The switch from the finals rush to winter break is quite jarring. You’re racing to meet multiple deadlines, study for exams and make sure everything is in your professor’s hands and out of yours. 

“I’m going to be so productive” is the repeated mantra during those weeks. I find myself stationed in random study spots for hours on end, being oh-so productive as I check various assignments off my list. 

Then it’s all over. No homework, no deadlines. I allot the first few days of break to deliberately stay away from subjects about school, taking it slow and being as “unproductive” as I like. 

But “slowing down” equates to “being unproductive?” That doesn’t sound right. 

Suddenly, having less to do can make it seem like you should be doing more. But more always seems to mean more of only select commitments, and it doesn’t have to be like that. The saying “less is more” comes to mind here, where doing that bit of nothing will increase the quality of the time spent on work.

It comes down to how we’re defining productivity. Because of hustle culture, we feel like our time isn’t being optimized if we’re not working or studying. However, the time spent actively forcing your brain to work even when it needs a change of pace is more trouble than it’s worth.

Additionally, we may question whether we’re spending our time productively if we don’t see results in the form of work getting done. Instead, we’re taking a break from being “productive” when we step outside to just sit and soak in the fresh air, when actually, it’s just another form of productivity. 

You turn your productive relaxation into a negative experience by reproaching yourself for taking it easy. You lose again. Deliberately doing “nothing” is a legitimate activity, even if it’s simply taking a walk with no destination in mind.

It makes me think about how a person might hesitate to tell someone that they don’t have a prior commitment because time not blocked by an external obligation seems to be automatically up for grabs. It’s not, though. Maybe that’s their designated time for nothing. That time is blocked by an important commitment, too. 

As Christopher Robin said to Winnie the Pooh, doing nothing “means just going along, listening to all the things you can’t hear and not bothering.” 

Slowing down or doing things you enjoy without a deadline or being pressed for certain outcomes doesn’t mean those relaxing things ought to be pushed down the road. I used to reserve fun projects and guilt-free lazy days for the breaks between semesters. 

Yet that just made the attempts at total productivity gloomier. The semester would start, and my plans to do nothing weren’t justified anymore.

Reading new books, trying recipes and taking a nap are fun things to do, but they may not make the cut for being productive as we know it, although they should. I’ve caught myself saying, “Wow, I did nothing today,” knowing full well I did do a few things. But because they weren’t important as tasks — and my to-do list didn’t get a checkmark — I didn’t think they amounted to much.

I’ve started putting quests for doing nothing on my to-do lists along with everything else to validate them in my head. This helps reinforce in my brain that a day spent reading and playing a board game is productive for me, even if it doesn’t involve the more pressing side of the checklist.

That feeling of doing fun activities and feeling fulfilled by them only started kicking in as winter break ended, because I wasn’t used to doing it when I had classes to think about, too. I had to start exercising that muscle, and I intend to continue. 

A variety of things to do keeps life interesting, after all. Engaging with “nothing” can be a decided change of pace from doing constant “somethings.”

Zaynab is a senior in LAS.

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