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

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 ...

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.

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.

Because I can't djen!

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.

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

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!

I'm exactly the same, Marmight...

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 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

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.

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

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