I look forward to days when I don’t do anything. There aren’t many of them, and they’re in sharp contrast to every other day!
Here’s a little rundown of The Days I Have.
- Work Days – during which I am all-industrious, all the time 🙂
- Productive Days Off – for getting personal things done
- Decadent Days – for treats, like dinners out, shopping or concerts
- Lazy Days – for doing nothing
- Vacation Days – which can be productive, decadent or lazy!
- And the dreaded Waiting Days, if I have to spend a day in an airport or a hospital.
I actually look forward to every sort of day, except waiting around, in which case I have to remind myself that the outcome is getting home, or getting healthy, or whatever it is!
But right now I want to celebrate Lazy Days. It takes a lot of planning to be lazy, so much so that it’s hardly worth it! Here’s what I mean:
Say I want to do nothing on a Saturday. First of all, I have to remember not to check The Coast for entertainment listings for the weekend. Then, I have to push thoughts of nice restaurants out of my head. Then, I don’t check the flyers for sales because otherwise I would be keen to buy something. I think about all the things I’d love to get over with, whether it’s getting a haircut or getting the lawn mower tuned up or getting a few bulbs in the ground. And then I don’t do them. I avoid commitments and turn down invitations.
Those are just the things I have to plan not to do. It takes a lot of energy!
Then, I have to plan for What Sort of Nothing to Do. First I need to have the right food and drink in the house so I don’t have to go out for anything. Then I have to decide if it would be more relaxing to cook something nice, in a leisurely way, or not to cook at all. Then I ensure I have a large assortment of books and movies to choose from so I can indulge my whims. Then I have to make sure that all of my postponed tasks are completely ignorable. If the laundry piles up – no problem! If I have a presentation to deliver on Monday and I hope to take Saturday off – forget it! It’s not ignorable.
Finally it’s Saturday. I’ve kept everyone and everything at bay. Here’s what would actually take place:
- I don’t have to set my alarm to get up, so I sleep in until 7:30! I am so used to getting up early that 7:30 feels luxurious. I try to sleep later but I can’t.
- I have two double lattes and browse the Internet for about 4 hours. Shame on me!
- I wear my pajamas and fuzzy bath robe and I don’t answer the door when hockey kids come knocking for recyclable bottles.
- I can’t face having lunch in my pajamas so I get dressed at noon and make my favourite Lazy Day lunch, which is cheese toast made in the toaster oven.
- At this point thoughts creep in about decluttering a room or going out to buy special ingredients for a nice dinner, so I hurriedly stuff those thoughts away. I can’t leave the house! I have to do nothing!
- I read a novel for 2 hours. I have a snack and watch some property or decorating shows on TV. By now I am so well-and-truly rested that I am going to have to play Magic the Gathering with Rom soon if I don’t find something else to do. I decide to make a leisurely dinner and spend 2-1/2 hours making a layered casserole with six kinds of finely chopped vegetables. We eat dinner in 10 minutes.
- I devote time to my hobby of finding new music to listen to online, and I spend two hours reading about new bands, listening to their streaming albums and watching their videos.
- During all this, Rom has gone out to the guitar shop and put some new strings on a guitar and given it a weird tuning and practiced for a few hours. He’s also discovered some new bands on YouTube that he’s eager to introduce me to. He’s read a few chapters in his latest linguistics book, and we talk about innate grammar over dinner.
- Rom picks a movie for us to watch on Netflix, I approve it, and within 20 minutes I am asleep on the couch. In order to stay awake, I get up and do the dishes. We decide to watch Little Britain or Stella Street instead. I find myself looking forward to posting some book reviews….
I don’t think Lazy Days work for me. They require me to keep an open mind, stay in the moment, and not focus on anything of consequence. Productive Days Off are much more my speed. Or at least a few productive hours!
So I think Lazy Half Days are about my limit. That 4 hours on the Internet? Yep, works for me!
Of course, storm days, when everything is cancelled, are the very best Lazy Days, as long as there are no real threats. Electricity helps, too…
An Exacting Life 
4 hours only on the Internet?! I’m embarrased to admit that I can easily double that!
You’ll see I snuck another 2 hours into my example by looking up music on the web later in the day! I suppose I don’t do 8-hour stretches on the weekends because my job is dependent on having computer access 8 hours a day during the week. Otherwise, I know I would!
Ha! I can totally relate! It often takes great effort on my part to refrain from doing. But every once in a while I force myself to have a “no information” day… no internet, no television, no movies, no books, no magazines… just to give myself a break from the constant absorption of data. I also try to make those “no chores” days. It takes concerted effort, but I always feel MUCH more relaxed afterwards.
And in terms of “waiting days,” I think I’ve finally learned to make peace with them. I read something once about using all of the waiting time in life as a chance to relax and re-charge – rather than an opportunity for foot stamping, finger wrapping and trying to hurry along something over which you have absolutely no control. I got really good at it this past year because I had all of my mercury fillings replaced, and spent a LOT of time both waiting for appointments and waiting for Novocaine to take hold. I soon learned that it really freaks people out if you just sit and wait… the receptionists were beside themselves trying to get me to take magazines or something. Kinda fun actually!
No information AND no chores, eek, what is left 🙂 I had my fillings replaced too – an excellent opportunity to practice patience. I bet people waiting in hospitals now are beside themselves if they can’t play with their phones!
The more I read, the more I feel we’re kindred spirits. Vacationing with my parents are essentially lazy days, which really works for me (even though I can’t embrace it as much when I’m traveling alone!) We are only ever ‘out’ for a few hours, never on a tour! Leisurely waking, then eating, then washing up – by which time it often seems almost lunch! We browse the souks/shops, then it’s reading and nap time (in my case blog catch up when wifi is working). Post nap is happy hour (usually within the room), which can come with scrabble. Then dinner before some more souk browsing. Then it’s reading and bed! Alas, In contrast to normal days, it’s nice to have the slower pace!
Now that’s my kind of leisure! Sounds good!
I tried a ‘doing nothing’ day on my Birthday earlier this year and it was hard work! I too hate waiting days. Getting snowed in over here where I live kind of allows me a totally lazy day – I can be off work without feeling I should be doing something.
Agreed! Being forced to do nothing (by a snowstorm) is a lot easier.