The Power of “Wasting Time”: Why Doing Nothing Might Be the Most Productive Thing You Do

We’ve all been taught to fear wasting time. We measure our worth by how full our calendars look, how quickly we reply to emails or how much we accomplish before lunch. Productivity has become a badge of honour and stillness, a sign of guilt.

But what if that unstructured, non-productive time you try so hard to avoid… is exactly where your clarity lives?

Some of my best insights and my most honest emotions - didn’t show up during coaching sessions or neatly checked-off to-do lists. They arrived in moments that looked like nothing:

• When I was walking aimlessly without a podcast in my ears.

• When I was staring at the ceiling with no agenda.

• When I allowed silence to stretch longer than felt comfortable.

Those moments of “nothingness” were actually moments of integration - when my mind caught up with my heart, when my emotions finally had space to breathe.

As a coach, I see this often. Brilliant, high-achieving professionals come to me burnt out and disconnected, not because they lack drive but because they haven’t felt stillness in years. They call it laziness. I call it emotional digestion.

We forget that rest isn’t the reward you earn after doing enough. It’s the reset that makes everything else possible. Stillness is not a break from growth - it’s part of it.

So here’s your permission slip for today: Waste a little time. Sit quietly. Stare out the window. Go for that slow walk with no destination. You might not tick anything off your list but you just might find yourself in the space you’ve been avoiding.