Am I lazy? I hardly think so. But over the last couple weeks I’ve enjoyed a fair amount of doing nothing. It’s actually pretty great. I’ve just been taking it easy, chilling, lampin’, napping and absorbing life, but I have a hard time not beating myself up. What have I accomplished? Nothing, that’s what.
I wouldn’t exactly call it nothing. There have been many, many hours of playing Words With Friends while lying on my bed, riding my bicycle around San Francisco, and even going to the gym (gasp).
My life over the past one year has been marked by periods of intense activity, punctuated by weeks or months of inactivity. I’ve got some great freelance opportunities filling my time, but nothing to sop up my attention surplus.
Two weekends ago I was in New York, visiting with a great organization that had offered me a fantastic job. My role would be to spread the message of a new educational approach that brings gameplay into the classroom, and improves student outcomes. The team, the combination of tech and teaching, and the opportunity, were all great. I still turned it down.
My heart is just not in New York right now. It’s the world’s greatest city—many would argue—but it’s not the only city. And it’s not how I want to live right now.
San Francisco is so chill that it sucks you in, and makes it very hard to let go. By rejecting New York, I also chose San Francisco, and everything that is life in California.
What I love about living here is the food culture (cooking your own food, obsessing over local farms and fresh veggies, drinking wine, having picnics), the great outdoors, and a general emphasis on health and well-being. It’s pretty highfalutin, and I’ll make no apologies for my delight in taking part. I’m not really doing that now. I feel like I’m not doing much of anything.
The idea of productive procrastination is nothing new to me. Basically, when you’re avoiding doing something, you find any distraction that accomplishes something—just not the task you’re avoiding. Working out, reading the news, cleaning up my house (but not my room), are all productive things to do. They’re just not the things I feel I need to be doing.
In my case, I’ve got some side projects that are amazing, as well as side writing for great publications. All of it just takes doing, and I’m enjoying the lazy life a little too much. And what all my projects require is a lot of focus, attention, and a separation from all forms distraction. This is my biggest stumbling block, and I would love to learn how to overcome it. I have the time, and the energy (sorta) to make a big dent in my passion projects, if I can only force myself to do it. Instead, I’m devoting small slices of my attention to 40 different things, and enjoying the slow pace. But as I said, the ruthlessly ambitious part of me can’t appreciate the downtime.
