Doing Nothing is Better Than You Think it is
The older I get the more I realize that I enjoy doing nothing. I didn’t really understand why people wouldn’t take advantage of that time to go hangout with friends or catch up on work. A very specific memory of this topic is when I watched Kendall Jenner’s Architecture Digest interview where she shared her ideal day off, and she didn’t mention anything extravagant rather she would stay at home and lounge around. Back then, I couldn’t understand why she would do that instead of the other million things she could be doing, but now as my life becomes busier with more stress, I can relate to that same ideal.
The beginning of junior year was a cornerstone for a new lifestyle. My life became more high paced and it also came with a lot of responsibility as well as stress. In my observation, I think doing nothing became my way of coping with stress. My definition of doing nothing is when I spend time on a really small task that is not prioritized. Sometimes this would be fixing my hair in my bathroom for an hour even though I didn’t have to go anywhere or do anything. There have been many cases where I rearrange the things in my bathroom just purely because I want to test every product and go through them with no ulterior purpose. In some cases, I have experienced being completely zoned out while a video was playing in the background and then all of a sudden realized that 10 minutes have passed. I can’t pinpoint the exact reason why my habits have changed to be like this but I definitely think it is due to stress.
Now, during the days that I don’t feel motivated to do work or go to school, I would wish to spend my time doing nothing. If I were to describe my perfect mental health day (that is actually a mental health day rather than just using that day to catch up on any work), I would want to wholly rip myself away from everything that is even slightly important to me (in terms of homework and academics). Doing nothing isn’t quite possible because you’re always doing something, but to me that just means nothing productive. Sometimes even when it comes to watching TV shows, it can become a task that I need to do because my brain wants to finish the story but I actually don’t want to spend the time watching it. When I think of doing nothing, I think of a reset button on a machine.
Everyone needs to reset once in a while, and everyone has a different way to do it. To me, when I spend time doing nothing, it makes me more present and somehow I am less stressed about all of my tasks even though I didn’t spend time doing them. It works logically because your brain never stops working so when you take your consciousness out of it, it’s still processing your thoughts in hindsight.
By now, the act of doing nothing is the thing I look forward to doing the most. It’s the idea of knowing my mind is able to utilize that free time to digest whatever thoughts that have been locked up. It makes total sense that people always say “time heals” because that is what I think is happening when I am doing nothing. This concept can also be applied to writing in English. It is often recommended to step away from your writing and then come back to it after time has passed so that you can have a reset. I think realizing that doing nothing in my life has been nothing but beneficial and it is something odd that I will recommend to other people.
I also think doing nothing is helpful when it is stressful especially during Junior year. I think you can give an example of when it has been stressful. I think your essay is coherent and interesting. I can relate to your experiences. I think you can include how doing nothing has negatively affected you and the consequences. Your conclusion does well in showing how your perspective changes.
ReplyDeleteHi Helen! This is a refreshing take on the management of the hectic lifestyle that surrounds us all. This piece gave me a good idea to the author's mindset and helped illuminate your perspective on your surroundings. I liked how you filled your essay with small examples followed by reflection. It felt as if these small moments made the essay more personable, exactly what we're looking for in a personal essay. If you were to improve on anything, I may spend more time adding a global perspective. There are places that you connect with the reader, but adding a couple places in the last few paragraphs from the omniscient angle could make it really stand out. What you have so far is a great starting point, excellent work!
ReplyDeleteHi Helen. This post is a very reasonable stance on doing nothing. The importance of resting is understood by many, but a lot of people might not find themselves in the position to properly push aside their stresses and recover. Still, I find your take on the definition of "doing nothing" to be quite interesting. From what I gather, you describe it as any menial task that helps your mind zone out for a while. So you're technically doing something, but it could easily feel like it's nothing. So if you continue with this essay, I think you could elaborate more on what you think the definition of nothing is. Maybe you could add a few more examples. But otherwise, it's a solid draft.
ReplyDeleteHi Helen! Great essay! I really liked how you were able to generalize your experiences for others in the end. I can totally relate to just wanting to sit around and be unproductive - sometimes, things are just too stressful. I think one thing you could do is adding a bit more length in sentence variation. I really liked how you related doing nothing to a reset button - along with your description of a perfect mental health day, it really helps the reader visualize what doing nothing would look like. I also really enjoyed your descriptions of coping with stress. It shows how junior year affected you and gives specific examples. Overall, great job!
ReplyDeleteWowie, lots of comments already.
ReplyDeleteYour first sentence already reminds me of this one bit I heard once (maybe like Mulaney or someone... It was some white male comedian...) where they were talking about how when kids say they did nothing, it's always in a sad way, but when adults say they did nothing, their faces light up. I think your first paragraph gets at that in a less fluffy way, more starting into what that means for people and you, especially with the last sentence and the word choice of 'ideal.' I like the transition between the first and second paragraphs in the first sentence of the second paragraph, or lack of direct one, since I'm drawn to those 'this seems connected but also kinda random, oh wait this is how it connects!' transitions. I also like the content of the second paragraph, and I think that, while fairly standard, it does a good job of exploring the last sentence of the previous paragraph.
In the rest of the paragraphs, I think the transitions feel a little more continuous, which I guess isn't like a comment in any negative or positive way.
I think you kinda rush the connection to writing, even though it entirely makes sense. It just feels like it was a last minute thought.
But overall, I like the essay and how you actually balance reflection with the prompt and narrative.