Do you ever just do nothing?

Totally agree Esspee - am also pastmaster at doing nothing. Having spent my whole life working full time and bringing up 3 children and now helping out with 6 grandchildren - I say to myself- ‘sometimes I sits and thinks - sometimes I just sits’ - do also read a lot.

I love structure to my day. Up, shower, breakfast then out and about or busy around the house. Worked in physically demanding jobs for 45 years or more. In retirement We have stopped trying to fill all our days with things to do though and often like a day off to reboot. Even doing nothing can feel like doing something unless we give ourselves the chance to just 'Be' so no guilt in this household. I don't concider it lazy at all.

Frequently ‘do nothing’. I’ve. Life full of various activities but actively choose to ‘do nothing’ often - reading, going out for coffee to just sit and watch others or the view and love an afternoon film.

"... A poor life this if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare."
Last two lines of WH Davies poem

It takes years of practise but I now have doing nothing down to fine art.

Welcome geeljay. Hope to see you chatting on here lots.

Welcome geeljay. Hope we will keep you informed and entertained!

I don’t think it’s lazy either - it’s ‘taking time to smell the roses’

Well, there's nothing and nothing nothing!

oh this thread is so good for me.

I am just learning, over 80! that it is OK
to do nothing!

I so wish I had the time. I still work full time and until we have finished getting the house straight (nearly there) I don’t seem to have time for anything. The house is bogging and needs a damn good clean. We are going to Scotland in a few weeks and I am thoroughly looking forward to having the time to paint and maybe do a bit of embroidery ?

The house is bogging

That's a new one on me but I suspect mine is too

Through disability I spend a great deal of time reading, jigsaws or even just sitting...but I'm married to a constant fidget who is always doing the things I perhaps ought to be!

I have just moved and not working and the hardest thing is allowing myself to ‘do nothing.’ I have loads of hobbies, so it isn’t that, u]it’s giving myself permission. Just to surf the internet, read, watch the birds, not go anywhere. I’ve felt quite adrift at times. If my hobbies earned me money, I honestly think that would be ‘ok’ or if I had a job sorting turnips or whatever I would feel ‘justified’, but just browsing through the days. Hard to do, but why? I’ve worked all my life, so why not?

I swim, tutor, look after GC, run round visiting AC, clean the house, etc.
A free afternoon is a rare and beautiful thing. Doing nothing in it is my goal.

It’s interesting, isn’t it (and some posters have already mentioned it), but what exactly is meant by “doing nothing” - some people seem to think that sitting down to read, watch tv, do a crossword, etc, is doing nothing, which of course isn’t true - these activities mean you are doing something.

I wonder if the confusion is actually in defining what “busyness” is, ie, if you are not off doing something outside the home or busy decorating, gardening, cleaning the house top to bottom, etc, but choosing to sit for some of the time thinking or doing more sedentary tasks then you are doing “nothing” and are not being busy?
This is just me musing, by the way.

I think as a society we are conditioned into thinking that we always should be on the go, doing something worthwhile and/or useful and that sitting and doing more sedentary things, or, heaven forbid, just sitting and watching is somehow wrong and wasteful - “idle hands” and all that. It takes a lot of effort to change that mindset, I know I found it really difficult to sit when I first retired as I felt that I should be doing “something” - though not always sure what that “something” should be. It’s taken a period of adjustment to reach a happy balance. It’s quite hard to slow down, though of course, the last few years gave us little option in some respects.

I no longer feel guilty about doing more leisurely activities, but it took a while to not feel that way. As I said in my previous post, I enjoy doing a mixture of things - some days are busy, others days less so. The adjustment from always being on the go to not being took a while to get used to, if I’m honest. That’s not to say I don’t get fed up some days - that’s true for all of us, I think.

Welocome, Gordon

I worked full-time for about 35 years and often took on extra work which I did in the evenings or at weekends. It has taken me a few years to approve that it’s fine not to be rushing from one task to the next. Now that I’m retired and I live alone, I enjoy seeing to my dog’s needs, reading, knitting, watching TV, doing jigsaws, going shopping and generally chilling. I went to the theatre last week for the first time in quite a few years and I have a couple of museum trips planned later this year.

Busy doing nothing just suits me fine after working full time most of my life I never feel guilty sitting watching the world go by.

‘appreciate’, not ‘approve’!

It’s a real privilege to do nothing after working all your life. I rejoice in those times when I can read a book, watch a film etc. There are always things to do. My 97 year old Dad is cared for by me for a start, but doing nothing is a reward. ?

Quite a few of my friends are younger than me and still working. I sometimes think that they believe that I'm lazy .
One of them thinks that I can work in the local garden centre as I have excellent plant knowledge or bake for a local cafe as I'm above average at baking .She has other ideas too .
I can't .
I'm nearly 70 and in declining health and in pain most of the time .
My father is totally exhausting .
So I don't feel guilty about watching TV ,researching, reading and writing .
I'd like to do my art work and plan to when I finish creating a space .

And welcome to Gordon !

I am a private music teacher and tend to overdo things. I am in my late fifties so one of the younger members of the group. However, I have hardly done anything this week as I have a serious kidney infection (the doctor told me that I am very unwell and that if it goes worse I would have to go to hospital). I only have energy to get up and go downstairs and do very small jobs. It has brought me up sharp as I tend to push myself to the limits and is probably a warning that I cannot ask myself to do what I did at the pace I took for granted twenty years ago if l want to enjoy a long, healthy retirement in a few years’ time.

Oh, and I am at the stage of life where family commitments towards different generations as well as work are demanding.

It’s interesting, isn’t it (and some posters have already mentioned it), but what exactly is meant by “doing nothing” - some people seem to think that sitting down to read, watch tv, do a crossword, etc, is doing nothing, which of course isn’t true - these activities mean you are doing something.

I agree.

Although is idling away on GN doing nothing?
?