To Do Nothing

Summary

to do nothing 05 Apr, 2025 It's Saturday, and it's raining in Montreal. My roommates are out, and I am sitting by myself in a big empty house, looking for my next hit of dopamine. My work is quiet. Customers don't report bugs. There are no features in development. I'm not working on any side projects. I just had my breakfast, and I won't have to worry about food for the next three hours. My apartment is clean, so I don't need to vacuum or mop. My laundry is done. I have nowhere to go and nothing to do. And yet, I failed at doing nothing—I started writing this post. Before opening my laptop, I sat in silence, listening to my brain. What is it telling me? "The apartment is clean, but maybe you could reorganize your closet? Or how about you check those listings on Marketplace, perhaps you could change the photos to make it stand out? Remember that idea of a project your friend mentioned, maybe you should research it? No? Hmm. And the date you have later tonight, did you follow up with her? Does she know where to meet you?"… It never stops. It never will. The noise in our head is so loud, we pay attention to everything it says. If it is so loud, it must be important. But when everything is important, then nothing is important. Why do we pay so much attention to our thoughts? It urges us to run around doing things when we should just sit in silence and do absolutely nothing. I recently learned about a simple exercise to calm my mind. Imagine that your thoughts have a physical shape, a body. Name it Joe. Or Becky. And Becky is your friend. When you sit on a couch, she sits next to you. Becky talks. Man, does she talk… Because Becky is your thoughts, she wants to say it all. She wants to tell you about your chores. About your date, and the missed bills. Tell you about the upcoming flights and that you forgot to call your mom, again. All she does is talk. "Blah blah blah… You should do this and that, yada yada…" But Becky is always there. You can't run away from her. You ca...