Day 25 | Daily Dose of learning
This project is inspired by the ‘100-day project’, a challenge consisting of committing to doing an activity everyday for 100 days.
I have decided to write about one thing I learn everyday for the next 30 days. This can be a skill, a deep concept to elaborate on, or a mere life lesson that made me become aware of something I consider relevant.
The decision is based on the belief that “we are what we repeatedly do”, as Valentin Perez put it.
Don’t kill time, use it intentionally
This brief post is about killing time, leisure time, and how we have been shifting our habits on sedentary, passive leisure time activities. It draws from an article by David Perell entitled ‘Don’t Kill Time’.
Leisure time is sometimes demonized by the ‘productivity, always, no matter what’ current of thought, which sustains that doing an activity that does not make money is a waste of time, and time is scarce.
Time is certainly scarce, and death pressing on all of us. David Perell, however, makes a great point about using free time intentionally, by doing activities that are purposeful and meaningful to us. Those activities that elicit the state of flow in us, which do not necessarily have to be what society considers ‘fun’, ‘entertaining’, or ‘relaxing’.
As Perell explains, leisure time is not killing time. Time is valuable and spending it on passive, slothful activities is likely not the best way to use it. The reason being that we often associate free time with ‘time free from the burden of work’, hence time to ‘retreat from the world’. Whereas a more intentional and aware mindset to have would be to consider both work and leisure as ‘gifts to embrace’.
“Instead of seeing how leisure can create wisdom, we think like an economy thinks — as if only transactions can create value. Leisure is not a time to retreat from the world. Rather, it’s a time for poetry, prayer, and philosophy — a chance to reflect on where we’ve been, where we are, and where we’re going. ”