Episode 243 - You Don't Need to Make the Most of Today

Hi I'm Keith and welcome to the Lighter than You Started. It's Monday although for many people today it may not feel quite like one because in England and Wales it's a bank holiday. An extra day. A bonus Monday. And there's something rather lovely about waking up on a Monday morning and remembering I don't have to do Monday the usual way today.

Of course plenty of people will still be working. Shops are open, hospitals are running, restaurants are serving, people are traveling, families still need looking after. Life doesn't stop because the calendar says bank holiday! But if you do happen to have some extra time today I'd like to offer a slightly unusual suggestion. You don't have to make the most of it.

Because we're very good at that phrase aren't we? Make the most of your day off, make the most of the long weekend, make the most of the weather, make the most of the last bank holiday before Christmas. Whatever comes next. It's meant intelligently but somehow even leisure can become another thing we're expected to optimize. Suddenly an empty day isn't simply an empty day.

It's an opportunity and opportunities mustn't be wasted. So perhaps we should go somewhere, do something, see someone, get outside, tackle that job we've been putting off, have a lovely family day, Go for a long walk. Visit somewhere interesting. Make memories. Take photographs.

Have something worthwhile to report tomorrow. That's quite a lot of responsibility for one Monday. Perhaps you've experienced this with holidays too. You arrive somewhere you've been looking forward to visiting and almost immediately the truck starts. Only seven days.

We'd better make the most of them So we create an itinerary. We research the things we absolutely must see. We get up early because we don't want to waste the morning. We walk 12 miles around the city looking at everything we're supposed to look at And somewhere around 04:00 sitting exhausted outside an historic building we begin wondering whether we might actually have enjoyed an afternoon by the pool. Sometimes we can work remarkably hard at relaxing.

I think there's something interesting in that because perhaps we've absorbed the idea that time is only valuable when we use it well and if that's true even free time needs to produce something An experience, an achievement, a memory, a completed job, a sense that the day was worthwhile. But perhaps time doesn't always need to produce anything. Maybe some hours are allowed simply to pass pleasantly. That's not waste. That's life.

Imagine somebody gives you a beautiful empty notebook you might immediately start wondering what sufficiently important thing deserves to go in it. A journal, A project. A collection of profound thoughts. And because you don't want to spoil it the notebook remains empty. Perhaps we sometimes treat our free time in a similar way.

It's precious so we become reluctant to waste it. But in trying not to waste it we can make it strangely difficult to enjoy. Maybe today doesn't need to become anything. Perhaps you will go somewhere wonderful. Fantastic.

Perhaps you'll see friends. Lovely. Perhaps you'll finally finish the thing that's been annoying you for three weeks and feel enormously satisfied. Excellent. But perhaps you'll also spend two hours watching something completely forgettable on television.

Have another cup of tea. Stand in the kitchen wondering what to have for lunch. Potter around. Fall asleep in a chair, do absolutely nothing worth photographing. That's allowed too because a day doesn't have to become memorable in order to have been good for us.

Sometimes what we need from time off is precisely the absence of an objective. No outcome. No measure of success. No question at the end asking whether we use the day efficiently. Just time.

There's a lovely phrase. Time well spent and we usually imagine that means something recognisable. Time with family. Time outdoors. Time doing something meaningful.

But perhaps time well spent and occasionally look remarkably like time wasted. Sitting daydreaming watching the world drive by doing something simply because we enjoy it not because it develops us Not because it's productive. Not because we'll remember it in five years time. Just because it was pleasant at the time. Perhaps that's enough.

And I think there's a broader thought here for those who are working today too because the pressure to make the most of things doesn't only appear on days off. We tell ourselves to make the most of opportunities. Make the most of our careers. Make the most of our evenings. Make the most of our weekends.

Make the most of life. Again there's nothing wrong with wanting to live life to the full but perhaps a full life doesn't require every moment to be fully utilised. There needs to be spaces. Unplanned afternoons. Slow mornings.

Ten minutes when nothing useful happens. A conversation that goes nowhere but makes us laugh. Perhaps sighs needs margins. Think about a page in a book. If every millimetre were troubling words edge to edge it would be exhausting to read.

The empty space helps us take in what's there. Maybe our days need margins too and perhaps today can contain a few. So if you have plans enjoy them. If you're working I hope the day is kind to you and if you're fortunate enough to have some empty space perhaps don't immediately ask what you should do with them. See what happens.

Let the day breathe a little. You don't have to squeeze maximum value from every hour. You don't need to reach tonight with evidence that your bank holiday was properly used. And tomorrow if somebody asks did you have a good day yesterday? Perhaps yes I didn't do very much at all can be a perfectly satisfactory answer.

Today's thought for you. You don't need to make the most of today. Sometimes leaving a little time unused is exactly how we use that time well. Thank you for sharing this moment and as always I hope you end today feeling lighter than you started. Go gently and I'll see you tomorrow on the flip side.

Lighter Than You Started is a thing of something publishing production.