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“A few years ago, my wife, Angie, and I made a pact,” Jason Heller writes in The Atlantic. “Every Sunday, we swore to each other, we will abstain from work. And we kept our promise: On the second day of each weekend, we start our morning and end our night by bingeing TV in bed. In the middle of the day, we binge TV on the couch, taking breaks exclusively to nap or read.” The nervousness of looming to-do lists generally creeps in, however “we fight to stay still,” he writes.
We battle to remain nonetheless. That phrasing caught with me: stillness as one thing to battle for. Despite the truth that a day of relaxation is a core tenet of a number of historic religions, as Heller notes, setting all of it apart has develop into so unusual in American society that we have to actively work to do it. “Taking a consistent day off is an immense privilege,” Heller acknowledges. “And yet, even when you can take it, there are plenty of ways to avoid actually doing so.”
When we do handle to seize leisure time, our world can open up. “Taking a break gives Angie and me the opportunity to really see each other again,” Heller writes. Today’s studying record is all about do-nothing time—why we’d like it, how a lot of it we’d like, and the chances it creates.
On Doing Nothing
How My Wife and I Took Back Our Sundays
By Jason Heller
We have an settlement: One day per week, we do completely nothing. In a society obsessive about productiveness, that is tougher than it must be—but it surely’s price it.
By Arthur C. Brooks
Absolute idleness is each tougher and extra rewarding than it appears.
How Much Leisure Time Do the Happiest People Have?
By Joe Pinsker
Too little, and other people are inclined to get burdened. Too a lot, and other people are inclined to really feel idle.
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Other Diversions
P.S.
Jason Heller’s article was predated by a case for the do-nothing day in The Atlantic in 1952:
“Just how one tells when a ‘do-nothing’ day arrives, I have never been able to make out,” Dr. Wyman Richardson wrote. “There is some combination involving weather elements and human physiology which, when it occurs, makes it clear to all that such a day is at hand.”
Richardson’s perfect do-nothing day on Cape Cod concerned sipping espresso and searching the window, adopted by “the day’s major activity”—a protracted stroll down the hill to the boathouse.
— Isabel