In Praise of Idleness – The Quiet Weekend That Taught Me How to Think Again

There are weekends filled with plans, noise, and movement — and then there are weekends like this one. A perfect stretch of intentional nothingness. No deadlines. No errands. No social obligations. Just space. And in that rare quiet, something unexpected happened: my mind finally had room to wander.

At first, it drifted toward the usual things — the tasks I’m doing, the routines I’m following, the life I’m currently living. It’s astonishing how easily we get trapped inside the narrow corridor of the present, as if the future is too distant to deserve attention. But somewhere between the silence and the stillness, I nudged myself to think differently.

I began exploring the “what ifs.” Not the dramatic, cinematic ones — but the practical, uncomfortable, necessary ones. What if things go wrong? What if things go right? What if I never pause long enough to imagine either?

We often miss opportunities not because we’re incapable, but because we never even considered them. We were too busy walking to notice the train waiting for us. And sometimes, the cost of not thinking is far greater than the cost of thinking too much.

So I started listing. Not just the things I want to do — but the things I should not do. And then, strangely, the things I don’t want to do yet but might want someday. Because the future version of me deserves preparation too. It’s a strange kind of self‑care: planning for the person you haven’t become.

The more I thought, the bigger everything felt. The mountain grew. The time shrank. And yet, beneath the weight of it all, there was a quiet clarity: life becomes manageable only when we make our thoughts small enough to act on.

Even though my thinking felt balanced, it still feels like a lot. I’m asking myself to shrink this mountain into something small and doable. Time is limited — for all of us — and that makes clarity even more important. We need to pause before we sprint. We need a reminder that sometimes, doing nothing is the only way to finally see everything.