out how boring doing nothing was.
Usually got some decent poetry out of it, though.

Agghhh! The 'doing' problem. We have to be doing, don't we! Well no! My advice: learn the skillful art of NOT doing anything. You'll be so glad you did ...

What do I do? Feel guilty because I'm doing nothing! I've never got nothing to do - I just have days when I don't feel like doing it. At the moment I have all sorts of things on the go but on Saturday when DS and DH had gone to football and left me on my blissful solitary ownsome, I did something I haven't done for ages - I sat and watched an old film. When they came back DH asked me what I had been doing and when I told him, he said "is that all? Not like you to waste an afternoon! Thought you might have been doing x,y,and z!"

I'm another who never has ' nothing to do '. When I have finished or don't feel like doing the thing that have to be done or should be done I get out my patchwork, knitting, crochet or some other project and loose myself for a while.

I'm glad you didn't say you were bored kittylester as in our house the rule has always been 'only boring people get bored'. Something my DDs still remember now and pass on to their families.

mollie - The Skilful Art of not Doing Anything. Maybe we could give lessons ? I find this iPad a useful tool to aid with procrastination, mainly to go on to Gransnet. I do then feel a bit guilty after a while and I get up and do the things I've been trying to put off. I don't usually watch daytime telly or read. The latter feels terribly decadent but somehow I do allow myself the luxury of frequent sorties into Gransnet until the niggling guilt sets in. I then tackle what needs tackling, or some of it, with vigour. Then another little break ...

If ever I said 'I don't know what to do' when I was young DM would find me a task such as cleaning the silver, ironing the tea towels and hankies, going to the shop etc. So I learnt the art of looking busy even if I wasn't

I have plenty more to do today but I'm on here, having a coffee - so I'm 'busy' on the tablet
The only thing I read in the daytime is the newspaper, although the Saturday and Sunday ones are still unopened.
Sometimes I get out all my unfinished projects and look at them or think about compiling the family history into some sort of order.
That all takes quite a bit of time.

Bellanonna good idea! Too many people still have that fear of being idle and have to cope with the guilt. It's left over from the wonderful Victorians... I'm of the 'time to stand and stare' clan. Doing is vastly overrated.

Like others have already said I don't know what it is like to have nothing to do. On the very rare occasion that I do have a "spare" hour or two I can always be assured that someone will only be too willing to fill it for me.

Kitty, I think that we stay at home Mums have been programmed for years by always being busy with the children, then cooking , cleaning, washing, ironing, being a giver of lifts to various activities. Then we often went out to work, and fitting all the sundry necessities around the hours we worked. I loved my job, but when I retired I missed the routine, the people, and the salary, but not actually the job in the end as it had changed so much. Then came retirement and I had all that time on hand to do with as I chose, boring sometimes. But I do have lots of hobby handicrafts, books to read, the garden to tend and volunteer work, but I found it very difficult to just read or potter. The time has come, after 12 years retirement that I can easily relax now and sometimes even have the dreaded snooze in the afternoon

Me too gilly if I do end up with a few minutes spare I then spend the time wondering what I can do and that tiny window has vanished

Before we moved in with DD when I was finished work and had covered everything that needed done in the house I liked nothing better than to curl up with a book in the quiet. But there is no such thing as a quiet moment in here while the kids are up and when they are in bed I am usually catching up with jobs I cant do with a 21mth DGS.

There is an implication in the OP that doing anything that is not active or contributing the community is doing nothing. I do not subscribe to this idea. I do loads for my community but value equally the sitting and reading and listening to music that I do. Being "not busy" is as valuable as being busy.

DH has taught himself to play bridge and plays this on line and backgammon when he wants to relax. I go and get him a drink ad/or food. I tend to take a nap if I haven't got anything to do which isnt often.

THIS!

Or read a book, read the papers on line, do a codeword, make a cake, make a phone call, reassess the pile of ironing lurking in the corner of the kitchen and then do a bit of it, not all, just enough to see the pile diminish a bit!